{"id":36981,"date":"2012-11-29T16:56:09","date_gmt":"2012-11-29T16:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/?p=36981"},"modified":"2012-11-29T17:11:12","modified_gmt":"2012-11-29T17:11:12","slug":"simon-raises-a-toast-to-scotlands-winter-festivals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/simon-raises-a-toast-to-scotlands-winter-festivals\/","title":{"rendered":"SIMON RAISES A TOAST TO SCOTLAND\u2019S WINTER FESTIVALS"},"content":{"rendered":"

St. Andrew\u2019s Day marks the start of Scotland\u2019s Winter Festivals<\/p>\n

30th November 2012 marks the launch of Scotland\u2019s Winter Festivals – a three month season of celebrations starting with Scotland\u2019s National Day, St. Andrew\u2019s Day on November 30 and includes Christmas, Hogmanay and Burns Night. Scotland\u2019s Winter Festivals will give visitors from Northern Ireland the opportunity to enjoy some of the most spectacular cultural festivities and events ever staged in the Year of Creative Scotland 2012.<\/p>\n

Malcolm Roughead, Chief Executive of VisitScotland, said: \u201cWinter is a particularly exciting time for visitors to Scotland. Starting with St. Andrew\u2019s Day celebrations, Scotland has planned a three month extravaganza which includes some wonderful Christmas treats, our lavish and internationally renowned Hogmanay celebrations as well as a mass of events in tribute and celebration of Scotland\u2019s national poet \u2013 Robert Burns.<\/p>\n

“From sparkling Christmas fun, street theatre and legendary street parties to torchlight processions, fireworks and live music, Scotland is ready to give a very warm welcome to visitors from across Northern Ireland and beyond to enjoy the very best of Scotland\u2019s culture.”<\/p>\n

To celebrate St. Andrew\u2019s Day, Glasgow will host events throughout the weekend of November 30 including a film event and concert, outdoor ceilidh and live cookery demonstrations as well as arts and crafts, storytelling and street theatre.<\/p>\n

Scotland\u2019s Winter Festivals will also see Edinburgh host a variety of markets including a Traditional German Christmas Market; Traditional Highland Village Christmas Market; The Real Scottish Christmas Fair; The Ethical Christmas Fair; and Edinburgh\u2019s Farmers Markets throughout December while Princes Street Gardens in the city will be home to The Big Wheel and Ice Rinks for everyone to enjoy. <\/p>\n

Scotland is also home to some of the most magical winter experiences for children including the chance to visit the UK\u2019s only free roaming reindeer herd at the Cairngorm Reindeer Centre, and having the chance to see Walker and Arktos, the UK\u2019s only pair of polar bears at the Highland Wildlife Park in Kingussie in the Scottish Highlands. <\/p>\n

To help visitors plan and enjoy as much as possible, visitor attractions and cultural organisations across the country will also be taking part in Visit for Free \u2013 an initiative allowing people to enjoy free access or discounted tickets on the weekend of 30 November \u2013 2 December. For other Christmas events and information on Scotland\u2019s Winter Festivals and to book your trip to Scotland please visit www.visitscotland.com\/surprise<\/a> <\/p>\n

For a full list of Scotland\u2019s Winter Festival events please visit www.scotland.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

St. Andrew\u2019s Day marks the start of Scotland\u2019s Winter Festivals 30th November 2012 marks the launch of Scotland\u2019s Winter Festivals – a three month season of celebrations starting with Scotland\u2019s National Day, St. Andrew\u2019s Day on November 30 and includes Christmas, Hogmanay and Burns Night. Scotland\u2019s Winter Festivals will give visitors from Northern Ireland the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11378],"tags":[11381,11380,5686,11379,10924],"class_list":["post-36981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-scotland-2","tag-festivals","tag-scotlands","tag-simon","tag-toast","tag-winter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36981"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36981\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36989,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36981\/revisions\/36989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intouchrugby.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}