Enjoy some Christmas Magic in Portugal

This Christmas and New Year spend a magical Christmas in Portugal, with Father Christmas and decorated trees, together with some more unusual traditions. On Christmas Eve in Portugal, salt cod is the traditional dish and meat is served on Christmas and Boxing days. For dessert, the menu includes crown-shaped Bolo Rei filled with crystallised fruit, and traditional fritters. The pastries, filhozes, sonhos and rabanadas, are delicious. At home, just as in the local church, people find a special place to put the Saviour’s crib from the nativity. It was the idea of St. Francis of Assis in the 13th Century to re-create the stable where Jesus was born at Christmas. In the regions of Bragança, Guarda or Castelo Branco, a Yule log is burned in the atrium of the village church after mass. It helps keep everyone warm through the night and to wish family and friends a Merry Christmas. Stay for the New Year celebrations. At midnight, there’s a fireworks display in every town. Everyone eats 12 raisins, with one wish for each month, and drinks champagne to bring in the New Year. The party in Madeira is renowned for being the most dazzling, with a display of light and colour over the whole island you can even see from the ocean. At the start of the New Year, you’ll see people singing in the streets. These are the Janeiras (new year’s carollers). They sing traditional songs and those who pass by are wished a Happy New Year full of luck.

Or there’s Christmas and New Year on the beautiful island of Madeira, that is mild all year round:
http://www.whatsonwhen.com
British Airways (www.ba.com) flies to Funchal, Madeira, from Gatwick up to seven times a week this winter, with one way all inclusive fares starting at £59.

More about traditions:
http://www.santas.net/portuguesechristmas.htm
Guardians latest holiday offers in Portugal:
http://travel.guardian.co.uk/readeroffers/portugal
An overview of Portugal:
The travel guardians Portugal section

Portugal has so much to offer !

For many people if you mention Portugal as a holiday destination they will conjure up images of neatly clipped golf courses, luxurious villas, modern resorts and sandy white beaches of the southern Algarve. Yet away from that package holiday haven lies another country, equally as tempting for different reasons.
A country which, though becoming increasingly popular, is still relatively untouched by the excesses of modern tourism. It still manages to exude a natural beauty, a unique sense of place, character and vibrancy. Why not discover this wonderful country for yourself.

In the Atlantic lies the Portuguese Emerald island of Madeira. With it’s sub- tropical climate Madeira boasts a fantastic variety of fruit, flowers and vegetation. Plunging cliffs and steep cultivated and terraced fields create a dramatic holiday destination for those seeking peace and relaxation.
Most of the island is a conservation area which benefits it’s rare flowers. Lilies, orchids, magnolias, hydrangeas, bougainvillaea, jacarandas and azaleas bloom in abundance throughout the year and fill the air with a fragrant sweetness.
Why not spend your time wandering along the footpaths beside the “levadas” (small man-made irrigation canals) that wind their way around the island.