Christmas Facts

Christmas (believe it or not) is not festival celebrating gluttony, drunkeness or consumerism. The festival now often referred to by busy people as ‘Xmas’ is an annual holiday that celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ.Christmas in Spain differs in many ways from our normal celebrations in the UK, the US and other western countries.

For a start, it is nowhere near as blatantly commercialised. The Spanish treat Christmas very much more as a religious event. It is very rare to see Christmas lights, displays and produce in stores much before December.

This is a welcome change from the relentless promotion of Christmas from October onwards, as we have become used to. Once they get going though, the Spanish will throw themselves fully into the spirit of Christmas.

Every town and city will have its streets adorned and decorated with lights and nativity displays. These displays have very important religious meaning and are called the Belén.

Christmas trees magically seem to appear for sale everywhere and pointsettiers the traditional red-leaved plants, are planted in just about every public and municipal garden The idea spread fast and now in July, the peak season for the Australian snow fields, Christmas decorations and special events are meticulously planned to attract visitors for snow themed Yule fest celebrations. Many families now enjoy winter holidays at the snow fields where they build snowmen as they watch Santa Claus in the distance zip zag ging through the snow slops HoHOho ing!