La Noche Buena, Madrid, Spain

Sunset at Plaza Mayor, Madrid

Christmas Eve! 

"Esta noche es Noche-buena, y no es noche de dormir"

Tonight is the good night and is not meant for sleeping!

Madrid's Christmas market in the Plaza Mayor

Being fortunate to experience now our second Christmas season in the Northern hemisphere we were very excited to get amongst the local festive spirit and join in Spain's many Christmas time customs. Although most Spanish tend to hibernate more in the Winter they were out in full force this season. 

The famous Tio Pepe and Sol Christmas tree

Christmas Tree- Vodafone Sol

Christmas Tree- Barrio Salamanca

Christmas plants

Nativity scene figurines

Christmas markets

Nativity figurines

Fairy lights

Families shopping in Plaza Mayor

Christmas officially starts in Spain on December 8th with the Immaculate Conception, from this time the city begins to overtly dress and display itself in colourful and bright lights with hideously artificial trees on almost every street. Beautifully detailed nativity scenes pop up in shop windows, churches and homes. 

Calle Mayor lights

Lights by the Town Hall

Calle de Arenal

Calle La Montera

Christmas ball lights

Lights on Gran Via

Compared to New Zealand or South Africa it's certainly much cooler in Madrid but it's unfortunately not a white christmas (maybe next year?) but the immense sunshine is a fair compensation! It also gives us one less reason to not be outside exploring Madrid's Christmas markets and of course the Christmas lights walk!

Beautiful streets!  

We have included in this blog some snaps of the colourful lights around the city, which we recently visited. In Spain, Christmas Eve seems to be bigger than Christmas day and families celebrate on Christmas Eve by coming together and eating!

Palacio de Cibeles

Food seems to be generally served all afternoon and after attending midnight mass (at 12am) families return home for their main meal- yes this would be around 2am! Then the parties begin!

At this time, we would like to again this year take the time to wish all of our friends and family across the globe a happy Christmas season.

Merry Christmas!

Wherever you are, we hope that you are enjoying some delicious foods in your belly and are finding a well deserved moment to reflect on another fabulous year.

As we reach for 2015 we hope that you continue to explore, venture and push yourself towards new goals and are surrounded by the love of others.


Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a fantastic 2015.


Tot siens,
John and Kara

Dancing on the streets

Christmas lights Plaza Colon