Mission Statement: to assist the integration of foreign residents living in Spain
By Adam Woodward •
Updated: 15 Nov 2024 • 14:27 • 1 minute read
Christmas seems to arrive earlier and earlier each year, but for one small Andalusia town, it has already begun.
Just outdoing Vigo (Galicia) by 2 days, Puente Genil, a small town near Córdoba, switched their Christmas lights on in the town centre on Thursday, November 14, just beating Vigo. Traditionally, the city in Galicia starts getting all Christmassy long before everyone else in the second fortnight of November, making national news headlines, but not this year.
For a long time now, it has been expected that the sound of Christmas tunes in shops, along with sales of traditional Yuletide fare, begins once the Halloween decorations are taken down, but most municipal councils tend to leave the exciting lighting of the decorations until the first weekend in December. Vigo, however, has tended to bring that date forward by doing it a couple of weeks earlier.
However Puente Genil got there first in 2024. On Thursday, November 14 at 7pm, around a thousand local residents gathered in the town centre for the exciting ‘official’ start of Christmas, illuminating decorations provided by the Ximenez Group, a manufacturer of decorative lights who have a factory in the town.
Second place earliest Christmas lights goes to Vigo
Second place this year will go to Vigo in Galicia on Saturday, 16 November. Vigo has notoriety for going all-out with their festive lights, illumination of 420 of its streets with 11.5 million LED lights, 1,300 decorative archways, 2,500 Christmas trees, and 1536 light statues of over 3 meters in height.
It’s not clear yet who will take 3rd, but Barcelona council have announced their official illuminated decorations will be inaugurated on Thursday, November 28 along with Malaga, while Madrid are holding out until December 6.
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