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If you think about Christmas, you probably think about cold days and staying home. In Seville, the sun shines almost every time. How about a Christmas spending in the streets of Seville, enjoying the sun, sitting on the terraces and watching people? Isn’t that how it supposed to be?
It might not be the first destination that you think about when you’re considering a holiday during Christmas, but there’s a lot to see and discover in this beautiful city.
Seville has got a lot to offer that time of the year! It’s not the most common destination, but there are so many things to do in Spain! We’ll give you some tips and advices of activities in Seville!
First of all, the atmosphere is great, because 206 streets will be lighted up, which is 21% more than last year. This gives you a magical feeling when you’re walking around in one of the most flamboyant cities of Andalucia!
A Spanish tradition during Christmas is buying lottery tickets. The jackpot is around €4.000.000,- which is called “El Gordo”. You can buy these tickets almost everywhere, it’s a happening in Spain. Maybe you’ll return home with El Gordo in the pocket... Across the cathedral, on Avenida de la Constitución, is “El gato negro” (number 13). You can buy your lottery tickets over there, because they say that it brings you luck.
Of course, there is much more to discover in Seville during Christmas, there are lots of Christmas-markets, which are called “Belenes” or “Nacimientos”. There are many nativities made by the Sevillians themselves. The people buy their decoration near the Cathedral. There’s a big market with all those decorations, you can buy here for example Jesus itself but also the animals or a little cot. This is lovely to see, but especially the end results! Some of them are so pretty with all those beautiful details! It’s definitely worth to visit.
For the more sportive visitors (especially nice for children) there is an ice rink on the Christmas market, next to Jardines del Prado de San Sebastian. You can have winter-fun on the ice rink for 45 minutes! This will cost you € 7,- and for the children € 5,-
We can imagine that you want to go to the movies for a cosy Christmas-feeling with the whole family, but you don’t speak Spanish. Don’t worry! Because Unión cine ciudad is a cinema where they show English-spoken movies. Normally, the Spanish people love to see all movies in their own language. But in this cinema, all movies will be spoken in English!
https://www.google.nl/maps?q=union+cine+ciudad+sevilla&biw=1242&bih=612&bav=on.2,or.&bvm=bv.108194040,d.bGg&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwibhI2B06HJAhVL1xQKHaLPDW0Q_AUIBygC
A very spectacular laser-show, is presented on the town hall at Plaza de San Francisco! A phenomenal laser-technology and video-projections what shows you the birth of Jesus Christ. Below a little impression about the laser-show of last year!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tu6DXsdKKWA
If you prefer to be more active instead of just visiting monuments, we’ve got a good tip for you! Seville is a bike-friendly city, which is not very common in Spain.. It’s nice to get to know the city a little bit better, especially at the beginning of your stay. You’ll know some details, what gives you a better context of the city. Andalucia Tours and Discovery is opened every day at 09:30 am, except for the 1st Christmas-day and January the 1st and the 6th. Every day, a tour starts at 10:00 am and the tour guides are there for you in several languages. The tours are available in Dutch, English, French, German and Spanish. They’ll show you around in the city and stops at all the must-see’s and highlights.
Some cultural highlights are unfortunately closed during Christmas, like the Cathedral and the Giralda. (Only closed on December the 25th). But the zoo Mundo Parc is opened during Christmas! Perfect when you’re with your family, especially for the little ones. A nice family get-away! Mundo parc is a botanical zoo just a little bit outside of Seville.
Another activity for children is the aquarium in Seville. December the 24th, the aquarium will be opened from 10:00 till 19:00. December the 25th, the aquarium will be opened from 11:00 till 19:00.
The famous “Isla Mágica” doesn’t close their doors at Christmas either. Isla Mágica is an amusement parc in Seville, which is very beautiful and graceful decorated during Christmas-time!
Last but definitely not least: food is very important during Christmas! But as you can imagine, not all the restaurants are opened. Christmas-evening (Dec. 24th) is Nochebuena, what means that none of the restaurants are opened. That’s the evening that everyone stays at home and watch the speech of the King. Most people don’t go out for dinner at all during Christmas.
But if you do want to go out for dinner, then we’ll give you some tips; here are a few restaurants who are opened the 1st and 2nd Christmas day.
La resolana, iberian pork (salmon, gamba’s, etc.)
La casa del tesorero (Italian food)
Restaurante altamar (traditional kitchen)
Restaurante la Laguna (stew, grilled meat, etc.)
Sushi in the Mercado de Triana. http://www.mercadodetrianasevilla.com/
La Raza, little bit more luxury. (Pork, hake with clams, sea bass fillet, etc.)
Mordisco (tuna tataki, duck, foie gras, etc.)
As you could see, there’s still enough choice! Have fun and why not think out of the box?! Discover Seville during Christmas!