Navidad canaria al aire libre
Navidad en Las Palmas
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria · Canary Islands · Spain
The Canarian Christmas happens outdoors because the islands sit off the Sahara and December is around twenty degrees. Las Palmas builds the Belén de Arena on Las Canteras beach — a monumental nativity sculpted in sand, free to walk around — and the city's squares carry concerts, the parranda and the ranchos de ánimas, an archaic sung tradition for the souls of the dead that survives in a handful of villages.
No attendance figure is recorded here in this pass.
The season runs through December to Reyes on 6 January, when the Three Kings arrive — on Gran Canaria sometimes by boat or camel rather than float.
For visitors the proposition is specific and unusual: a European Christmas season with none of the cold, which is why the islands fill with northern European and mainland Spanish visitors for exactly those weeks.
PlanningA December window running to Reyes on 6 January; everything is outdoors because it can be.