We are about to celebrate a new Christmas season, a sure sign that marks the end of a period in which we make a balance in a conscious or unconscious manner. We also plan a roadmap detailing our way during the coming year. Christmas comes every year and will come forever. Our Christmas season brings memories and old customs by the hand of our traditions.
Under the name of Christmas season in Sitges, this year we will celebrate holidays with more activities and ideas than ever. We will combine traditional and innovative proposals, thanks to the drive shown by our people, organizations and groups. During our Christmas season, we want to share, live and make live more than ever. And aside from all intimate and familiar moments planned by each of us, we must reserve space and time for collective enjoyment.
Once again, the organizations prepare their traditional events. Prado, Retiro and Agrupació de Balls Popular, Association of Popular Dances in English, is ready to organize their "quintos", a name that designates popular bingos. Once again, we will enjoy the elaborate work of our manger makers at the exhibition at Palau del Rei Moro. We will enjoy many and varied Christmas Carols in different parts of Sitges, where we will also have the opportunity to discover mangers in those areas that are part of our Christmas memory year after year, and that are faithful to the tradition of assembling mangers.
Christmas season will also mark the anniversary of another recreational event for children; Christmas Park will reach its twentieth edition.
But before all this happens, Sitges is already immersed in the Christmas spirit thanks to our shops. Shop owners are the first to announce Christmas at the beginning of December; they announce the arrival of a very special season. Shopkeepers do their best to transform their stores into magical places. This year we enjoyed Fira de Santa Llúcia again, but beyond another traditional event in the Christmas schedule, we need to value the work done by the shopkeepers that organized a new edition of Botiga al Carrer, Shops out in the Streets. The event initiated by shopkeepers from Jesus Street and Cap de la Vila square has grown in each of the recent editions. This year, residents and visitors were able to enjoy street shopping thanks to downtown shops, but also from shops in Sant Pau and Major Streets that joined the event. During more than two days, our shopkeepers took their products out on the streets. But now, we must remember that we also have to visit shops. Surely, the experience of sharing a purchase in a little shop is especially rewarding, and we all share responsibility when it comes to the maintenance of local businesses. There is no doubt that some will find holiday shopping online very convenient, others prefer to spend a hectic day in a mall, but real gifts are those you pursue from one store to the other, those that allow you to talk with shopkeepers and enjoy the shopping experience beyond taking some object home..
Such a peculiarity, I am referring to the sensation that something special is going on during our Christmas season is what we must transmit to children. No matter if they are grown or young kids, they are the ones that will experience an authentic experience. We must do whatever possible, regardless of family circumstances, to make all children enjoy our Christmas season. In that respect, Sitges has shown more generosity than ever. The groups engaged in charitable activities during years to insure the happiness of children, have been joined by several social organizations, most of them under the umbrella of the Board of the Third Sector. All have the same aim: reduce the effects of a crisis still raging our economy, and that I hope that will disappear with the last stroke of 2013.
Whatever the intensity of our longing for our Christmas season, everyone, even those that abhor Christmas, will be compelled either as individual or as a group to make a balance and face the future in an intimate or collective manner.
The City Council also aims for shared goals that we are now tracing thanks to the approval of municipal accounts for the coming year. The approval of the budget will trace the path for a year for which I have the firm conviction that will be better than the one we are about to leave. And it will be so because we achieved a large part of our goals. And now that we already walked the hardest part of the trek, I want to take advantage of this opportunity to thank all the citizens. I want to thank you for all your work during our most difficult moments. I want to thanks all those who understood that the task of recovery had to be a collective effort, and to those that did not share such idea. I want to give my sincerest thanks to all political representatives that gave preference to responsibility and to a constructive vision over other goals. 2014 should be a very important year for Sitges and the country. Next year will dispel doubts about our future, a future in democracy and in freedom.
I wish a new year laden with good times. For those who are not among us, we will keep on devoting all our efforts and hope. I renew my commitment to work with the highest dose of illusion that alongside rigor, will take us to a better year.
I wish you Merry Christmas and Happy 2014.
