Christmas in Spain
Christmas in Spain starts in the New Year so if you are planning to go and spend Christmas in Spain make sure that your flights don’t return until the 6th or 7th January. In Spain the traditional day for celebrating is not the 25th of December but the evening of January 5th when the Three Kings visit homes throughout Spain and leave presents for the children in the fireplace. The 25th December is a public holiday and so there are still celebrations but nothing as fun and communal as the celebrations on the 5th January. Papa Noel will now visit some children as the idea has been imported and children have caught on that this can mean double presents!! However the main gifts are given in the New Year. If you cannot stay in Spain until then, you will miss out on the major part of Christmas here in Spain.
On January 5th as it begins to get dark each town and village will have a major procession going through it and all the children line up to watch the arrival of the Three Kings. The Three Kings 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 bounce onto the pavements. It is a happy 30-45 minutes for the children and afterwards families usually go in search of a tapas bar, where children are of course welcome, as children always are in Spain, and the rest of the evening is passed away merrily.
The 6th January is a public holiday and the Spanish have a feast of seafood, ham and a traditional cake made of almonds, sugar, flour and turron. The children will open up their gifts that the Three Kings left for them the night before.
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 or decorate them 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. You can buy Christmas trees but they are artificial.
Toys, Crackers,Christmas cards, mince pies, Christmas cake, turkey, baby sausages, festive paper, real Christmas trees are all difficult to find here in Spain. If they are important to you bring what you can over with you. If you are staying near Gibraltar, on the Costa del Sol then you can always drive over there, from Marbella it takes around 40 minutes, ( don’t forget your passport) and stock up on toys and food treats at the supermarket there. Iceland in Fuengirola also sells more traditional Christmas food if you are from the UK. You will find some Spanish supermarkets sell turkey and mince pies, but only in areas that have a high proportion of ex-pats living there. Better to be on the safe side and pack a few extra treats in your suitcase.