How We Holiday in Spain

Happy New Year 2018! It's a time for new beginnings and resolutions. One of my recurrent resolutions is to travel and explore as much as possible so I hope that you'll stay with me in 2018 and that we share our adventures.
Some of you asked to see how we celebrate Christmas in Spain so today I'm showing you a recap of my holidays. As you'll see, it's not that different from what other countries do but there are a few curiosities you may not know about.

It all starts with the biggest lottery event of the year on the 22nd of December. Getting Christmas lottery is a huge tradition and some people start buying tickets during summer. Places like companies, schools or bars have a number that they buy every year so if you work in one of those places you are bound to get at least one ticket because no-one wants to be the loser.

The next big event is dinner on Christmas Eve. We travel to visit our families, eat traditional Spanish food, catch up with the family, sing Christmas carols, play games and we even hold a raffle which is so much fun! The dinner consists of a few appetizers that are similar to assorted tapas and also seafood, then we have a main dish which can be lamb or turkey. Finally, my favorite part: dessert. Spanish traditional Christmas sweets have two essential ingredients, almonds and honey.

If you ask me there's no Christmas without a hot chocolate. It can be for breakfast, afternoon snack or dinner. Churros or pastries are our favorite things to dunk.

On New Year's Eve we cook a dinner that's pretty similar to the one on Christmas Eve. Then, we eat the 12 lucky grapes. You won't be familiar with this tradition unless you've spent Christmas holidays in Spain. After the NYE dinner, we eat 12 grapes as the clock strikes midnight. It is believed that whoever eats their 12 grapes as the bells chime (one for each of the twelve chimes) will have a lucky and prosperous year. And let me tell you something, this is not an easy task!

El Roscón and The Three Wise Men
You may wonder "where's Santa Claus?" Well, we do have Papá Noel and he stops at most houses these days (he didn't when I was a kid) but in Spain the tradition is that The Three Wise Men are the ones who leave presents under the Christmas tree on the night of January 5th. In many houses both of them bring presents, in some Santa Claus is preferred since it allows children to play with their presents during the whole Christmas break. It actually depends on each family.

Winter sales start the day after The Three Wise Men leave. Those cunning shop owners... Shoppers looking for the best deals are mixed with those returning failed presents. So shops are pretty packed on this day.

How did you spend the holidays?
xo Cristina

ENTERTAINING ESSENTIALS