Christmas in the Haut-Languedoc
I took a walk into town yesterday and it seems they take Christmas quite seriously here. You wouldn’t know it on our street, where none of us have put up any decorations whatsoever:
But right there at the end of our street is the centre of town, The first thing I saw was a horse and cart being driven by a christmas elf.
In the square there’s a giant slide for children. Well, I’m presuming it’s for children because there was a long queue composed entirely of children. I may test this hypothesis later today and see if they’ll let me on. I’m sure I saw a fat kid in the queue who probably weighed more than me:
There’s a christmas market:
And there are huge pots with real christmas trees (yes, I went up close to touch them) which have been sprayed white and decorated in red bows on Mazamet’s main shopping street:
and some smaller pots too
There are also lights all the way down the main shopping street and they’re gorgeous. For a little town lost in the middle of nowhere I think it’s a rather impressive display.
My Mazamet 
Went to Guararema this week for a look-see, and by The Great God of All Things Christmassy, they really put on a show.
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Those big pot Christmas tree are pretty cool!
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They look amazing in person. The tree is a local fir from the Black Mountain (Montagne Noir)
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It looks cold 😦
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It was about 5:30pm and the temp was 16 degrees. I was just wearing a sweater. It’s partly psychological. When it’s 16 degrees in Marbella, there are still people wearing t-shirts on the street. Here in the mountains it can be 18 and there’ll be older women wearing fur 🙂
We were actually talking about that the other day. In Spain we felt the cold more than we do here even though it was warmer. We just got used to wearing light clothes all the time, even in winter.- just because that’s what everyone does…
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You had heating in Spain didn’t you? You don’t wear light clothes without heating 😉 But, we are both still in shorts, and yes, people are wearing T-shirts in Gib. (not me)
The first time we went to Seville was in December, before we moved here, and we were gaily wandering around in shorts because it was warm, and also bucketing down. Everyone else was ropa-ed up to the nines. But even I have been seen wearing my British coats in cold weather.
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Here they just put Santa hats on the Alien lamp-posts.
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That’s something, at least! Where we lived in Spain all we got were some fairy lights on a pair of trees at the entrance gates to our community.
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Oh you haven’t lived until you’ve experienced Christmas in Brooklyn, NY. In my neighborhood, Bay Ridge, people don’t get too over the top with the decorations, but over in Dyker Heights, they have what’s known as the “crazy Christmas lights”. People who live in the McMansions of Dyker Heights hire professionals to decorate their front lawn with lights, nativity scenes, Santa & his reindeer, snowmen, lighted trees, etc. Tour buses from I don’t even know where take people to look at these over the top Christmas decorations.
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Here people decorate their houses….but there doesn’t seem to be any municipal effort. Individual institutions do something…the Children’s Museum, the Children’s Hospital….there is procession of floats, and that’s it.
Mark you in a pre local election frenzy our local council has put a huge inflatable Santa on top of the police station in the park….
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All the small towns near us are awash with Christmas lights etc, & the centre of Nottingham has it’s usual festive market/ice rink/food stalls. So many people decorate their houses too, & often it’s a case of over-doing it. Luckily our house can always be guaranteed to be different….we stand alone in the dark, not even a tree inside this year. (grand attack of The Miseries due to so many problems & disasters I just want to live in a cave until 2016 ). Well, perhaps I exagerate a bit, & I do like looking at the neighbours decorations, but we haven’t got the time or energy to attach stuff to the house. Mazamet’s displays are very good, especially the white sprayed trees in the huge pots.
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Thanks for a peek into your corner of the world! Just lovely! My husband cringed when he saw those lovely firs covered in paint – egads! Here in Nova Scotia (Canada), however, the pine trees (long needles) are spray-painted – sometimes – with a little green before they go to market. Most people buy balsam fir trees for their homes, though. We pay about $25.00 for a 7-ft tree and our daughter in Australia pays about $80.00. One year she even got a fir that had been shipped from here! Amazing, when you think of it. Have a lovely Christmas!
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It’s lovely, PInky. For some reason I was reminded of Christmases in my childhood, perhaps because it’s magical but not garishly overdone?
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Please tell me you managed to get a turn on the slide! 🙂
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I DIDN’T!!! There were about 50 pesky children in the queue. I looked at them and then decided to just get into the much smaller mulled wine queue 😀
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Damn kids… Now I imagine you spending far too much time with the mulled wine people, before barging your way to the front of the slide queue, leaving dozens of crying children in your wake. 😉
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I did consider pulling a Boris on them
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