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Christmas is a deeply religious holiday in Spain. The season officially begins on December 9 with the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, which is celebrated in front of the great Gothic cathedral in Seville.

On Nochebuena (Christmas Eve) families gather together around Nativity scenes that are in almost every home to feast and rejoice.

On the Feast of Holy Innocents (December 28) bonfires are lit and one young boy acts as the mayor. He orders townspeople to do chores, like sweeping the streets, and refusal to comply results in fines that are used to pay for the celebration.

Children receive gifts on the Feast of the Epiphany. It is believed that the Magi travel through the countryside reenacting their journey to Bethlehem every year. Children fill their shoes with straw, carrots, and barley for the Wise Mens' horses and leave them on windowsills. Balthazar rides a donkey, is the children's favorite, and is believed to be the one who leaves the gifts.

You need to specify "where in Spain": while Spain may be smaller than Texas, there are four(4) distinct languages (many more dialects) and varied cultural backdrops that modify the expression of holidays.

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9y ago
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15y ago

Absolutely! Spaniards are mostly catholic so they do celebrate Christmas.

However, the Epiphany holiday is even bigger than Christmas in Spain. In Spain, Philippines and some Latin American countries, Epiphany day is called El Día de los Reyes (The Day of the Kings), i.e. the day when a group of Kings or Magi, as related in the second chapter of the gospel of Matthew, arrived to worship and bring three gifts to the baby Jesus after following a star in the heavens. This day is sometimes known as the Día de los Tres Reyes Magos (The day of the Three Royal Magi). In Spanish tradition, on the day of January 6, three of the Kings: Melchor, Gaspar, and Balthazar, representing Europe, Arabia, and Africa, arrived on horse, camel and elephant, bringing respectively gold, frankincense and myrrh to the baby Jesus. In Spain and certain parts of Latin America, children (and many adults) polish and leave their shoes ready for the Kings' presents before they go to bed on the eve of January 6. Sweet wine, nibbles, fruit and milk are left for the Kings and their camels. The shoes may be filled with hay for the camels, so that the Kings will be generous with their gifts. These traditions are analogous to the customs of children leaving mince pies and sherry out for Father Christmas in Western Europe or leaving milk and cookies for Santa Claus in the United States. In the afternoon or evening of the same day the ritual of the Rosca de Reyes is shared with family and friends. The Rosca is a type of pastry made with orange blossom water and butter, and decorated with candied fruit. Baked inside is a small doll representing the baby Jesus. In Spain, the bread is known as Roscón. Made with the same items, traditionally the roscón was simply a round, sweet bread with candied fruit on top, however, recently, different flavoured whipped creams are used as filling. The 'Jesus' doll evolved into a small toy similar to a Kinder Surprise it also includes a bean. The person who gets the toy is then crowned king for the day, while the person who finds the bean is responsible for paying for the Roscon.

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9y ago

In Spain Christmas is considered to be a very religious time and they begin celebrating on the 8th of December. On December 8th they have a feast called Immaculate Conception which is celebrated in Seville in front of a cathedral.

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9y ago

People in Spain consider Christmas to be a deep seated religious holiday. The Christmas season there begins on December 8th which is called the feast of the Immaculate Conception. Traditions during this season include church ceremonies and dances. Most households put out a nativity scene. Shoes of household members are filled with straw as an offering to the camels. In the morning the straw is gone and replaced with presents.

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12y ago

The Spanish do not have a 'Father Christmas' but they have 'The Three Wise Men' Known as 'Los Reyes Magos' There is normally a parade where the Three Wise Men are on a float. This takes place on January 5th and in the evening, children polish their boots and leave them on their door step. Their boots are normally filled with small gifts for them to open as they are given their main present during the parade earlier in the day.

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13y ago

cristmas is NOTHING like cristmas in other parts of the world. the spanish have their feast on cristmas eve, and the poor children have to wait until three kings day to get their presents.

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6y ago

Christmas is always celebrated on December 25th. The country doesn't matter.

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12y ago

They call it La Navidad.

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12y ago

yes,they do have Christmas eve dinner

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Q: What do they call Christmas in Spain?
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