Christmas has officially started in our house, or it will when Steve arrives back from his Spanish lesson. We are cooking today — some lovely treats — for our Christmas break. Of course, we are retired, so maybe Christmas break is a misnomer, but it doesn’t feel like that for us. It feels like a holiday, a change in routine, where we don’t worry about healthy diets or financial budgets or things that need fixing.
Here in Spain, Christmas it a quieter affair than in the UK, more church and family oriented, with a family meal on Christmas Eve and a quiet family holiday on Christmas Day. The big celebration and the commercial one in the past was Epiphany on the 6 of January or Kings Day, when the children get their presents.
That’s changing, though. American TV, the reliance on tourism and a need to boost sales in midwinter mean that more and more towns are making more of the Christmas season. Starting earlier, and going bigger, and having light displays and Christmas markets. Christmas seems to last forever now because no one can give up the Epiphany celebrations.
Historically, in Britain at least, Christmas started on Christmas Day and ended on January 5, the day before Epiphany — the twelve days of Christmas. A Christian celebration that joined together existing and much older festivals. It was the main or only holiday for workers and was eagerly anticipated.
Overlaying that are family and community traditions. Our family traditions have changed over the years. We always put the decorations up on the weekend after Steve’s birthday, that hasn’t changed. When the children were small, Steve and the boys put them up together, a kind of boys thing.with each other competing for the most interesting homemade ornaments and later for the most garish anti-themed Christmas trees. Steve still puts everything up, even now that the boys have their own families. He misses those times. He loved playing Santa, making up stockings and organising gifts.
My job was cooking, and it still is. Steve’s parents always came on Christmas Day. So I always planned a big meal. They loved to see the boys’ open presents, and they loved to play games with them in the afternoon when we were tired and too full of food to do much. Steve’s mum always thought there was too much of everything and she was right, of course. There was, but that was the point. We were a not particularly well off family and it was the one time of year when we could, with good conscience, have too much. Besides it meant we could invite other guests, single friends or people who for some reason weren’t having a family Christmas that year, I didn’t look for extra people but often found myself inviting friends who told me the would be on their own and I loved it the more the merrier.
For several years, a group from our church cooked a Christmas dinner on Christmas Day for anyone who would otherwise be alone. That was a lovely tradition to be part of, and it was something I was able to give. Most the year we were too busy and too cash-strapped to be as generous as I would have liked.
Another tradition that started with the children and that we still follow is watching terrible films. Not the big Christmas hits, although we watch those as well. But sentimental romances. You know the kind of thing; a big-city girl discovers small-town magic and the man of her dreams. Cheesy, I know, but somehow it adds to the magic. I crochet, and Steve does a jigsaw while we watch.
That’s another tradition of mine: a Christmas craft project to get on with while we watch TV. I have to confess that I don’t always finish these Christmas projects because by the time the new year comes around I have so many plans I can not possibly get them all done. My last year’s project is still sitting on my study shelf waiting for me to finish it. Perhaps my New Year’s resolution will be to finish everything I’ve started.
This afternoon I’m making herb and spice mixes. Mixed spice for a fruitcake, a herb mix for stuffing, flavoured butter to go under the turkey and herbs to mix into the stuffing. Maybe even a mix for mulled wine. (Last minute evening edit: I have a mug of mulled wine in my hand a great success.) I was thinking about it last night as sleet was flinging itself against the skylights in my study.
Boxing Day has its own traditions, of course. We always breathe a sigh of relief that the frantic stressful bit (Self imposed and I always want that part) was over and we had a family day. Left over Turkey with chips for lunch and lots of playing games and watching films and a boxing day walk when the boy’s were older they often played football so the walk would be Steve and I. Boxing day was always my favourite day because the pressure was off and could relax.
Typical family traditions here in Spain differ from typical UK events, I expected that but when we moved here, I was surprised to discover that only British people enjoy Christmas pudding, mince pies, Christmas crackers, and Boxing Day, as people of other nationalities have never heard of them. I made mince pies for my neighbours when we first came; they appreciated the sentiment far more than the pies.
Here, El Gordo, the lottery, is part of the tradition. The draw is today, the 22. Families buy each other tickets, and the draw takes all day. It is one of the most-watched TV shows in Spain, and it has a theatre-style production. For weeks, people will ask each other if they had won anything, or knew anyone who did.
We are not lottery-type people, but we buy a ticket now. so that we can be a part of the conversation; it has helped us to integrate. Our neighbours sometimes give us a ticket as a Christmas gift, and they tell people we are OK because we do El Gordo and we eat pulpo. (Octopus.)
What are your traditions? Have they changed over the years? Let me know in the comments and, above all else, have a very blessed Christmas and a hopeful new year.
Abigail Thorne 