Bubbling up nicely, that’s the Tenerife run in to the festive season, and on Saturday night it was all sweetness and light in Los Cristianos. Inflatable Santa’s were swaying in the breeze, small versions of the Three Kings were scaling walls and window ledges, and music wafted through the air.

My first call was the church for the Scandinavian service of Santa Lucia, there’s a strong Scandinavian community in Los Cristianos as the tourism boom was started over 50 years ago by elderly and ill Scandinavians coming over for the healthy properties of our climate. Santa Lucia marks the longest night of the year in Scandinavia and the gleaming white costumes and candles of the choir make it a beautiful sight to see. The church was packed to overflowing and the singing was angelic, even to this little devil.

Feeling uplifted I moved onto the large marquee at the old beach side of the tunnel, it’s the venue for weekend events through thee festive season and this time it was health, beauty, and fashion. One half was stalls from Arona based shops and the other half was a stage and catwalk for models to strut their stuff, I was drawn like a moth to a flame. All the clothes on display were from business’s in Arona and the intention was to promote sales.

The young amateur models were very good, it must have been quite nerve wracking to be watched by a decent sized crowd but they showed poise and elegance. Unfortunately most of the audience were “mature” and the clothes were aimed at a younger market, I couldn’t really imagine most of the crowd popping down the supermarket or to church in the glamorous outfits being twirled. The music too was very much modern pop stuff – not really my cup of tea, but then I am an old fogey.

It was a good show, better publicity may have attracted a wider mix of audience, including those looking to spend a bit of money. So that left me with a bit of a thirst and the night still fairly young, a few bars on the way home and I was ready to catwalk up the hill in my designer trainers, jeans, and non football shirt – well someone must have designed them.