Month 12 of ex-pat living in Spain - Christmas

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Twas the month before Christmas, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse….

We’ve celebrated Christmas in many different countries now, and they’ve all been special in their own little way. Nothing quite competes to having a white Christmas surrounded by tons of snow in the French Alps, skiing down the slopes in our santa hats and then celebrating in style with lots of traditional food and drink. Australia was another epic party, celebrating this time on the beach (in our santa hats) whilst cooking a ‘barby’. A bit different in the scorching heat, but the beach was awash with a wave of red and white everywhere. China was probably the least ‘Christmassy’ we felt when being away over the festive period. It’s to be expected of course based on the fact they aren’t a Christian country, but it’s just so weird to not see a single Christmas tree anywhere, and no toys, Christmas cards and definitely no brussel sprouts in the shops (not even in Tesco). They don’t even take a day off on Christmas day (why would they?) so it felt like Christmas had almost passed us by. Of course we still celebrated with our friends and even cooked a roast turkey to make us feel a bit more in the mood, but it was very strange indeed.

I was looking forward to seeing how Christmas is celebrated in Spain, as I reckoned they would go all out seeing as it is still a very religious country, and every second week is also a dedicated fiesta celebrating something or other. However, the first week in December came and went, and nothing had really changed. I started to look out for the tell-tale signs of Christmas trees and decorations in people’s windows, but didn’t see anything. The public Christmas decorations only went up at the end of the second week of December, and even at that they seemed to reflect more of a token gesture rather than an elaborate display of Christmas spirit. We started to count the amount of Christmas decorations in people’s houses, and in our block of flats (of which there is probably about 100) we counted a grand total of two. And even then, a set of rope lights on the balcony and a santa hanging over the edge seemed to be the extent of the decorations people were willing to put up.

It wasn’t what we were expecting at all as we are so used to having Christmas trees on every corner and Christmas music being blared out at every opportunity, and all this from October onwards. It didn’t really help us get into the Christmas mood like we thought it would, and even a dose of Christmas movies didn’t help. We spoke to a few of our friends who live here and a few locals too, and they confirmed that although they do celebrate Christmas, decorations are a relatively new phenomenon and most people are only just getting into the idea of a Christmas tree. Most houses simply setup a traditional nativity scene, if anything, instead. The focus is less on exchanging novelty gifts and more on spending time with their families, and having a huge feast instead. We discovered that Spanish people have their main celebration and meal on Christmas eve (La Noche Buena), not Christmas day. And presents are more aimed at children, who receive theirs on Kings Day on the 6^th January rather than on Christmas day. It was strange to see the shops still full of toys and gifts well into January when in the UK we’d be getting completed trampled in the January sales. Although it wasn’t as ‘Christmassy’ as we thought, it was actually quite nice not to have Christmas rammed down our throats or feel the pressure of having to buy your second cousins brother that handkerchief set he might just secretly be hankering after. I even started to listen to (and enjoy) a few Christmas tunes and found myself adding a Christmas songs playlist at my work because I wasn’t already hearing these songs fifty times a day. (Although I still can’t listen to Fairytale of New York as it reminds me of being 16 and working in Cumbernauld town centre in a little knick knack shop for 2 quid an hour where I had to stand outside the shop most of the afternoon and check no one was trying to steal the fake flowers).

The thing I love most about food in Spain at Christmas time is the turron. For those who are not familiar with it, it is a type of almond flavoured sweet that is very popular but only really at Christmas time. You can get it in soft or hard versions and actually they also do many, many different flavoured varieties too, which is where I become like an excitable puppy. Chocolate brownie, flavour, tiramisu, rum and raisin, coconut, strawberries and cream…. You name it and they will most likely have it in that flavour. It’s very delicious but probably not the most health conscious….

I love going to local shops and supermarkets whenever I travel somewhere new as it’s so interesting to see what types of things they eat, and what popular local delicacies are. For instance, the supermarkets in France had entire aisles dedicated solely to different varieties of cheese. And in China, they had an aisle for pre-packaged chicken feet, an aisle for different types of noodles, and an aisle dedicated to steamed dumplings. In Spain, supermarkets have an aisle dedicated to olive oil, and an aisle that is full with rows upon rows of full pigs legs ready to be carved for their beautiful jamon. Over the Christmas period they bring out their traditional produce, and before long there are aisles dedicated to the moreish turron (of course) as well as open baskets of dried fruits and nuts everywhere. They pig leg aisle was particularly popular and every second person had a hoof peeking out from the top of their trolley. And forget roast turkey as the show stopper on the big day, you’re more likely to see a full roast pig (prepackaged in all its glory) or roast lamb, maybe even duck. And there is always plenty of fish dishes on the menu too, especially prawns (but not of the prawn cocktail variety). And not a brussel sprout in sight. Pate also seems to be a popular snack around this time, and again it seems to have fought for its own section in the supermarket.

Our Christmas itself was a rather low key event. We knew we would be heading back to Scotland in a few weeks to celebrate our ‘proper’ Christmas with friends and family, so it didn’t really feel like Christmas at all. We only had a handful of presents to unwrap as again we were keeping this until our trip home, and we were both working. I didn’t mind at all as we were getting paid well for our time, and it was a relatively straight forward and easy shift. The dog was the most spoilt of everyone as we bought him a new doggy bone and some doggy beer, and he had his fair share of turkey too. Actually, considering there were only two of us, we went slightly overboard with the amount of food we prepared and ate, and ended up feeling pretty sick after attempting to devour an actual oven tray of food each (along with our own food we had also been given leftovers from the restaurant and our eyes were very much bigger than our bellies). Boxing day and then new years eve and new years day passed quickly and without much attention as again I was working all these shifts. Now the count down for Scotland is on!

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