Christmas Cheer in Cádiz

Christmas cheer in Cádiz

... or should I say lack of it? I haven’t seen a single Christmas decoration in Cádiz, and no one seems to be in the festive spirit, for someone who loves Christmas as much as I do this is a pretty hard pill to swallow. I understand that Christmas is perhaps not such a big thing here, but there is literally no trace of it at all, apart from a couple of advent calendars. So if you are like me and need a bit of Christmas cheer in your life, then bring some with you! I didn’t as I assumed I would be able to get at least something festive in Cádiz, so now my parents have send me an emergency festive parcel in the post, it hasn’t arrived yet but I am already buzzing! It has really helped that I am not the only one, some of my friends from England are feeling it too, so we have banded together and sang some Christmas songs and played on ElfYourself, which is bound to make you happy even if you aren’t overly interested in Christmas (http://host-d.oddcast.com/elfyourself2012/home.php). Basically you put your faces onto some Christmas elves and they do various dances, simple but entertaining, try it, guarantee you will enjoy it, the funnier the picture you put on the elf the better. We have even planned ourselves a little Christmas dinner before we all go home, complete with a screening of Love Actually – a most excellent Christmas film. That’s another thing that I haven’t spotted in Spain yet – a Christmas film, perhaps I am not watching enough television.  So I am quite glad to be going home for a couple of weeks at Christmas, just to have some festive cheer, although I will be returning to Cádiz in time for Three Kings Day (El Día de los Reyes) which I have been told is the Spanish equivalent to Christmas. It will certainly be interesting to see what that is like, as it sounds quite different to anything I have ever experienced or even thought of in England. Perhaps this lack of Christmas as I know it just goes to show that Cádiz is more traditional in that it hasn’t been swept up by the Coca-Cola image of Christmas, I suppose it is just a shame that I have – but I do love it. Two of my flatmates, Geo and Jana will be spending Christmas in Cádiz, so it will be interesting to see what they have to say about it!

For those of you who say 20thNovember is too early to start thinking about Christmas, then I can only say Bah Humbug! Santa will surely put you on his naughty list – haha!

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