Christmas in Spain

 

Christmas in Spain

Christmas is different where I live. For a start, it’s nowhere near as important. Christmas Day is celebrated just like any other bank holiday. The whole family, including grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins, goes to an eating place, usually out in the country, and shares a leisurely lunch. Large wayside inns – or posadas – are scattered through the countryside, mostly deserted during the week, but bursting at the seams on Sundays and holidays with jolly Spaniards having a good time. And on Christmas Day they are probably eating fish.

The big night for the grown-ups is New Year’s Eve.

          Anyone who turns up at the village hall is 

regaled with a glass of cava and a party bag full of streamers, poppers and those squeaker things. Also, most importantly, twelve grapes. On the stroke of midnight everyone attempts to eat all twelve before the last chime. (I have never succeeded in doing this. It’s harder than you think.) Then, unless you are still choking on the grapes, you drink the cava, unleash the streamers, etc. and make your way outside to watch a firework display of such magnificence that you wonder how on earth a tiny Spanish village can afford it. The thing is, in this part of Spain, parties are much more important than public amenities.

“But what about the children?” I hear you ask. “Christmas is supposed to be for the children.” The children have their day but it’s not Christmas Day, it’s Epiphany and it’s not Santa Claus who brings the presents but the Three Kings.

On the night of January 5^th the Three Kings ride into the village on gaily caparisoned mules, each accompanied by his assistant, throwing sweets into the crowd.

When they reach the village square, the cavalcade halts and the Kings dismount and take up their position on the steps. One by one, an assistant brings forth a parcel and a child’s name is read out, Amazingly, the Kings manage to provide every single child with a gift. How do they know?

As you might imagine the whole process is far less tedious than the queue for Santa Claus, since there are three magical beings handing over the gifts rather than just the one.

The whole thing is much more exciting, somehow, than my children’s annual visit to Santa Claus’s grotto in Lewis’s.

Of course, they’re not the real Kings, the real Kings come during the night when the children are asleep. In the olden days, the children used to leave their shoes outside the door and in the morning they found them stuffed with presents. Nowadays I doubt the amount of presents they get would fit in a child’s shoe. 

 

 In recent years there have been attempts at a Santa Claus takeover which mainly take the form of stuffed Santa Claus dummies artfully arranged to look as if they are climbing over the balconies of apartment buildings. Unfortunately, they give the impression of bizarrely-dressed burglars, rather than bringers of gifts. Somehow I don’t think it’s going to catch on. 

 

Book News:

If you are stumped for something to read, or indeed listen to over Christmas, here are some suggestions.

Six Tales of Christmas –

six heart-warming stories, now available not only in Kindle form and paperback, but as an audio book, narrated by the wonderful Jan McNamara. Don’t forget, if you already have a Kindle copy, you can get the audio for only £2.99.

The Christmas Present and Pumpkin – two heart-warming Christmas stories from Lynette Sofras. Of especial interest to cat lovers.

The Cottage at the End of the World

– dystopian novel only heart-warming in parts. Available as Kindle, paperback, hardback and now just launched as an audio with Jan McNamara. You can add audio to your existing Kindle copy for only £3.47.

Ballard – delicious first novel from Sara Reed.

 

Happy Christmas, one and all.

And happy reading

 

Love

Jenny

xxxxx

 

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