Christmas en España

Lights on the streets of Málaga

This year was the first time I spent the Christmas season away from my family.  It was tough and very strange, but it helped that I was surrounded by good friends and lots of great food!  It was interesting to see the Christmas season spring to life slowly here in Spain.  I first started seeing decorations when I was in Malaga on my way to Amsterdam.  The city was completely decorated with Christmas lights on all of the streets, big, lit up Christmas trees and Christmas music coming from the stores.  I believe that when Spaniards celebrate holidays, they go all out and do it right.  The only thing that was really missing was lights on people's houses and decorations in the windows.

Part of the nativity scene in Baza's church

Slowly Baza started putting up lights, little red carpets with Christmas trees next to them outside of many businesses and nativity scenes.  I found out that they are very serious about their nativity scenes here.  One weekend we were able to go into the Iglesia Mayor (church) of Baza and look at the nativity scene that was set up in the corner.  I was blown away.  The scenes they set up were entire towns with working lights and running water.  It was extremely impressive and I was able to see a couple of them. 

Delicious dessert

Before I left Baza, I had two Christmas celebrations here.  The first celebration was a dinner that all of us Baza auxiliers had.  We all brought food and celebrated together before we all went our separate ways for the holidays, just like we did for Thanksgiving.  My second celebration was another really expensive meal at a nice restaurant in Baza with many of my co-workers.  It was really fun to get dressed up and go out with them.  I was at the restaurant from 2:30pm until about 6:30 while plate after plate of delicious food kept coming, ending with a plate of turrón which was absolutely divine.  I didn't think I would have enough room for dessert after all of the food, but somehow I managed :)  After we left the restaurant, we continued the evening at a bar in the center to get drinks and chat for a few more hours.  I really like that whenever I go out with my co-workers or other spaniards in general, it turns into an event and we are out all day/evening long just enjoying the moment.

Even though it was not cold and snowy (which I guess it wasn't in NH either) and I wasn't doing all of my Christmas shopping at the mall, fighting for parking spaces, decorating my house and listening to Christmas music, it started to feel a bit like Christmas.

My last week of work was very Christmas-y and fun.  I spent my last few days before vacation talking about Christmas vocabulary, Christmas presents, drawing Christmas trees & Santa Claus and singing along to lots of Christmas carols in English.  It was cute to see my students wearing Santa hats or reindeer antlers on their heads singing along to Jingle Bells and Let It Snow.

Lights in Plaza Mayor (Madrid)

Christmas Eve and Chrsitmas Day I actually spent with a friend in Granada and other fellow "orphan" auxiliers.  We had a potluck on Christmas eve with lots of food and lots of Christmas music.  We shared stories about how we celebrate Christmas with our families and expressed how we were happy to be with other people in the same situation.  We even chatted with the family of the girl who was hosting the potluck!  Luckily my family members Skyped me on Christmas so I was able to chat with them for a little bit.  Technology is an amazing thing.

Not a very good photo, but the Christmas tree in
Puerta del Sol (Madrid)

Christmas day, we took a stroll around Granada.  We climbed up to the Mirador de San Nicholas and had some tapas.  It was a gorgeous day and it seemed like there were a lot more people out than there should have been.  Apparently here, everyone gets together for a Christmas Eve dinner around 10pm, goes out around 2am and then spends the next day like any other day.  Here, they celebrate January 6th, which is the Three Kings Day more than Christmas Day.  Traditionally it is the three wisemen who bring Spanish children their gifts, not Santa Claus.

The very end of the Three Kings parade

On the day before Three Kings Day, I was in Madrid and watched the parade there!  Unfortunately it was not easy to find a place to stand where we could see, but we were able to catch a glimpse of the Kings coming in on their floats and hear them deliver their special message to all the children.

Overall, I had a really good holiday/Christmas season.  It was a little different from what I am used to, but I made it work :)

"Feliz Navidad" (Baza)