Travel with Friends has been very lucky (actually, so have you!) to find a webmaster who is as passionate about Corfu and our favourite places as we are!

You are lucky because he won’t let us put our feet up and relax, which is what we like to do in winter. He is a hard slave driver and says you all want more news, such as what happens in Corfu in winter. Prompted by questions from one of our regular visitors to Acharavi it made us look around and see what news we can give you.

We confess that Kaminaki and Ag Stefanos hibernate in winter so there really is nothing to report there. Residents of the villages that do close down in winter mostly go to Corfu town or Acharavi for their entertainment and night life.

There are now quite a few tavernas all over the island that open at a weekend, so a new tradition has formed of taking the family to mountain taverna for some fresh air and wander together with some lovely local food and wine.

In Strinillas the taverna under the Elm Tree is a favourite haunt and those of you who are summer visitors may find it hard to imagine how cosy it is with a huge log fire burning!

Old Perithia has a couple of places open, Foros (featured by Rick Stein) and has a little wood burning stove to keep us all warm, and Oginistra is also warm and cosy.

Their winter menus are inclines to feature game such as wild boar and deer.

It is always lovely to eat by the sea, with its constantly changing winter face, sometimes grey and threatening with wild waves, often quiet and languid, a clear blue reflecting the day time sun, which is often warm enough to enjoy outside.

The fast food joints like Sabor and souvlaki shops like Filaraki are open everyday too. The trendy music bars, Versus, Alter Ego, Fuego, and revamped again Vento’s are packed all weekend though it still amazes me that no one goes out before 1am and then stay out till dawn!

All the big supermarkets, and clothes shops, Atrapos, and even the new fur shop on the main road stay open in winter. This year too has seen some gift shops stay open too, Natura, at the pump and Panayiotis and Nikos south american shop next to the Alpha bank. We don’t need to trek into Corfu town for much these days and many people come from surrounding villages to shop in Acharavi to avoid Corfu town where even in winter it is impossible to find anywhere to park!

Roda has its share of social life as many of the English businesses are open, the Bulldog, Casanovas and Pirates bar… sorry for any omissions!

November saw a lot of rain which was much needed after a very long hot dry summer.

This winter, mid December briefly gave us a taste of a Victorian winter scene as it snowed hard for an hour coating the mountains with white icing. Locals rushed to see it and build snowmen which they then stick on the bonnet of their car! What is about snow that causes such excitement?

People often ask if Corfiots celebrate Christmas. They do indeed, though Easter remains the most important religious festival and New Year is a time for much feasting.

BUT Christmas stays in the month it is celebrated. You will rarely see anything Christmassy before 1^st December, perhaps only in a big supermarket like Lidls. Christmas is marked by a family feast which will also include Turkey.

They usually have avgo lemono (egg and lemon) soup made with part of the Turkey. It is rather filling but delicious. Tradionionally Corfiots would decorate a boat or caique with lights at Christmas, though years ago, before commercially grown Christmas trees, or plastic one arrived, they would also go out into the countryside and cut down a small Cypress tree and decorate it.

Corfu town has a magical atmosphere, and is beautifully decorated with lights in all the trees lining the main street. On Christmas Eve children visit all the houses and businesses saying; Na Ta poume? Can we sing it? And sing their Christmas Eve carol usually behind a closed door; the door is then opened to give them their (cash) reward.

Now some of the commercial spirit of Christmas has wholeheartedly been embraced, though not yet the manic Christmas shopping of Northern Europe. Many houses are so completely covered with Christmas lights and Santas climbing ladders that I often wonder if Corfu must look like Las Vegas from space! Greece’s gift giving tradition is the story of Ag (Saint) Vassilis; a man from Asia minor who was sainted for his good works with the poor, he used to distribute presents among the poor on New years eve. Children again sing carols anticipating his coming, and collecting money. Christmas is profitable time of year for children, as on New years day their God parents will give them a Strina, a cash gift.

Ag Vassilis saints day is New Year’s Day, the day when a special cake, a Vassiliopitta, is baked with a charm buried in it heralding good fortune in the year to come to he who finds it in his piece. Anyone with bearing his name; Vassilios or Vassiliki celebrates this day.

On 6^th January, the Fota, Epiphania, every house will be visited and blessed by the local priest who sprinkles holy water through the house with a sprig of rosemary.

Winter is the time for picking the olive crop which is at its height now. It’s also the time for citrus fruit, the orange and lemon trees are heavy with juicy fruit.

January will see the first splashes of colour as the Almond trees start to blossom. People used to seeing Corfu dry and dusty in summer will be surprised to see the lush green hillsides. Many trees are evergreen such as the olive and Cypresses, and the deciduous trees higher up the mountains put on a lovely show of colour of yellows copper and gold before finally dropping their leaves.

Those of us involved in tourism take this time to relax and recover from the busy summer season and start to plan for the next. It is a time when we look around and remember why it we like living here.

We immerse ourselves in a Greek life that gets put on hold all summer; we socialize a lot around large dining tables with lots of friendly competing for who made the best wine! 

Winter has many name days to celebrate like the big one on 12^th December for any one called after our patron saint Spiridon, also big are Andreas on 30^th November, Nikolaos on 6^th December, and Yiannis on 7^th January, these involve more eating drinking and present giving.

The island has a hardy following of people who swim all year round ( I don’t) but we all take great pleasure in the sunny days where we can walk or sometimes take the children for beach picnics.