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Follow The Route of Nativities in Tenerife

From the huge, life-size nativity outside the town hall in La Orotava.

The Nacimiento (Nativity) or Belén (Bethlehem) is the most important of Christmas decorations in Tenerife. In most homes, this is arranged under the tree. Oh, don't expect "historical accuracy" in homes. I've seen both Jedi and Barbie dolls attending the baby Jesus, along with the shepherds and Magi! 

Organized Nativity displays are something else. Town Halls and Associations produce massive works of art each year. Not just stable scenes, but whole Holy model towns - often, inexplicably, depicting the Canarian location they're at - with working windmills, lights & everything! These "Holy Model Villages" full of detail usually reserved for model railways, are fascinating to see and won't be difficult to find, all around the island. It's well worth the trip to visit them. 

In Tenerife's capital, Santa Cruz, there are several famous public Belén displays. 

One, organized by Santa Cruz Town Hall, in the exhibition hall (Aula Magna) of the Cultural Park, Parque Cultural Viera y Clavijo, one year covered 55 square meters with more than 600 hand-made pieces, plus numerous lighting effects and movements, such as the breaking of dawn, nightfall, a storm with winds, thunder and lightening, the apparition of an angel, rivers and canals, the baby crying.

There are specialist belenistas (nativity makers), contests and organised routes to go round and see them; private family nativities (some of which open their homes to the public), then there are regular public nativities in squares, such as the life-size nativity outside the town hall in La Orotava, (see above), in the Plaza de Candelaria in Santa Cruz, in shops and malls, such as La Villa in La Orotava, inside the Cabildo (Tenerife Island Corporation) building in Santa Cruz, in town halls, most churches (of course) and, even hotels.

Not every detail is serious mind you, as this and Jack Montgomery explains.

Most of the nativity displays are available to see from early December, usually until Los Reyes (The Three Kings Day) on January 6th.

Towns fill with poinsettias for Christmas

Varigated 'municipal' poinsettias in La Laguna

In 2005, the Tenerife Island Council is supplied 65,000 Flor de Pascua (poinsettia) plants to town halls across the island in order to dress up parks and squares for the Christmas festivities. The plants are specially cultivated in island nurseries and are distributed each year for the seasonal decorations.

Where can you see them? Well, the plants are shared out according to the number of inhabitants in each district, so Santa Cruz get the largest number with 6,000 plants, with La Laguna (5,000) and Arona (4,000) second and third. Icod de los Vinos will be getting 2,000 poinsettia plants to adorn the town, while Buenavista del Norte, Los Silos and Garachico will receive 1,000 each.

Hundreds more are given to various associations and centres providing social services, so the plants are bound to brighten someone's season.

Every town and village will be decorated for Christmas and parks, squares and verges planted with a plethora of bright and festive Flor de pascua (poinsettia) plants. In this video from 2012, it's mentioned that 45,000 of them were planted in the city of Santa Cruz alone and school kids from all over the island grew the seedlings and help with planting. Unfortunately, the plants are so attractive, that people steal them from the displays and in an effort to deter them, the plants are now planted directly in the soil and not in easy to carry off plant pots.

Tenerife Municipal Holidays 2018

Fiesta de la Cruz. Los Realejos, 2010. Image: by Jose Mesa [CC BY 2.0]

As well as the national, regional and island-wide public holidays for 2018, here is a list of local public holidays in the thirty-one municipalities of Tenerife. Each has these additional two holidays when town halls and businesses in that location will be closed and often the local main fiestas there are celebrated.

ADEJE.
13 February: Carnival Tuesday.
15 October: Festival of Santa Úrsula.

ARAFO.
13 February: Carnival Tuesday.
27 August: Festival of San Bernardo.

ARONA.
13 February: Carnival Tuesday.
8 October: Festival of Santísimo Cristo de la Salud.

ARICO.
13 February: Carnival Tuesday.
8 September: Festival of Nuestra Señora de Abona.

BUENAVISTA DEL NORTE.
24 August: Festival of San Bartolomé.
25 October: Festival of Nuestra Señora de Los Remedios.

CANDELARIA.
13 February: Carnival Tuesday.
26 July: Festival of Santa Ana.

EL ROSARIO.
13 February: Carnival Tuesday.
6 August: Festival of Nuestra Señora de La Esperanza, Monday after the first Sunday in August.

EL SAUZAL.
13 February: Carnival Tuesday.
29 June: Festival of San Pedro Apóstol.

EL TANQUE.
31 August: Festival of Nuestra Señora de Buen Viaje.
22 October: Festival of Santísimo Cristo del Calvario.

