Spain at Christmas-New Years
 

We will be in Spain from 19 December to 3 January and are trying to plan our itinerary with attention to Christmas Eve and Day and New Years Eve and Day.
One of our party will be flying out of MAD mid-day on 26 December so we need to be able to get her to the airport that morning.
Where in the basic area around Madrid would it make most sense for us to stay the nights of 24 & 25 December?
Will there be any sites open those days?
Will trains be operating the afternoon of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day?

In general Spain closes down from around middayish on the 24th until the morning of the 26th.
There can be exceptions to this.
So to plan ensure you can get breakfast at your hotel, ensure you have somewhere booked up for other meals. Ensure you are "dressed up" for the other meals.
The same goes for NYE; except the dates will change ;-)

Sorry forget about the metro.
I can only find something about last years service schedule.
http://www.metromadrid.es/es/comunic...noticia09.html
Hopefully that will give you something to base your plans on.
You could of course write to the tourism office to see what is happening http://www.esmadrid.com/en

Christmas in Madrid: http://whattodoinmadrid.com/blog/thi...rid-christmas/

Or take a look at close by and small Alcala de Henares, Cervantes birth town and on the UNESCO world heritage list. Lots of christmas info here: http://www.alcalanow.com/christmas-alcala/

The metro will be running normally on Christmas Eve, but the schedule changes somewhat on Christmas Day.

You can order a taxi to take you to the airport on the 26th. The fee is fixed at 30€ to Terminal T1 and T4.

We were considering staying in Toledo the nights of 24 & 25 December and getting our daughter to MAD the morning of the 26th from there.
Does that make sense?
Will there be enough to do around Toledo on Christmas Day -- if only interesting walking? Church services (or is that all done as Midnight Mass?)?
Alcala does sound interesting--how difficult is it to get to MAD from there without a car?

<Alcala does sound interesting--how difficult is it to get to MAD from there without a car?>

Trains from Alcalá de Henares to Madrid Atocha train station every ten-twelve minutes. Takes some 40 mins.
"Alcalá una experiencia unica":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tp8pe9A-vUg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlT9cFaqs0I

The world's first planned university city: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlT9cFaqs0I

Please read my post which says that things in Spain basically close down. The larger the city the more chance you have of a restaurant being open, maybe you have to eat in your hotel. So stay in Madrid is going to be your best bet to have some sort of entertainment.