In Spain, Christmas traditions include decorating with a pine tree that may be real or fake and setting up a nativity scene. Families have big dinners on December 24th to celebrate Jesus' birth and put the figurine of Jesus in the nativity scene. On December 31st, they eat 12 grapes at midnight while church bells ring in the new year. On January 5th, there is a parade for the Three Wise Men, and children leave out shoes hoping to receive gifts from the Wise Men overnight on January 6th.

1. CHRISTMAS IN
SPAIN
By: Celia Melendi Lavandera

2. TRADITIONS
We often put a pine tree in our house, it can be real or fake
(decorated), and a scene of the Jesus’ birth. The 24th and the 31st of
December we do a big dinner with our family. The 5th of January we
celebrate a parade with the three wise men (Melchor, Gaspar and
Baltasar) and the night of 5th-6th January the Three Wise Men put the
gifts under the pine tree next to a bedroom slipper.

3. 24th DECEMBER
We have a family dinner because in this night Jesus was birth, and
this day, usually, is the day we put Jesus in the scene.

4. 31st DECEMBER
We do a family dinner and then, we eat twelve grapes during the
twelve final seconds of the year (twelve, because it’s at twelve at
midnight). While we eat a grape, a bell ring . So we call it “The
twelve strokes”. While we eat the grapes, a big ball in the town hall
of Madrid (in the Sol Square) is falling and when we eat the last
grape, the ball falls entirely.

5. 5th-6th JANUARY
The 5th is the parade of the Three Wise Men . The children and the
adults can participate, if they want. It’s at six in the afternoon and
when you go back to home, you put a bedroom slipper under the
Christmas tree. The morning of the 6th January, the children go
quickly to open the gifts of the Three Wise Men and play with them.