FASNIA.
13 February: Carnival Tuesday.
20 August: Fiestas for the town’s patron.

GARACHICO.
26 July: Festival of Santa Ana.
16 August: Festival of San Roque.

GRANADILLA DE ABONA.
13 February: Carnival Tuesday.
13 June: Festival of San Antonio de Padua.

GUÍA DE ISORA.
25 June: Festival of San Juan Bautista.
17 September: Festival of Santísimo Cristo de la Dulce Muerte.

GÜÍMAR.
29 June: Festival of San Pedro Apóstol.
7 September: Festival of Nuestra Señora del Socorro.

ICOD DE LOS VINOS.
13 February: Carnival Tuesday.
25 April: Festival of San Marcos Evangelista.

LA GUANCHA.
18 January: Festival of Nuestra Señora de la Esperanza.
20 August: Monday of the Fiestas for the town’s patron.

LA MATANZA DE ACENTEJO.
13 February: Carnival Tuesday.
6 August: Fiestas for the town’s patron.

LA OROTAVA.
13 February: Carnival Tuesday.
7 June: 8th Day of Corpus Christi.

LA VICTORIA DE ACENTEJO.
13 February: Carnival Tuesday.
3 September: Fiestas for the town’s patron.

LOS REALEJOS.
22 January: Festival of San Vicente.
3 May: Exaltation of the Holy Cross.

LOS SILOS.
13 February: Carnival Tuesday.
8 September: Festival of Nuestra Señora de la Luz.

PUERTO DE LA CRUZ.
3 May: Fiesta of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross and Commemoration of the Foundation of the City.
10 July: Festival of the Virgen del Carmen.

SAN CRISTÓBAL DE LA LAGUNA.
13 February: Carnival Tuesday.
14 September: Festival of Santísimo Cristo de La Laguna.

SAN JUAN DE LA RAMBLA.
24 June: Festival of San Juan Bautista.
10 September: Festival of San José.

SAN MIGUEL DE ABONA.
13 February: Carnival Tuesday.
29 September: Festival of San Miguel Arcángel.

SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE.
13 February: Carnival Tuesday.
3 May: Festival of the Santa Cruz (Holy Cross).

SANTA ÚRSULA.
13 February: Carnival Tuesday.
22 October: Festival of Santa Úrsula.

SANTIAGO DEL TEIDE.
16 July: Festival of Nuestra Señora del Carmen.
25 July: Festival of Santiago Apóstol.

TACORONTE.
13 February: Carnival Tuesday.
26 November: Festival of Santa Catalina.

TEGUESTE.
25 April: Festival of San Marcos Evangelista.
8 September: Festival of Nuestra Señora de los Remedios.

VILAFLOR DE CHASNA.
23 April: Festival of Santo Hermano Pedro.
27 August: Festival of San Agustín and San Roque.

Fiestas Locales para el año 2018

Tenerife in December 2017

Along with the countdown to Christmas, comes the excited wait to see if there will be snow on Teide.
Photo By Jens Steckert (Own work) [GFDLCC-BY-SA-3.0 or CC BY-SA 2.5]

December begins with two National public holidays: on Wed, 6th December for Día de la Constitución Española (Constitution Day) and Fri, 8th December for Inmaculada Concepción (The Immaculate Conception). Many people will take the day off on Thursday, 7th too and take what's known as un puente (translates to bridge) or short break. Most of December's events are to do with Christmas.

The holiday period always kicks off proper with El Gordo (The Fat One), the Spanish Christmas Lottery, which is drawn on 22nd December each year, with kids singing out the results during a five-hour televised spectacular.

Christmas Day, Monday, 25th December 2017 will be a Public holiday. For Canarians, this is often recovery day after a big family gathering on Christmas Eve. Boxing Day isn't a tradition nor holiday in Spain or the Canaries.

On Christmas Day at 9pm, in the open air beside the port in Santa Cruz, the annual free Concierto de Navidad (Christmas Concert) by the Orquesta Sinfónica de Tenerife (Tenerife Symphony Orchestra) will be performed. This event is generally televised by RTVE and, is always a wonderful seasonal gift.

There are no municipal public holidays in December.

On 28th December, beware of El Día de Los Santos Inocentes (Day of the Innocent Saints), the Spanish equivalent of April Fool's Day

And that, of course, brings us to the end of the year and New Year's Eve.

Tenerife Land of Eternal Christmas

Sunbathing SantaDesert Island ChristmasScuba Diving SantaTropical Santa
Santa's Having a Whale of a TimeSurfing SantaWaterski SantaCamel Rodeo Santa
With a wide range of products in each design, click the pics (above) to see the full selections.