María is a sixteen-year-old teenager who has finished the first term of the school year with very good grades. Christmas is just around the corner, but the presents have not been what they used to be for a while now; in fact, nothing is like it was before, when she was little.
At this moment, María is in her room, thinking about all this and also about how she could spend her Christmas holidays. Suddenly, an idea occurs to her. Her uncles from Madrid are coming to have dinner on Christmas Eve and to eat with them on Christmas. When they leave, she could go with them to Madrid and with her cousins ​​for a few days, so she would get a change of scenery and get a break from the daily routine of the village.
After talking to her parents and getting her uncles to agree, she packed her suitcase with great excitement knowing that she was going to spend some unforgettable days enjoying the little ones.
When she was already in Madrid, her uncles told her that they had thought about going to the centre one day for a walk and taking advantage of the opportunity to see the Christmas lights and the Cortylandia puppet show. “Cortylandia, what is that?” thought María. It didn’t seem like much to her; the name was very strange, and she wasn’t sure she would like it, especially since it was about puppets, which is for babies!
On the appointed day, they took the metro to get to their destination. The little girls were already enjoying the trip, very excited to be with María. After the walk, seeing a thousand things and an invitation to have chocolate with churros, they headed off to the show. When they arrived, María was surprised to see so many people, adults and children, waiting to see her and there was still a little more than half an hour left, according to her uncle, before it started.

Cortylandia turns out to be a show that occupies the façade at the back of the Corte Inglés in Preciados, which is entered through Maestro Victoria Street. The production, adorned with music and colour, is inspired each year by different characters who tell you a short story, about fifteen minutes long, about how they live Christmas according to their place of origin. Maria thought it was very nice; her uncles also told her that even a few years ago Cortylandia paid homage to various events, such as the biblical story, children's films, historical episodes, ancient civilisations, literary classics and even feature films that were box office hits.
All the children who have the opportunity to enjoy Cortylandia (and those not so young too), have their faces lit up with the performance of these endearing characters: they smile, their mouths are open and everyone's eyes are wide open, including her cousins, who encouraged Maria to participate in the performance.
Maria understood that Christmas is a time of joy and a lot of happiness that, even when you get older, there is always that little bit of hope left. Christmas is found everywhere and in every person in the world, and we must not only remember it when December approaches, we must know that it can be found in each and every one of our hearts during the 365 days of the year, and Mary will always remember that.