It is time to get festive with Barcelona’s Christmas lights now on! Each year the city surpasses itself in creating a more dazzling display than in the previous year.
This year no less than 85 kilometers of christmas lights will be hung on Barcelona’s streets! The first to go up will be Via Laietana, then the Old Town, Travessera de Dalt and Calle Ramón y Cajal.
This year as always, Plaza Catalunya will be one of the main areas of the Christmas lights. Barcelona’s central square, as this is also where the Christmas ice ring is located.
The ice skating is expected to attract around 100,000 people this year, thanks to a new simpler electronic access system, so don’t worry about having queue!
As well as the glow of festive lights to create a Christmas mood, some giant Christmas trees will be distributed around the city, with 13 trees that are a whopping at some 10 meters tall, as well as one enormous 18 metre tree on the Portal de l’Angel. Barcelona being an environmentally friendly city, the trees have been organically grown, and come from Sant Hilari Sacalm (Girona). The Christmas lights themselves are LED for low energy consumption.
This year the lights will also be hung in the Eixample district, spreading the Yule cheer away from the centre.
A competition for up and coming designers was behind the lights on Calle Aragon. These fade in and out, apparently evoking the blanket of stars that guided the wise men from the East to worship the baby Jesus. A similar competition lead to the humporous design seen in Gran Via, where the winning design is made of sets of letters forming syllables related to Spanish Christmas, as the Spanish Carol ‘Fum Fum Fum’ or bell chimes (‘dong dong dong’), as well as Xmas gastronomy (gulp gulp gulp and nyam nyam nyam).
While the popular perception of the city is one of sun and beaches, Christmas is a wonderful time of year to visit Barcelona. Winter is mild and sunny typically, and in low season when there are fewer visitors to the city. This makes it easier to see aspects of the city and its architecture which come July and August would be impossible. Queues for museums and galleries are short, and you will discover more of the cities true identity.
