According to tradition, the twelve days of Christmas also apply to the period during which the Christmas tree and decorations are put up. There is a bit of grey area about when the twelve days start, but most people opt for Christmas Eve and then take them down twelve days later.
So, taking that into account, perhaps Palma is right in delaying the switching on of the Christmas lights. The town hall has decided, for security reasons, that Black Friday (25 November) is too early to switch on the lights. Quite simply, the town hall does not want Palma swamped with the mix of Black Friday shoppers (where did that come from? Oh, that’s right the United States) and Christmas lights admirers.
But behind all this fuss, what are the retailers doing?
Only today, someone commented to me that, despite the town hall’s decision, walk through the centre of Palma and there is no Christmas spirit in the shops whatsoever. There are only four shopping weekends left until Christmas and the rest of Europe is up and running with decorations and festive shop front windows etc.
In some of the continent’s most famous and popular cities the Christmas markets are already open, attracting off-season tourists from all over the world. What is Palma doing?
So much ground has been gained in the city-break market, why has the city gone to sleep with regards to Christmas? Are we still sitting on our laurels, comfortable in the knowledge that everyone will eventually come flocking to Palma because of the instability in other parts of the world? Fine, but what about the people who live in Palma, why are we being deprived of some Christmas spirit?