The best snow in Europe just now..?

Well, that might be pushing it, but while the Alps are suffering with a lack of the white stuff, our own Sierra Nevada opened this weekend with more piste (40kms) than ever before at this time of year. The season's been getting steadily longer and better since we've been coming to the Alpujarra - about eight years - during which global warming has wreaked havoc with the ski industry hundreds of miles north. Here, where you can see Africa on a clear day, no operator is going to give you a guarantee of great snow, but it's getting more dependable every year. Here's a shot from local paper Ideal, showing the first skiers to venture out this year. (They're not going to win awards for photography at Ideal, I'm afraid.) Our house is not for a single-minded skiing holiday, as it's an hour's drive to the slopes, but for a mixed trip which combines winter sports with, say, walking, visiting the Alhambra and a day on the beach, it would be perfect.

This is one of the few places in the world where you really can ski in the morning and swim (comfortably) in the sea in the afternoon of the same day. If you're at our place, you're about half way between the two, as well as close to Granada and surrounded by great scenery in every direction.

Cultural evolution/confusion at work

This is quite an interesting phenomenon. The funny little exterior decoration on the left represents the Magi from the traditional nativity story; the "we three kings from Orient are" (as a kid I wondered where Orientare was, but that's another story). They were climbing into every other window in Spain this Christmas, though I've never seen them in previous years. The Chinese-run emporia that sell all kinds of cheap junk were full of them.

The fascinating bit is that Spain is in the grip of a generational battle between the Kings, who traditionally bring presents for good children on January 6th, and the recent US import and Coca Cola spokesperson Santa Claus, who is meant to bring gifts during the small hours of 25th December. Retailers and the ad industry naturally want the Spanish nation to embrace both and give twice as many gifts, but hard-pressed families may have to make a choice and go for one or the other. Last year the balcony adornment of choice was Santa climbing up a rope-ladder. This year the Spaniards, with the help of the Chinese tat-vendors, have amalgamated traditions so that we get the Kings climbing Santa-style, rather than turning up on camels. (If you were a wise old king from Orientare, would you suffer the gross indignity of climbing a rope-ladder to break into someone's flat, with passers-by looking up your cassock? No, neither would I.) It'll be interesting to see if this one sticks - the Christmas story changed forever by cheap decorations.