The municipality of Athens and its workforce is working for an unforgettable Christmas at extreme low cost, but still with maximum expectations!
It's all provided voluntarily and offered for free for everybody. It will be many festivals with different themes in different squares and neighborhoods of Athens, with more than 700 artists participating!
The festivities will start on December, 9th at Syntagma Square with an alternative "lightening of the
tree" celebration. Instead of a huge Christmastree it will be traditional sour-orange trees!
Nine of the festivals will take place in December and one in January: : "Music of the World" (16-18/12 Klauthmonos Square), "Magic Children's Square" (17-31/12 Syntagma square), the "Tiny Days" (20-21/12 Technopolis and Institut Francais d'Athenes), "Jazzy Christmas" (22-24/12, Klauthmonos Square), the "Chorus Festival" (23/12, Kotzia Square), juggling Festival "The Toy's neighborhood" (27-29/12, Syntagma Square and the Rouf Closed Gym), "New Music Stage" (27-29/12, Klauthmonos Square), "Classic Orchestra Festival" (28-31/12, Kotzia Square)
New Year's Eve, will be celebrated at Kotzia square with a musical "outbreak", full of surprises.
Upon the arrival of the New Year, the "Expression" festival will commence, with the participation of young artists (January 3-5 at the Muncipality of Athens Anna and Maria Calouta Cultural Center, in the area of Neos Kosmos)
An update of all Christmas activities will be provided at the following webpage www.christmasathens.gr, from December 5, as well as on the facebook page: City of Athens and the twitter page: BreathtakingAthens@CityofAthens
(All the above information and more at About.com)
More things to do:
At New Year's Eve it's very common to book a table at one of the many Bouzouki-places in town. Earlier years it was very difficult to find places if you didn't book at least a month earlier, this year I guess it will be different, as it's considered rather expensive.
In Athinorama you can read which artist is performing in each club. The only problem is that it's written in Greek only...
A few examples of "big names" and nightclubs:
Stellios Rokkos, at Asteria in Glyfada 210-894 45 58
Panos Kiamos, at Posidonio in Elliniko 210-894 10 33
Despina Vandi, at Fever in Neos Kosmos 210-921 73 33
Natasia Theodoridou, at Votanikos 210-347 38 35
40 storybook houses Christmas houses for shopping,
creative workshops for children, Fun Park, Santa's train, climbing wall for adults and children, bungee trampoline, ice rink and more.
Entrance: free
Metropolitan Park, Goudi (outside Badminton Theatre) 21/11-10/1
Monday-Friday 16.00-23.00
Weekends and holidays 11.00-23.00
(Picture from the blog "Like to bite".)
Concerts, Theatre, Exhibitions and more, see the program of Megaron
Vass. Sophias & Kokkali. How to get there: Megaron Concert Hall
16-23/12, 25-30/12 Swan Lake (from 25 €)
13, 14/12 Children's Choir from Moscow(from 14 €)
Open Tuesday-Sunday 08.00-20.00. Monday closed.
Closed 25th, 26th of December and 1st of January.
Whenever you are visitng Athens you can always take a tour with a Athens City sightseeing bus.
It's nice to walk in Monastiraki(daytime) and Plaka, in the center of Athens. The nightlife in Gazi and Glyfada is nice with many cafeterias and bars.
Wishing you a wonderful Christmas this year, wherever you are!
4 comments:
Love that you wrote this post, I am so utterly rubbish at mentioning these things!
Have been away from blogosphere of late, hope all is well with you!
x.o.x.o
Thanks a lot A Brit Greek! Everything fine here, time missing though...!
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Hi!! I really appreciate your tips. We are travelling to Greek next december and we are spending Christmas in Athens so your info is very useful for us!! Πολύ ευχαριστίες!! Ariadna, Asturias, Spain
@Ariadna
Glad you're travelling to Greece these difficult times! Please note this post is from last year...but maybe it can be of some help anyway.
Thanks a lot, Ariadna!
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