Are you looking forward to Christmas?

Are you looking forward to Christmas?
 

Is this a correct translation: "Estás esperando la Navidad con anticipación?" ?

Commonly you will hear ¿Estás esperando la navidad? If you're really panting for it, you may use ansiar instead of esperar.

Thanks for the response , poli. Hmmm, I wonder why my dictionary translates "looking forward to" as "esperar con ilusión/anciosamente/con anticipación" then, if people don't say this!

I have to say, I often get the feeling that dictionaries give translations that aren't very colloquial, to say the least. I wonder why that is. What is the point of learning a translation that might be correct in the purest form perhaps, but a form that nobody actually uses in day-to-day speech?! Seems kind of stupid to me!

Do Spanish speaking people actually use the combinations I have written above or does that sound too "formal" or something like that?

I don't think the dictionary gave you bad advise, but the info they give is less ambiguous than it needs to be in common speech where inflection plays a role. As far as I know, to look forward to is a term that really doesn't translate completely to Spanish, but remember esperar means to hope as well as to wait. Wishful hoping seems close to looking forward to something.

'Anhelar' is also very popular.

"Con anticipación" means before its natural time.

But I think people I know would ask:

- ¿Te hace ilusión la Navidad?
- ¿Esperas con ilusión/fe/emoción la Navidad?
- ¿No te emociona la Navidad?
- ¿No quisieras que ya llegue la Navidad?
- ¿Verdad que ya queremos que llegue la Navidad?
...


"Anhelar" is a good option, but for me the wish must be a very strong emotion to merit such verb. :)