48 Fun Facts About Spanish Christmas

What is the Spanish name for Christmas Eve, the night of the big family dinner?

Nochebuena, literally 'Good Night', outranks Christmas Day in most of Spain: the family feast runs late into the night of the 24th, and the 25th is a much calmer day.

Which feast marks the traditional end of the Spanish Christmas season?

Epiphany, 6 January, closes Spain's Christmas season and is its big gift day: children wake to their main presents that morning, and school starts again right afterwards.

What is the Spanish word for the nativity scene displayed in homes, schools and shops?

Belén is Spanish for Bethlehem, and the scene borrows the town's name: many families build the whole village in miniature each December, not only the stable.

Which saint's day is celebrated in Catalonia on 26 December with another family gathering?

Saint Stephen's Day, Sant Esteve in Catalan, falls on 26 December and gives Catalans a second day of feasting, traditionally on canelons made from Christmas leftovers.

Which king completes the trio with Melchior and Caspar in Spain's Three Kings parades?

Balthazar completes the trio: Spanish children write a wish letter to their favourite king, or to all three, and the kings' pages collect the last letters during the parade.

What is the Spanish name for New Year's Eve?

Nochevieja ('Old Night') is Spanish for New Year's Eve, 31 December; after the family feast, young people head out to a cotillón in the bars and dance until morning.

What is traditionally eaten for breakfast after a Spanish New Year's Eve party?

Churros with chocolate top off the night: the party in bars and clubs runs until morning, so the fried dough and hot chocolate come as breakfast before bed.

What do Spanish children put out on the night of 5 January to receive presents from the Three Wise Men?

They put out their shoes on the night of 5 January, along with sweets for the Kings and water for the camels.

What is the Spanish name for the Three Kings parade held on the evening of 5 January?

The Cabalgata de Reyes fills Spanish towns on 5 January: the Kings ride through on floats while their pages collect children's last letters and throw sweets into the crowd.

What do Spain's Three Kings traditionally leave for children who have misbehaved?

Coal is the threat, but these days it is usually carbón dulce: lumps of black sugar candy, so the punishment can be eaten.

By what name do Spanish children know Santa Claus, a newcomer beside the Three Kings?

Papá Noel is a newcomer: presents traditionally waited for the Kings on 6 January, so many Spanish children now get a small gift at Christmas and the main ones twelve days later.

What is the nickname of the first prize in the Spanish Christmas Lottery?

El Gordo, 'the fat one', goes to every ticket with the winning number, and one shop often sells them all, so a whole village can wake up rich, as Grañén, population 2,000, did in 2011.

Who sings out the winning numbers of the Spanish Christmas Lottery draw?

Pupils of the San Ildefonso school in Madrid work in pairs: one sings each number, the other its prize, and because every prize is sung aloud the draw runs for hours.

Since 2012, which Madrid venue has hosted the Spanish Christmas Lottery draw?

The Teatro Real opera house took over in 2012: the crowds who come to watch had outgrown the lottery's own hall, home of the draw for over 40 years, and a congress centre filled in for two years.

Which port city, seat of Spain's parliament in 1812, hosted the first Christmas lottery draw that year?

Cádiz is where the lottery was approved in 1811, to bring money into a treasury drained by the war against Napoleon; its first draw at Christmas time followed on 18 December 1812.

What is a décimo in the Spanish Christmas Lottery?

A décimo is a one-tenth share of a ticket: a full billete costs €200, so it is sold as a perforated sheet of ten €20 décimos.

Which drink, made mostly in Catalonia, is Spain's usual choice for raising a glass at Christmas?

Cava, Spain's answer to champagne, is poured at Christmas and again at midnight on New Year's Eve, though plenty of households open cider instead.

How do the Three Kings traditionally arrive in Barcelona for the 5 January parade?

By boat: since the 1960s the Kings have sailed into Barcelona's port, where the mayor hands them the keys to the city, said to open every home for one night.

What do Spaniards eat with each of the twelve midnight bell strikes on New Year's Eve?

Grapes, one per chime: each stands for a month of the year ahead. Well-off Madrileños ate them with champagne first, and a bumper 1909 harvest in Alicante helped make it everyone's custom.

Which starter typically opens the Spanish Christmas Eve feast before the roast lamb?

Prawns open the feast, and on many tables the main course is seafood too, with cod or shellfish in place of the lamb.

Which Madrid square's clock marks the twelve strokes of the New Year on national television?

The Puerta del Sol clock first sounds four double chimes, the cuartos, as a warning, and every year some viewers mistake them for midnight and start their countdown too soon.

Mantecados, Spain's crumbly Christmas shortbreads, take their name from 'manteca', which fat?

Pork lard is the 'manteca' in mantecados. A 19th-century woman known as La Colchona made hers with lard left over from pig slaughters, and drove out the moisture so they kept long enough for her husband, a carrier, to sell on his route.

What is hidden inside a Spanish roscón de reyes that obliges the finder to pay for the cake?

A dried bean lands its finder with the bill, and often with buying next year's cake too; in older versions of the custom the bean made its finder king of the party instead.

What is the roscón de reyes dough flavoured with in Spain?

Orange blossom water (agua de azahar) scents the brioche-like dough; Spaniards buy the ring from the bakery and eat it for breakfast on the morning of 6 January.

