"The Spirit of Christmas": from classic fairy tales to the great halls of hotels GREECE INFO The Christmas holiday season has for years been one of the most popular for short trips. There are quite a few cities that "invest" in Christmas decorations to establish themselves as a tourist destination for the festive season. The luxurious hotels, could not but follow this habit. Indeed, the exteriors, lobbies and halls are transformed during these days into a place that is impressive and enchanting. Often the responsibility of decorating is taken over by decorators who will make sure to "transport" the guests to a "fairytale" world. Hotel Grande Bretagne, Athens After all, in every way hotels are a "doorway" to the fairy tale. The decoration of hotels offers the ideal environment combining warmth, architecture, luxury, glamour and excess that cannot be compared to any private or public space. It ensures that young and old alike travel to the ultimate dream condition. Grand Serai Congress & Spa Hotel, Ioannina In Greece, the custom of decorating Christmas trees is relatively recent. Until the beginning of the 20th century, it was limited to the palace and a few upper-class houses, such as that of the ambassador Ioannis Paparigopoulos, who was the first to bring this custom to Athens at Christmas in 1843. During the 1920s, the custom of decorating trees began to spread throughout the households. In fact, this foreign custom was loved and spread so much that a decade later, hundreds of fir trees were cut from Parnitha to decorate the living rooms of Athens. City Hotel, Thessaloniki In 1952 the first Christmas tree was erected in a public place in the capital. It was an offer from the Swedish Shipping Company to Athens and the mayor of Athens, Kon. Nikolopoulos, ignoring the reservations about the introduction of a foreign custom, placed the illuminated tree in Kotzias Square. (The First Christmas Tree in squares of Athens and Piraeus).. Ethereal White Resort, Heraklio Nowadays the habit of decorating Christmas trees is part of Greek culture. Houses, shops, public places, services are decorated with small, big, real or fake trees, with minimal or luxurious decorations. And if the tree is the necessary backdrop of the Christmas decoration, then the shiny decorative ball is the undisputed "protagonist" of the celebration. However, next to the colorful balls , the tree branches and ornaments have now taken their place, their motifs referring to the beloved fairy tales. After all, Christmas is the children's holiday. After all, Christmas is the children's holiday. The Nutcracker, The Steadfast Tin Soldier, Thumbelina, Snow White's dwarfs, but also the forest animals, candy canes, truffles, wagons, trains and snowmen "climb" the branches of the trees "winking" at the childishness of all of us. Crowne Plaza Athens City Center Christmas is the favorite holiday of young and old alike. It is the time when the miracle of the Divine Birth merges with the warmth that reigns in the heart of every family. The last days of the year are always the perfect time to return to childhood and the Christmas stories that have shaped many generations of people. The heroes of Charles Dickens, Hans Christian Andersen and Alexandros Papadiamantis continue to capture the imagination of children, bring tears of emotion to adults, and inspire the decoration of the Christmas trees of cozy, luxurious hotels. Angsana Corfu Resort & Spa The undisputed king of Christmas tales is none other than the Danish Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875). Raised in a poor family, he loved poetry from an early age and eventually achieved literary fame. His stories continue to move and are exercises in empathy as they are imbued with honesty and solidarity towards the weak. Andersen goes down in history as the originator of the original dramatic myth of The Little Mermaid (1837), as well as morality tales that demystify corrupt power, such as The Emperor's New Clothes (1837). At Christmas we tend to return to reading or watching plays related to his works such as The Snow Queen (1844), the unique love story of The Steadfast Tin Soldier (1838), Thumbelina (1835), and the lesson of humanity hidden in the story of The Little Match Girl (1845). ON Residence, Thessaloniki Charles Dickens (1812-1870) was always fond of Christmas and of the Victorian idea of returning to the traditional holiday atmosphere of carols and Christmas tree decorations (an aesthetic spread by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert). The English novelist of the epic realistic stories David Copperfield (1849-50), Oliver Twist (1837-9) and Great Expectations (1860-1) is never missing from anthologies of Christmas tales thanks to the immortal work he wrote in 1843. This work is none other than A Christmas Carol, a tale of the transformation of the grumpy Scrooge from a spirit of antagonism and ill-intentionedness to a tolerant and giving man. The Spirits of Christmas, which dominate this tale, teach the finite nature of human life, empathy as a predominant component of a just society, and of course the joyful spirit that accompanies the celebration of Christmas. Although Charles Dickens wrote his Christmas Carol (glimmers of whose themes can be detected in his early works, such as a story from the Pickwick Papers, 1836-7) under the threat of personal bankruptcy, he nevertheless managed to complete the manuscript within six weeks, and the solid character of Scrooge quickly emerged as a beloved hero for young and old alike. Crowne Plaza Athens City Center "If Easter is the most glorious of Christian holidays, Christmas is certainly the sweetest and most touching, and for this reason it has always been regarded as a family celebration par excellence." All of the above is written, among other things, in an anniversary article by Alexandros Papadiamantis (1851-1911), from the distant 1887. Excelsior Hotel, Thessaloniki One of the most decisive representatives of Modern Greek literature, the "kosmokalogeros" (a monk in the world) of Greek letters, came into contact through the English language with the "annually published Christmas Numbers, the special pamphlets of the illustrated magazines, published on Christmas, with good pictures and varied material." The result was that he was influenced by the spirit of this kind of Western literature and he too wrote a multitude of stories set during the festive days of Christmas. City Hotel, Thessaloniki Alongside "The Gleaner" (1889), the bittersweet "The American" (1891) and the lyrical "The Christmas Loaf" (1887), the satirical short story "An Idler’s Christmas" occupies an important place. Written in 1896, it focuses on another human weakness that characterizes some of the island's people, but of course also the goblins and elves of folk legends of the west and east: idleness Royal Olympic Hotel Athens One such character is Mastro-Paul, who just before Christmas will get a didactic lesson in the impudence of his character. Instead of the Christmas Spirit that Scrooge brings to his senses, Paul will be judged by his social circle, which in any case scorns his inactiveness ("persecuted by his wife, insulted by his mother-in-law, bewitched by his brother-in-law, spurned by his landlady, Mrs. Stratinan, his landlady"). Monument Hotel Athens With the inspiration of so many sensational writers to guide us, the wonder of the Christmas decorations that surround us each year can be explained quite logically. Fresh Hotel Athens The grace of Andersen's figures, the eeriness of Dickens' Christmas Spirit, and the pagan legends of goblins and other demonic elements that influenced Papadiamantis, as well as shocked our childhood, adorn the trees of festive gatherings and preserve in our hearts the memory but above all the magic of Christmas. Grand Serai Congress & Spa Hotel, Ioannina EVENT NAME: “To πνεύμα των Χριστουγέννων»: Από τα κλασικά παραμύθια στις μεγάλες αίθουσες των ξενοδοχείων CONFERENCE CENTRE: - START DATE: December 22 2023 END DATE: January 4 2023