• Home
  • About Us
  • FAQs
  • Contact Us
  • The Zoe Report
  • Haley’s Corner
facebook twitter instagram
Let's Just Travel
  • Home
  • About Us
  • FAQs
  • Contact Us
  • The Zoe Report
  • Haley’s Corner
Home  >  Christmas • Spain  >  Merry Christmas from Spain
ChristmasSpain

Merry Christmas from Spain

Allison Sherman Posted onDecember 25, 2016 Comments are off 2100 Views

It’s not easy being on the road for Christmas. On one hand it allows us to really pare down any excessive spending (especially when Dan slaps things out of our hands at the store yelling “It won’t fit! Put it down!”). But on the other hand it’s a hard time to be away. The girls have really missed many of our traditional activities that we had in the USA, especially all the time with friends and family. It’s really a toss up whether we should try to duplicate them (and risk failing, thus sadness) or skip them (and risk missing them, creating even more sadness).

But being in a new country also can be quite interesting to see how they do things here. The Christmas season is evident here in Spain. In early November you start to see all the lights going up on the streets. They really love their lights here and indeed, with the sun going down around 6 p.m., the lights lighting up the streets while the Spaniards eat their late dinner makes a lovely festive atmosphere. Every town we went to during this season had lights on their street, and many buildings would put up elaborate lights as well. It was really pretty. They also love their manger scenes and towns (the government, mind you) would put up elaborate scenes in different buildings and invite people to take a tour. The three kings are especially popular here.

The Spaniards don’t have the same tradition with Christmas Eve and Christmas Day as Americans. These two days are more low-key, time to eat out or spend time with friends, family and fireworks. Their big holiday for gift giving is Three Kings Day on January 6. So we’ll have to pay attention then. The kids tried to argue that “When in Spain….” and that we should celebrate both Christmas AND Three Kings Day with massive gift giving. Yeah, not happening. Insert Daniel slapping gifts away here.

This is our third Christmas away from home and it’s getting easier and smaller. Here are a few scenes of the things we did to try and make the season festive.

The kids are making cookies together. Haley is not pleased about the “together” part.
We bought some decorations, and the kids made some too. These are made from Perler beads. Thank you, Ikea!
Tiki the Elf on the Shelf showed up right on time. He brought along his Panamanian brother, Juan Carlos. Senor Ricardo, their father from Spain, also joined this year. At this rate we’ll have hundreds of elves by the time we are done travelling!
Zoe bought herself a onesie. She loves that Spain is cold enough to warrant a onesie.
I don’t need a onesie but yes, I’ll take a fuzzy housecoat, thankyouverymuch.
We found this nifty Christmas sweater for Zoe. If you rub the sequins up, it says “no no no”. If you run them down, it says “ho ho ho”. Brilliant.
A big Christmas tree made of lights in Malaga. These are everywhere. At almost every main roundabout you’ll see a big, lit, Christmas scene. Zoe is standing there with two friends.
Zoe recorded a Christmas music video, which Haley helped to film. See earlier blog post on that.
We invited our good friend Kavi over for gingerbread house making. A good time, and a lot of sugar, was had by all.
Candy wasn’t enough for Haley. She needed to use a Sharpie too.
Our Christmas tree. Not bad for a travelling fam. None of that stuff came in our suitcases and none of it will leave in them either.
The kids don’t get a lot of presents so we have to draw out Christmas morning with a scavenger hunt. Two and a half years on the road has not dulled my skills as a scavenger hunt creator, I’m not too proud to say.
They finally finished the scavenger hunt but their main gift was wrapped in balls of Saran Wrap.
Haley made a coupon book for Zoe. Nothing says “Merry Christmas” like a coupon book for forced togetherness.

Merry Christmas

to you all!!

Previous Article Mad Hatter’s Film Camp
Next Article No Good Very Bad Day

Related Posts

  • Reporting From Home Base

    February 19, 2020
  • Worldschooling Happy and Crappy

    December 11, 2019
  • A Weekend At Coco’s

    December 3, 2019
  • Worldschooling Game Changers

    November 27, 2019
  • Halloween and Day of the Dead in Mexico

    November 10, 2019
  • Stories from PdC, Part 2

    October 13, 2019
  • Stories from PdC, Part 1

    September 29, 2019
  • Life in PdC

    August 25, 2019
  • Mexico 2.0

    August 7, 2019
  • Random Tours in Europe

    August 2, 2019

Social Media

Categories

  • Amsterdam4
  • Barcelona2
  • Belgium1
  • Bocas6
  • Boquete16
  • Cambodia3
  • Cape Town6
  • Cenote13
  • Chiang Mai12
  • Christmas7
  • Colombia42
  • Day Trips8
  • Dominican Republic10
  • Dubai3
  • Education70
  • FAQs13
  • Field Trips15
  • Florence1
  • Food5
  • France3
  • Germany2
  • Granada2
  • Guatemala4
  • Haley's Corner29
  • Health6
  • Iceland3
  • Italy6
  • Johannesburg8
  • Language8
  • London2
  • Malaysia5
  • Medellin41
  • Merida3
  • Mexico78
  • Mexico City3
  • Milan1
  • Money3
  • Naples3
  • Netherlands9
  • Packing5
  • Panama153
  • Panama City5
  • Pedasi98
  • Playa del Carmen6
  • Portugal5
  • Puebla3
  • Read First1
  • Recap3
  • Rome3
  • South Africa21
  • Spain19
  • Switzerland1
  • Thailand17
  • The Zoe Report10
  • USA2
  • Venice1
  • What's Next9
  • Zimbabwe2
facebook twitter

Categories

  • Amsterdam4
  • Barcelona2
  • Belgium1
  • Bocas6
  • Boquete16
  • Cambodia3
  • Cape Town6
  • Cenote13
  • Chiang Mai12
  • Christmas7
  • Colombia42
  • Day Trips8
  • Dominican Republic10
  • Dubai3
  • Education70
  • FAQs13
  • Field Trips15
  • Florence1
  • Food5
  • France3
  • Germany2
  • Granada2
  • Guatemala4
  • Haley's Corner29
  • Health6
  • Iceland3
  • Italy6
  • Johannesburg8
  • Language8
  • London2
  • Malaysia5
  • Medellin41
  • Merida3
  • Mexico78
  • Mexico City3
  • Milan1
  • Money3
  • Naples3
  • Netherlands9
  • Packing5
  • Panama153
  • Panama City5
  • Pedasi98
  • Playa del Carmen6
  • Portugal5
  • Puebla3
  • Read First1
  • Recap3
  • Rome3
  • South Africa21
  • Spain19
  • Switzerland1
  • Thailand17
  • The Zoe Report10
  • USA2
  • Venice1
  • What's Next9
  • Zimbabwe2

Archives

  • February 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • July 2014
Order Dept, LLC © Copyright 2015