What are the main ingredients of turrón, the nougat eaten across Spain at Christmas?

Honey, sugar, egg white and almonds go into both classic kinds: the hard one keeps its almonds whole, and for the soft one they are ground to a paste.

The soft variety of turrón carries the name of which Spanish town?

Jijona gives the soft turrón its name: makers there grind the mixture to a paste, while the hard kind, named after nearby Alicante, is left as a rigid block.

Which Spanish city's marzipan holds EU protected status alongside Lübeck's?

Elsewhere in Spain mazapán is a Christmas sweet, but in Toledo it is eaten all year round.

Polvorones, the crumbly Christmas shortbread, are mostly produced in which Spanish region?

Andalusia bakes most of them, in towns such as Estepa; the name comes from the way a polvorón crumbles to powder the moment you bite it.

What is the Tió de Nadal, the Catalan Christmas character?

A log beaten to drop presents: children feed the tió for weeks and keep it under a blanket, then hit it with sticks while singing until sweets and nougat appear underneath.

From which feast day do Catalan children start feeding the Tió de Nadal each night?

The Immaculate Conception, 8 December, opens the nightly feeding of the tió; its gifts are small, and the main presents come from the Three Wise Men on 6 January.

What is the caganer found in Catalan nativity scenes doing?

The caganer ('the crapper') is a figure squatting and defecating, traditionally a peasant in a red cap; children are set the task of finding him in the scene.

What is the traditional red Catalan cap worn by the caganer called?

The barretina, the red wool cap of Catalan peasants, tops the caganer, who in the classic version also puffs on a pipe and is tucked into a far corner of the scene, well away from the stable.

In which region of Spain does Olentzero bring children their presents on 24 December?

Basque Country: Olentzero comes down from the mountains with the presents on Christmas Eve, a big man in a beret and farmer's clothes with a pipe in his mouth.

What trade does Olentzero follow in the most common version of his legend?

Olentzero is a charcoal burner who lives alone in the mountains; in the best-known story he carves wooden toys and carries them down to the village children in a big sack.

Día de los Santos Inocentes on 28 December is Spain's equivalent of which day elsewhere?

April Fools' Day: on 28 December Spaniards play pranks called inocentadas, and their victims are inocentes, a nod to the Holy Innocents slain by Herod.

The Ibi festival of 28 December features a mock battle fought with what?

Flour and eggs: each 28 December a spoof army in mock uniform stages a coup in the town of Ibi, fines anyone who breaks its rules and fights its battles in clouds of flour.

Misa de Gallo, the Spanish name for Christmas Eve Midnight Mass, literally refers to which animal?

A rooster: one explanation for 'Rooster's Mass' is the legend that a cock crowed on the night Jesus was born; the service comes after the big family dinner, at midnight.

Which Spanish word for a Christmas carol first named a 15th-century popular song built on a refrain?

Villancico first meant a popular song of refrain and verses, often on rustic themes; religious ones took over in the later 1500s, and the word ended up meaning a carol.

Which friction drum, a skin-covered pot with a rubbed stick, traditionally accompanies Spanish Christmas carols?

The zambomba is rubbed, not struck: a wet hand slides along the stick and the skin answers with a hoarse drone; in parts of Spain the Christmas singing parties themselves are called zambombas.

Which saint is credited with staging the first nativity scene, in a cave at Greccio in 1223?

Saint Francis of Assisi set up a manger with hay, an ox and a donkey at Greccio, in central Italy, after a visit to the Holy Land: its caves reminded him of the country around Bethlehem.

The numbered balls in the Spanish Christmas Lottery draw are made of what?

Wood: each boxwood ball has its number engraved by laser, and before the draw they are all put on show so that anyone can check their own number is going into the drum.

On 31 December, Catalan children are sent to look for a man with as many what as the year has days?

Noses: the Home dels Nassos sounds like a monster with 365 of them, but the joke is on the children, because on the last day of the year only one day, and so one nose, is left.

What is the nickname of Spain's second big Christmas-season lottery, drawn on 6 January?

El Niño, 'the Child', is drawn every 6 January; by tradition, players whose Christmas Lottery ticket only won its money back swap the refund for a ticket in this second draw.

The name turrón is thought to derive from a Latin verb meaning what?

To toast: turrón is usually traced to the Latin torrere, though dictionaries call the origin uncertain; it would fit, since the nuts that go into it are toasted first.

Which instrument is the pandereta, shaken along to carols at Spanish Christmas gatherings?

A tambourine: with its jingles it is the children's instrument at Christmas, and after Midnight Mass people once walked the streets playing guitars, tambourines and drums.

In one old legend, Olentzero is the last survivor of a mountain tribe of which pagan beings?

Giants: the jentilak carry an old man to a cliff at his own request, because he has foreseen the coming of Christ, then trip and fall to their deaths on the way down, leaving only Olentzero.

The Spanish roscón de reyes recipe derives from a crown-shaped cake from which country?

France: Spain's roscón is an adaptation of the French gâteau des rois; whoever finds the little figurine inside is crowned with the gold paper crown that comes on top.

What do Spaniards call the hamper of ham, wine and sweets employers give staff at Christmas?

The cesta de Navidad is so expected that its decline made the business pages: sales fell sharply after the 2008 crash, later recovered, and in 2020 firms sent hampers in place of the cancelled office dinner.