I'm not a religious person - but I become a full blown Catholic granny around Christmas time. It's my favorite holiday; everything is jolly and sparkly and sugary - three of my favorite adjectives!



Lucky for me, Dublin is currently BURSTING with festivity -  Christmas is (unsurprisingly) a very big deal over here. While I will say America definitely has Ireland beat in terms of home Christmas lights (they're virtually non-existent over here) the lights and decorations around the city are absolutely spectacular.  I took myself on a photo safari after work one day last week so I could share the beauty that is Dublin town:




I remember seeing pictures of the chandeliers on Tumblr years ago and thinking how I hoped I'd be able to see something like them one day. I had no idea where the Tumblr photos were taken, so naturally my first Christmas time in Dublin (2012, during my backpacking travels) left me floored when I turned onto Grafton Street and saw them in all their glory!


'Nollaig Shona Duit' means 'Happy Christmas' in Irish, for anyone who was staring at this thinking "lol wut" 


                       



(One of my favorite shop windows) 



(Okay, these aren't Christmas lights, they're in this cafe all year round. But I felt compelled to include them! RAINBOW!) 


As if the outside weren't beautiful enough, most of the shops have brought their festive decor indoors as well: 





I'm currently back home to San Francisco for Christmas! I've got 17 days to bask in the glory of cable television, sunshine, & my Mom's cooking (three things I'm seriously lacking here in Ireland.) I have a frighteningly large list on my phone of all the things I want to do while I'm home. Real talk - most of them are food related, but I do want to tackle my favorite hikes and make sure I have as many reunions with old friends as humanly possible!

In terms of festivities, I'm thinking I'm going to try to check off everything on my Christmas Activity Guide - I've already done #4 & #6! You can head on over to my Instagram to see what I end up getting up to!