It has been four months since the devastating fires north of Athens – but burnt trees and destroyed houses still dominate the scenery.

It is here that Nektarios (Aris) Sikounas's restaurant once stood. It's here where he saw his life savings and dreams destroyed by the flames in a matter of hours.

Now he's returned, trying to recreate this year's holiday preparations and everything else in his life from scratch. Like hundreds of other families who live north of Athens, his life was upended by last summer's wildfires, which ripped through the suburb of Varimpompi and burned his restaurant to the ground

"How can I celebrate the holidays without money? Without my business, I can't work. I've been invited to a friend's house, but I don't have the energy. This is the best time for us. During the Christmas break is where we made most of our money, people didn't stop coming – now, nothing. I really don't know if it will be the same. We lost everything. We are in minus [equity], with a lot of expenses and nothing coming in," says Sikounas.

During last summer, multiple fires broke out in Greece, burning thousands of hectares of farmland and pine forest as well as hundreds of houses and forcing the evacuation of thousands.

At its peak, firefighters were called out to some 500 fire fronts in just a few days in Evia, the Peloponnese, in Crete, Rhodes, central and northern Greece and just north of the Greek capital, as the country experienced its worst heatwave in more than three decades – recording temperatures up to 47 degrees Celsius.

In Athens, emergency services faced a race against time to put out the flames as they engulfed residential areas.

But as Sikounas explains, everything happened really fast and he had no time to react.

"The first fire started from up there," he says, pointing. "It even passed the main highway, they couldn't put it out. The second started from the other side and start coming towards the village. The first one was an hour away and the second, about three hours away. 

"Both went out of control and started burning everything in their path. And as that was not enough, a few days later another fire started from the other side of the village and burned everything that was left in our town along this most of the nearby villages. We had no time to do anything, the only thing was to evacuate. The orders were for everyone to be evacuated so no one dies," Sikounas explains emotionally.

North of Athens in Varimpompi, the destruction of the blaze is still visible. There's the smell of burnt wood, burnt houses and burnt businesses. Where once Christmas parties took place, with people drinking and socializing, now there are broken plates and melted glasses. A reminder that this place once had life.

When wildfires began, Greece's Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said: "Houses can be rebuilt, now is the time to save your lives." Four months later, that announcement remains stuck in Sikounas's head and his business remains destroyed.

The holiday season is well under way, but for people like Sikounas who lost all they had, their biggest challenge now is making a holiday among the ashes.

Cover picture: Firefighters battling a fire near Patras on July 31. /AFP/STR/Eurokinissi