Wondering what Christmas is like in another country? Want to learn in detail about one specific country? As both someone who is living in Spain as well as teaching in Spain for a time, I am learning a lot about how Christmas is celebrated in Spain as well as how it differs from the United States!
In the United States, Christmas is a time for family, food, gifts, and for some, religion. In Spain, Christmas is becoming a holiday with more marketing and presents but the core of the holiday is still about family, friends, and religion. In bigger cities like Barcelona and Madrid, there are a lot of Christmas markets with stalls full of anything you can imagine. It is popular for Spainards to go to bigger cities to see the Christmas markets and do some of their Christmas shopping. These markets are also popular for tourists because of their size as well as beauty. From food, to clothing, toys, to activities like ice skating and Christmas lights, the festivals have it all! The markets have been going on for years and that is what makes them so special.
The above photo is of a street outside of a Christmas Market in Madrid, Spain. Many of the streets in bigger cities in Spain look like the above photo around Christmas time and are crowded with people.
Catholicism is huge in Spain and a lot of the more religious groups and schools spend more of the holiday focusing on the religious aspect. There is a big emphasis on the Three Wise Kings, where people focus on the religious aspect of Christmas in Spain. The story is similar to that in the Little Drummer Boy (a good movie to watch with your children if you want to educate them on the Three Wise Kings) but has Three Wise Kings who follow the star to Bethlehem from the East looking for a newborn king. This is celebrated on January 6th and people spend time at church or with loved ones if they are religious and celebrate the holiday with mass. There are beautiful nativity scenes that can be seen throughout Spain during the holiday season because of this holiday.
I live with a Spanish family that is not religious as well as teach at a non-religious school and we do not focus on the religious aspect of the holiday, but rather on the family aspect. In Spain, eating and food is a huge part of the culture. People spend a lot of time when they eat talking and socializing with their friends. At Christmas typical Spanish food such as meats, cheeses, and vegetables, are eaten with wine of course. Roscon De Rayes is the popular dish that comes along with this holiday as well! It is a cake like desert enjoyed by most. In the schools, there is a lot of education around Santa. As a non religious school, for the younger kids, we have a letter "from Santa" that is read to all of them. The kids love this because they get a elf on the shelf that watches over them to make sure they are good during the holiday season. The elf has them do different task each day like sweep the classroom or help a friend put their jacket on/ The kids learn all about Christmas and the education is not focused on other holidays.
For parents, Spain has “El Gordo” which is the biggest National Lottery in the world that almost everyone chooses to partake in. There are signs everywhere in every city at many stores for the lottery and it is very popular among the population. This is drawn every year on December 22nd.
In Catalonia where I live, there is a tradition with a log that is popular called the Caga Tio which means (poo log). This tradition is popular because children put a blanket over a huge log and "feed" it sweets and different vegetables. Around Christmas they get to whack the stick and sing a song and sweets or gifts will come out of it. The kids think it is funny because the log "poops" out the treats. This is a different tradition but fun for children because of how silly it is.
Keep checking this article for more on how Christmas is celebrated in Spain throughout the holiday season!
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