The Holiday of Holidays, Haifa – Visitors Guide

The Holiday of Holidays in Haifa is an annual festival in December. Most celebrations happen at the German Colony and Wadi Nisnas.

Tips

Here are several essential tips you should know before visiting:

• Do not drive to Sderot Ben Gurion. Usually, there are traffic jams in the area, especially on weekends. Thus, you have several options:
  • Park nearby – I typically search for parking in the area (walking distance of 10 – 15 minutes) without driving through Sderot Ben Gurion. Thus, if you are arriving from the center, look for parking west of the German Colony.
  • Park further away and use public transport – you can park near one of the Metronit stations and use it to reach the German Colony.
  • On weekdays you can use the train. Haifa Center – HaShmona station is located nearby (less than 1km away).
• Check the weather – since you will be mostly outside during your visit, verify there will be no rain. It started raining on one of our visits, and we had to terminate our trip.
• Tours – if you are interested, you can join various tours and activities for additional fees. But since they are popular, book in advance (preferably several weeks in advance). And if you are looking for additional activities, check out the guide to Wadi Nisnas.

Note: for some reason, Israeli train does not allow to enter with balloons. Thus, if you arrive by train, do not purchase balloons with lights for kids. When they took away our balloon, they already had a dozen other balloons with lights.

About the Festival

This festival started in 1993 and was celebrated for three weekends in December. This festival aims to show the character of Haifa, a city with a mixed population and different faiths, and promote coexistence and tolerance among them.

The festival’s name expresses the intention to mark the religious holidays that apply in December (and next to it): Hanukkah, Christmas, Ramadan, and Eid al-Fitr.

Note: full timetables and additional information can be found at the official site.

Map

The celebrations occur at The German Colony (mainly Sderot Ben Gurion) and Wadi Nisnas.

Directions for drivers: Link to Waze and Link to Google Maps
Directions for public transport: Link to Moovit

Interactive map of the area:

In the following sections, you can see my photos and impressions.

German Colony During Celebrations – 2014

The main attractions in Haifa downtown usually include music concerts, street artists, children’s theater, exhibitions, antique fairs, and tours. But this year, besides the regular attractions, there was something additional.

Decorations

Uri Blum, project manager of the Haifa municipality, was responsible for setting up the lighting. Uri said the display construction lasted about two weeks and included more than a mile of cords and twinkling wire lights.

“We used 800 meters of Garland, and the central tree has about 300 meters of cable with LED bulbs,” he says. “Also, there are about 50 meters of LED teardrop-shaped and ten curtains, the length of each ten meters”.

Note: all quotes were taken from the official site.

Along the avenue, almost forty different elements of lighting were established. Since the lighting installation, thousands of visitors have come to the street, and the flow will increase, especially in the evening – Christmas Eve – New Year’s Eve.

Lights will remain on the street until after the New Year, and the infrastructure will stay in place to establish additional lighting displays for the future. Next year, Haifa Municipality promises that the project will be extended to nearby streets and other areas in the city.

Here are several photos:

One interesting thing that I noticed, there is no Santa Claus, but there are many reindeer.

Summary – 2014

Compared to Christmas celebrations around the world, the holiday of holidays contains a small installation. But it is a big one for Israel. In Israel, Christmas was ignored for many years on a religious basis. And for many Israelis, it is still hard to accept that many Jews celebrate New Year without any religious context (Jewish Calendar is based on the moon movement, but in Israel, the Gregorian calendar is the standard one).

Hopefully, Haifa municipality will keep its promise, and this event will grow. After all, The Holiday of Holidays is a beautiful event and supports local businesses.

Sderot Ben Gurion – 2015

We did not plan to visit any special events held during the Holidays in Haifa. Instead, we planned to walk through the German Colony and get a festive feeling.

We arrived before sunset to check what was there. Here is a view of Sderot Ben Gurion:

You can see a big Christmas tree and dove Chanukiah at the junction of Sderot HaMeginim and Sderot Ben Gurion.

Parking and Traffic

Since you can see heavy traffic in the photo above, let me refer to this subject. First, if you are looking for parking, there will be none on Sderot Ben Gurion (unless you are fortunate). Look for parking in the surrounding neighborhoods. We were able to find parking within a five-minute walk distance. Secondly, if you do not have to, try to avoid driving through Sderot Ben Gurion altogether.

Why is there such heavy traffic? Many drivers stop their cars, get their phones out, and start taking pictures. I even saw somebody sticking his cell phone through the sunroof to get photos.

As long we are on the traffic subject. Since it is barely moving and there are many people and not enough space, I think Haifa municipality should consider closing Sderot Ben Gurion for traffic during tourist peak hours. It is also worth mentioning that we were there on Saturday, probably the busiest day.

Food and Decorations Stalls

And with such crowds, you would think there would be many additional stores. Well, no. Meet the only items seller on Sderot Ben Gurion:

And what about food stands? Also, one. Total disappointment.