As the year is ending, with it the Christmas lights will gradually switch off and be removed from the streets, leaving only the cold as the main clue of winter in a city where it doesn't snow. We have been taking some pictures the whole month, and as the last day is imminent, it is time for their showcase.
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Elena posing for our traditional picture with Christmas-tree lights in background (here the one of
Callao).
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Callao having, by the way, its own set of "eternal lights", to combine with those of Christmas.
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The Casa de Correos is too beautiful and too luminous to be adorned by lights.
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The famous Puerta de Alcala, trapping the Biblical Magi in its arcs.
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The even more famous Cibeles, looking at the tree of the Puerta del Sol through a tiny portion of the longest street in Madrid.
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The Palacio de Cibeles, an eerie castle of rather unchristmasy lights.
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The main Christmas tree of Madrid, in the Puerta del Sol, has been since a couple of years a tribute of the Lotería de Navidad.
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Most trees are metallic (or worst). The one in the Paseo del Prado is found in the purple declination
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as is much of Atocha, in front, that seems to prefer the colors of the sky for its decoration.
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The decoration of the streets is the most showy, here again toward the Puerta del Sol.
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A parallel street with the same destination, same people, but different colors.
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This one is for the cars. There's
a google map detailing the illuminated streets and other spots of interest.
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When it comes to streets, the Gran Via is the Madrid Broadway.
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See how the Star of Bethlehem was cleverly depicted as growing in size.
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This is Calle de Alcala again. Being so long, it gets decorated in a variety of ways.
The Plaza Mayor deserves a gallery of its own:
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The theme for this year in the Plaza Mayor is cubes of lights. You find some already when getting close.
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Floating over the little people as if part of some hallucination.
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Encapsulating the magic of Christmas.
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A cube in isolation, radiating too much light. May be this one is an hallucination!
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Though the Plaza Mayor also suffices to itself in terms of molding light to its advantage.
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The Santa Cruz, which for us is synonymous to the Plaza, only allowed itself a little blue star as a Christmas whim.