Christmas in Spain
It is this time of the year again, and I wish Merry Christmas to everybody. If you ever wonder how we celebrate Christmas in Spain, you better read this post to get a general idea. In general, Christmas in Spain is based more on a religious theme than in many other places. Churches are packed to capacity, day and night. For most Spaniards, there are four main stages to Christmas, starting with Christmas Eve (Nochebuena), followed by Christmas Day, New Years’ Eve and the Feast of the Epiphany when the Three Wise Men arrive to each big, medium and small town in Spain bringing presents for everybody. Christmas in Spain is far less commercial than in the UK. The streets will hang out lights but only the larger stores will go to any great effort to decorate their windows with festive Christmas trees and reindeer. Families do not put out lights outside their homes as they do in the UK, the whole thing is far less “twinkly.” If you hate the commercial side of Christmas in the UK then spending Christmas in Spain is a good choice.
Most Spanish people keep their fingers crossed for a Christmas windfall, courtesy of the world-renowned lottery draw, El Gordo, literally The Fat One. This is a long, drawn-out event that unfolds on the morning of December 22nd. Ticket numbers in a giant drum are matched to balls with millionaire prizes in a smaller drum. The ticketing system allows people to buy fractions and subfractions of different numbers, décimos and participaciones, with increasing chances of a share in the winnings. As the top prizes come out, TV and radio coverage centres on the search for the many winners and for the particular lottery shop where the winning ticket was bought.
Christmas Eve is very much a family affair. The evening may start at home but often ends up with a party in a hotel, club or disco with friends and family. It is likely that every generation of the family is represented. The family Christmas Eve meal is one of the most important meals of the year for a Spanish family and the housewife will be busy preparing the traditional fare. Seafood is high on the list for the meal and prices tend to go through the roof at this time of year. Prawn starters followed by roast lamb would be a typical meal rounded off with a typically Christmas sweet called turrón which is a nougat made of toasted sweet almonds. Another typical festive sweet is called Polvorones which is made from almonds, flour and sugar. Cava, Catalan champagne, would be the chosen drink for the Christmas toast though plenty fine Spanish wines will also be consumed with the meal. At midnight, some people will go to the Midnight Mass at the church. Others may stay at home and open a bottle of champagne to celebrate the birth of Christ. Some children go Carol singing and the youngsters may go to bed whilst the adults go out and party until dawn. Every town and most churches will have a ‘belen’ which is a nativity display. Some of them are very impressive and can cover massive areas. Some are animated and illuminated and draw huge crowds.
Christmas Day is a fiesta day so all banks and shops are closed, probably to recover from the night before. Christmas Day in Spain is one of the quietest of the year. Anyone wanting to eat out on this special day will have to book well in advance. Another large family meal at lunchtime is common though it’s becoming more common to see families eating out on the afternoon of Christmas day.
28th of December is the day of Santos Inocentes (Holy Innocents) and is the equivalent of April Fools’ Day when people play practical jokes on one another. Often the national media will include a nonsense story in their broadcasts. In some villages youngsters of a village light bonfires and one of them acts as the mayor who orders townspeople to carry out civic tasks such as sweeping the streets. Refusal to comply results in fines which are used to pay for the celebration.
New Year’s Eve is known as NocheVieja. It is a big celebration all over the country with street parties and special nights in hotels and clubs everywhere. Until midnight people tend to stay at home and on the stroke of midnight it is traditional to eat 12 grapes, one on each stroke of the clock to bring good luck for the new year. In Madrid and other main cities revellers congregate in the main square and eat the grapes along with a celebratory bottle of cava then head out into the night until after sunrise. Although the chiming of the bells is broadcast on live television throughout Spain, the best thing is to head for the scene of the celebration and take active part in the event. In Spain there is a place that has a special link with this tradition: the clock in Puerta del Sol Square in Madrid. Thousands of people congregate here to see in the year, mainly groups of friends and young people dressed up with hats, party blowers, horns, masks and jokes. There are still many hours of fun ahead. Hotels, pubs, bars and clubs usually hold their own New Year’s Eve parties, where you can dance until dawn.
On 6 January children get their presents from the Three Wise Men. In Spain it is Melchior, Caspar and Balthazar who bring Christmas presents to children who have been good during the year. After writing a letter, in which they tell the Kings which presents they would like, the long-awaited day finally arrives. The Wise Men parade through the streets of cities, towns and villages all over Spain in traditional cavalcades the day before, on January 5th. They arrive on horseback or camel and as the floats go by sweets, rather hard ones usually, are thrown by the children and adults on the floats to all the people lined up on the streets. Children bring cones and bags to fill as the sweets pour or bounce onto the pavements. It is a wonderful 30-45 minutes for the children and afterwards the adults usually go in search of a tapas bar where children are of course welcome ( this is Spain!) and the rest of the evening is passed away merrily. Of all these parades, the one in Alcoi, Alicante, is particularly outstanding - it is Spain’s oldest. When night falls, children go to bed early to wait for Melchior, Caspar and Balthazar to come in through the window and leave presents in their shoes.
