I usually spend Christmas in England and always have a special Christmas-style day together with my grown-up son and daughter.  For the last two years my son and I have gone to see the new Star Wars movie we’ll be doing it again this year.  Every other Christmas I go to London and spend the three days of Christmas as a volunteer working in support of homeless people with a fantastic secular charity called ‘Crisis at Christmas’, which has been running for 50 years. I work in a Rough Sleepers Shelter  which for 10 days provides not only safe warm accommodation, hot meals, fresh clothes and equipment, entertainment and access to computers as well as every kind of professional who give their services:  such as dentists, doctors, physiotherapists, podiatrists, manicurists, hairdressers, tailors and sewing specialist who will mend and rejuvenate clothes, many different kinds of addictions counsellors as well as social, financial, employment and housing specialists. There is a fantastic atmosphere in the many Crisis centres provided in London, Birmingham, Coventry and Edinburgh.  26,000 single people face homelessness on any given night in England due to a lack of affordable and accessible housing. Last Christmas, 9961 volunteers racked up 270,000 hours of volunteering in London. An incredible 8658 mince pies were enjoyed and 70,555 cups of coffee were drunk by 3911 guests.

Here is a video about last year’s Crisis at Christmas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiHTv3yitNM

Happy Christmas, Tim Currant

My first Christmas in Barcelona!
As my family is in Poland I always try to make it there for Christmas. Well, almost always. Once I spent Christmas in Dublin and cried out big tears of homesickness as a massive house party that I ended up at, with crowds of drunk people, was somehow alien to my idea of ´family time´. Years later, I had a cheeseburger for Christmas Eve dinner in a bamboo restaurant in Sri Lanka. There was no drama, just joy, maybe because I somehow altered the idea of what ´family time´means.
This year I am spending Christmas for the first time here, in Barcelona and in La Comarca with my boyfriend’s family. I look forward to doing cagar el Tió, wandering around Christmas markets and decorating a palm tree with Christmas lights.
After I have collected all my pressies from el Tió, eaten piles of turrón and drunk multiple glasses of cava I am flying to Poland for belated Christmas and New Year´s Eve. I am going to travel to my grandparents´place – a tiny village of 9 houses, near the Belarusian border, where my mum comes from. There, surrounded by snow-capped forest I am hoping to find more pressies from Santa and stuff my face with pierogi and pierniki.
I guess, I am really grateful for all the Christmases so far and wish you all heartfelt ´family time´ – in all its unique versions.

Happy Holidays! Anna Bebzuka

This Christmas will be spent teaching our 1 year old about Santa Claus, Caga Tio and the magical Kings. Although Blai doesn’t quite get it yet, he certainly has made it clear that he loves all the twinkling lights and points to the Christmas tree in the late afternoon so I can turn on the lights. It is my favorite moment of the day. Like every year, on Christmas Eve we will have a seafood feast with just Oriol and I, this year Blai and our dog Tano will also join and at midnight, we will walk down to the sea to drink a bottle of Cava and see if we spot St Nick flying over us. We have yet to see him, but you never know…Then we will celebrate Christmas day with Oriol’s paternal side of the family, bringing young and old together and singing carols and reciting poetry in exchange for a few coins. My favorite! On Boxing day or St Esteban, we will have lunch with Oriol’s maternal side of the family and make time to play with our new gifts. After New Years, we will go down to the Delta de Ebre to welcome in 2018 in a very magical place with lovely light and fauna. (Heidi)

This season is my absolute favorite and I consider myself very lucky to have all of you form part of our every day life. Thank you for your hard work, collaboration and motivation.

May 2018 bring all of you peace, joy and health and lots of fun learning English!

Merry Christmas and a very Happy 2018!

 Photo Source