On Christmas I was in Cuba. The restaurant we normally ate in had a few changes on Christmas and Christmas Eve.
- There were a large amount of balloons taped together in the entry foyer.
- On Christmas Eve adults could get a free glass of champagne.
- There where pinapples loaded with food on top of them.
- The outdoor steakhouse was open.
- There where apples.
Brief history fact about Cuba and apples: Traditionally Cubans eat apples on one day of the year Christmas Eve. But at restaurant which is a buffet. Apples where also were served on Christmas.
I don't know if this is a new change to the tradition or are they just breaking the rules to get rid of apples. LOL! It could be that they would serve apples again on New Years Day and New Years Eve. But seeing as I left on boxing day I don't know!
Two things to do on Christmas in Cuba.
-
Act normal do normal things seeing as it doesn't Cubans celebrate Christmas at all. I even got some proof of this theory. Besides the buffet nothing changed in the lives of the Cubans. They worked as hard as the normally. There were not any partys. The pay for taxi drivers didn't rise. Nobody even took the day off, or so it seems.
-
Do something slightly different than a regular day. Notice the slightly. So on Christmas instead of snorkeling or shell collecting or sight seeing we went fishing. Note: That I came to Cuba really just for the snorkeling and sight seeing, A friend showed us the shell collecting part. When you go fishing in a large bay you suspect to catch fish heavier then your adverage fish. We were suprised to only catch fish that were sized in the range 7-15cm. The fish were hiding under a dock and they were hard to hook. After going through a whole bag full of shrimp we had probably only caught 30 fish. And they were small fish not big fish. We thus ended up only taking one fish with us. The rest we just dumped back into the bay.
-
I didn't even think of this option until we got back home. This choice was what literally happened to my mom though by accident. I call this option drum roll please: Get a cold and stay home. My mom got a cold after we went fishing and got back to our hotel. So this is a bad option to go with but, could happen to you!
The buffet I talked about is in our restort even though it is called Hotel Rancho Luna. In english it's a real resort not a hotel. Here may be one thing that may or may not stun you: A busload of maybe 75 people arrived at our resort on Christmas! Now guess how many people arrived on Christmas Eve? Nada, Zero, Nothing, None! Not a single person came or left our resort that day! To think that if this was a game about how many people came to the resort it would be a shocking 75-0 Christmas.
These differences will be shocking but you may have already heard about them above. Notice: Only major difference will be shown.
- No Presents: In this shocking disclosure on Christmas there weren't any presents or balloon presents or even stuff to look like presents! There are also no stocking or at least socks!
- Zero Decorations: Besides the buffet there are zero decorations during Christmas making it feel like it was not Christmas at all!
- Where Are The Christmas Trees: Naturally you would walk down a street in Canada or the US and see pine trees covered in lights. But in Cuba there was a single Christmas tree. Tiny and of course fake!
- The Tradition Is Amazingly Different: In this final disclosure we examine the difference in tradition. Just to take something off my head: Apples on Christmas (Cuba) vs Apples everyday of the year (Canada + US)