No place like Ireland for Christmas

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Dublin’s Grafton Street is alive with the spirit of Christmas this year.

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Could it be a white Christmas in Ireland? The odds are good. Paddy Power (an Irish bookmaker) is paying 3-1 for snow on Christmas Day. And if today’s blanket of snow across the country is a sign then we are in luck.

Snow, actual real snow, lay on the tops of cars this morning (Monday). It was evenly disturbed across the front gardens of the houses I looked out at in Limerick, and tire marks were clearly visible disturbing the fallen snow on the road. It was a sight to behold.

Now it wasn’t the usual six inches we would get in New York but it was a start. A beautiful start to Christmas, and a wonderful start to my day.

The temperatures are hitting below zero here. The people of Ireland are beside themselves with worry about the roads freezing, and rightly so. It’s extremely dangerous so caution is a necessity, but it’s still beautiful.

I can’t ever remember snow on Christmas Day in Ireland. Maybe once when I was very young, but a white Christmas in Ireland is a very rare sight.

This year will be my first Christmas in Ireland after seven years abroad. I am super excited.
You forget when you are away for so long what an Irish Christmas encompasses – shopping, visiting relations and friends, more shopping, eating and drinking, reunions with school friends, former work colleagues and distant relations.

This Christmas is also my first as a married woman, which means I now have two families to consider when shopping, planning nights out and cups of tea in. As John (my husband) is from Limerick and I’m from Kerry (approximately 90 minutes away) a lot of our time will be spent driving the N21, but we don’t mind in the slightest.

Ireland’s Christmas cheer is in full swing. Every couple of miles on the main roads and every 30 or so houses in the towns we are treated to spectacular displays of colorful lights outside Irish homes.

Some of the homes are stand-alone mini mansions, others are modest semi-detached homes, but the size of the house isn’t a factor. It’s the size of the Christmas spirit that counts, and Christmas spirit is still alive and well in good old Ireland.

John and I were in Dublin last weekend on our honeymoon and were blown away by how festive the city was. We had the pleasure of attending the Christmas market down by the Dublin Docklands. We had to queue for quiet a substantial amount of time to get access to the various Irish vendors so we could purchase some of the bits and bobs.
Christmas music was played in the background while food stalls selling chocolates and pancakes were serving at lightning speed. There was a sense of happiness and joy about the place that money could never buy. It was contagious, and I was drinking it all by the minute.

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