Christmas Lights in Belo Horizonte

The Palácio da Liberdade lit up in Christmas green light

After the sun went down and the sky was dark (and the Brazil game in the World Cup had ended), it was time to return to Praça da Liberdade to see how the Christmas lights looked.

Spectacular!

I haven't seen a lot of large, festive Christmas light displays so far in Brazil, but they have delivered in Belo Horizonte, at least in this park.

The place was fairly crowded, mostly with families with children.

The Santa photo spot is always popular. But this Santa was artificial, just a Santa-mannequin.

Unlike this Santa just quietly sitting there:

I'm guessing the above Santa was freelancing, posing for pictures with kids, since he's not in some brightly-lit display case with elf assistants to keep the line of children moving.

Some of the light displays were for viewing:

But some were for walking through.

Take your pick.

I pick green.

A church made of light:

I thought at first that this was supposed to be some Christmas gingerbread-house looking building of light, but with the cross on top, it's clearly a church, with the two bell towers. It was a popular photo spot.

The fountains, however, were the most spectacular part of the display.

The lights kept changing color, which added to the awesome-cality.

Yes, it looked so cool it deserved a new word to describe it. Awesome-cality.

Now they're blue.

Or, if you prefer, a lighter blue:

That shade of blue is more for our Jewish friends celebrating Hanukkah this time of year. Nothing wrong with inclusivity.

There was carnival food to be bought there, but nothing that I would've considered traditional "Christmas fare". No roasted chestnuts. No fresh-based snickerdoodles. No hot chocolate. I am guessing this may be due, at least in part, to Christmas falling in the summertime down here below the equator. Who wants a hot rum punch, or even a peppermint-infused hot chocolate, on a summer night?

For dinner, I went to a nearby German (ish) restaurant: Alamanaque.

I ordered the schnitzel and the darkest beer on the menu.

Latin American countries really are not into dark beers. The darkest beer was a pale ale. That's how little Brazil is into dark beer. The schnitzel with a side order of garlic rice (very garlicky) (I approve) was tasty and very filling.