Christmas is coming !!

Commercials announce new toys, Disney channel only broadcasts Santa's movies, it's freaking cold and stores are full of ugly sweaters. In addition your neighbour a huge number of lights around his house what seems a strip club in the night. Christmas is here!!!

But how Spaniers celebrate this days?

In our culture most of free days have a religious meaning so soon we will see all around Spain parades and representations of Christ birth. People celebrate this party even if they aren't religious, because it is rooted deeply in our culture since the middle ages.

The traditions may differ from family to other. Here we go with some pictures about the most common ones:

The recreation of the Jesus' birth is called "Belen" and often appear the three wise men, romans, shepherds, a  donkey, a mule, an angel....

Some representations have the "caganer" representing a boy pooping. Yes, it is a real and serious tradition. Quite funny at the same time so there are a lot of joke figures to put in the Belen.

And of course, the famous christmas tree, where Santa Claus (Papa Noel) leaves presents to the good kids and two weeks after, the three wise men will leave more presents again (So...we receive presents twice!!). As always, it depends of the family. Sometimes they don't celebrate anyone or they do both :

In Christimas Eve families gather as here in Thanksgiving day. Most of families spend Christmas and the Three wise men day with different parts of the family, in that way you meet your whole family in this vacations.

As you imagine, there are several banquets in these days and most of times people get some extra pounds in this days eating paella, seafood, soups, steaks, fish...

The most typical food before Three Wise Men Day is the "roscon" , a kind of sponge cake