Christmas in Nazareth

Christmas in Nazareth! Dreaming about a sunny Christmas? In Nazareth you can find unique holly places such as the Basilica of the Annunciation, local markets and shopping, all with the Holliday atmosphere. The temperature in December in Nazareth is around the 60^th!

Plan your next Christmas in Israel with 300 days of sun and temperatures. We visited Nazareth to see how it feels in Nazareth when Christmas is approaching – and it feels wonderful!

We started our tour at Nazareth Halva. A family owned candy factory. They produce here Tahini, Halva, and candy for four generations. They import the sesame from Ethiopia. You can take a look around and see the factory in action, the big bags of sesame, the production line and ovens, smell and taste and of course buy. 

Our next stop was Mary’s Well. The well itself is located in Church, 100 meters near the famous square, and is circulated to the square. This church was demolished and reconstructed a few times. It is very small but beautiful! The walls are painted with blue, white and gold paintings, the chandeliers are fantastic so don’t forget to look above! And there are many beautiful paintings. 

From Mary’s well we continued to a famous square (Al Mutran) in which there are old buildings with unique architecture of balconies and oval shaped windows. The square has always been the place of guesthouses and still is. 

We continued to the market. Nazareth’s market is very famous. The market entrance leads to the Basilica of Annunciation. This is where Mary’s house was. This is where she got the news that she is bearing the son of god.

This is the market entrance 

This is the Basilica of Annunciation 

The Church is impressive, the style is Italian, and it somehow reminds me of the Metropolitan Church in Liverpool – both has similar shape of the dome and the polls.

In the main hall, on the side walls there are mosaic pictures donated from all around the world. In the center there is a mosaic in which Jesus, Petrus, and Mary appear. There are also two keys to heaven just like in the Vatican flag. Notice the polls are bare, in January 4, 1794, the pope visited here and asked that they be left bare and not decorated. 

The second part of this church is the lower part. It is accessed via a staircase. In a wide hall the cave is located – it is the house of Mary.

 Outside, on the church’s ground there are excavations of the ancient Nazaret – Mary’s village. There is also a nice area with exhibits such as Mary’s statue. 

Going downtown from church into town there are souvenirs shops, you can buy there Jesus’ sandals. 

Talking about shopping, we ended the tour at Big Fashion mall. Not only because we wanted to shop, also because this mall is beautiful. The relatively new mall is beautifully decorated and houses all the best fashion stores. You felt Christmas in Nazareth here! 

The mall offers Christmas stores “Santa House”, and activities with Santa Claus for the whole family. 

The well decorated restaurants also offer the seasons’ delicatessens. We had a Christmas feast there and the food and service was wonderful. They even made a demonstration of the making of a local treat – Kenfe. 

Big Fashion mall is open 7 days a week and all the holidays are celebrated – Christian, Jewish and Muslim!