Spending Christmas Day in Madrid, my family expected to spend a lot of time in our AirBNB. We figured that in a very Christian state most restaurants and stores would be closed and the city would be a bit of a ghost town with everyone spending time in their homes or in the homes of their families. And yes, while most stores and many restaurants were closed, my expectations of quiet streets was very wrong.

First, our day started slow, since there was no rush to wake up. At about 10:15am I went out looking for an open pastry shop and not 1/2 a block from our apartment was a bustling outdoor Sunday market that went on for about half a kilometre. And it was jam packed with people!

We spent hours there. My wife and daughters shopping to their hearts content and me tagging along listening to a audiobook. The crowd was filled with both locals and tourists and it stayed busy right up until some of the vendors started packing up at 2pm.

We went for a late lunch (3:30), a reservation one of the parents at my school, who used to live in Madrid, organized for us knowing that finding a seat at a nice restaurant on Christmas Day would be challenging. Then upon leaving the restaurant we could see that the streets were still bustling with people. So after a quick stop at home we went exploring.

We headed out and it seemed so did half of the city. The downtown area was just packed with people!

Every store, pub, and restaurant open had people in them. We had a drink in an outdoor patio and enjoyed an evening out along with over 100,000 other people filling the streets of Madrid. This was so different than what we expected, and it was a truly unique and wonderful Christmas Day.

I hope everyone is enjoying their holidays. Best wishes to your family from ours!