Let’s face it folks, the build up to Christmas is one almighty hype isn’t it? From early October, kids telly programmes are interrupted with back to back adverts for toys costing more than the average weekly food bill, and how many TV chefs does it take to tell us how to cook a Turkey.
Tell you what Jamie, how about shoving that stuffing up your own backside……
This year in an attempt to be a slightly more conventional 60 something woman, I celebrated Christmas Day with my daughter and Grandkids in a nice cosy house, sitting around her large dining table, suitable adorned with fairy lights and sprinkles, battling my way through mountains of food and drink. 
BUT, not so long ago, I laughed in the face of convention and spent Christmas Day in a very different way.
Here at Eye on Spain, on many occasions we’ve discussed the importance of planning your move to Spain. We’ve offered suggestions on appropriate areas of Spain to consider, depending on your family and financial circumstances, and there have sometimes been some heated responses to questions about the cost of living, and employment prospects.
All of which, in reality, we all know will be mostly ignored.
If you want to move to Spain, you will, no matter what negative advice people give you.
Well, here is where fate took me, and how I celebrated one of my happiest Christmas Day’s in Spain.
Previously, dear reader, I’d been a ‘lady what lunched’…….if it was a sandwich, it wasn’t any old sandwich, it was a M & S Sandwich, I actually WAS a stranger to Maccy D’s, and the sun very often went over my yardarm when normal people were still eating their Shreddies. No, I was definitely not a stranger to a Champagne breakfast! 
But then Cupids Arrow scored a Bulls Eye and I found myself living in this little love nest, (!) on the banks of the River Ebro with a man who would have given Crocodile Dundee a run for his money. To say we were a bit short of room would have been an understatement, and given that we only had ONE calor gas ring, more suited to one-pot cooking, than a roast turkey and all the trimmings, on Christmas Day, we had to improvise.
We decided, (I decided) that if we couldn’t bring Christmas to the caravan, then we’d take it to the river bank instead.
We chose a sheltered spot, and I made our tent look festive with some well - placed tinsel and sprigs of holly.
We sparked up the Barbeque, (I lie, it was actually a fire made of twigs and the rack from an old cooker) and made a cup of Fisherman’s tea, (there were surprisingly no builders about).
He baited up the swim, I buttered warm baguettes fresh from the local bakery, and waited for Christmas Day lunch to arrive.
Now, before anyone gets all sniffy, the Carp in these pictures were all kept quite cosy in a keep net in the water, and swam happily away once the pictures were taken.
On the other hand, the Zander we caught and ate for our Christmas Day lunch, were bloody delicious! And, if you haven’t ever tasted Zander, then you are missing a treat. Widely available in fishy type shops. It’s like Haddock, only Heavenly.
Gently fried in a little olive oil, the thick white flesh just falls off the bone, unlike say….. a Bernard Matthews turkey!
It was a gorgeous crisp, Mr Blue Sky day, people popped up and shared an enamel mug of wine with us, and our loaves and fishes fed many friends, and also some people we’d never met before!
It really was a day to remember, and I don’t think anyone who was there will forget the sight of a tinsel bedecked bivvie, and me rockin the Santa hat.
So next year, if you fancy an ‘alternative’ Christmas, just get out there and do it.
The possibilities are endless, life’s too short to be wrapping anymore pigs in blankets, so be rebellious, do whatever you fancy, but be sure to come back and tell us all about it.
Thanks for reading this little missive, you can see more of my ramblings at
www.hellosixty.com