Christmas trees are a newish thing here, although probably most houses have one now. The main traditional decoration is nativity scenes. Some just show the stable, but some public ones are so elaborate that they include the whole village, and it’s always a Canarian village. Obviously that’s historically inaccurate, but no more so than all the English nativity scenes where Mary and Jesus are blond. This one was on display…
First there was the job at short notice. Then there was the flu. Then there was the cough that wouldn’t let me sleep properly. As a result, Christmas preparations got done as I flew by various shops, without any proper overall planning. And amazingly, it pretty much worked. True, there was almost no butter for the brandy sauce, so I made it with a little olive oil and added a…
The Christmas decorations are up in Santa Cruz, and most of the villages too. I particularly liked this Christmas “tree” outside a shop on the main street in Santa Cruz. It’s made from the dead flower stalk of an agarve plant.