1. Lucía Sánchez Vecina - 3rd ESO “E”
IES Leonardo da Vinci - Albacete (Spain)

2. Spanish people celebrate Christmas between 24th
December and 6th January and you can feel the
atmosphere everywhere.
A sports shop A bag

3. Figures of The Three Wise Men in a shoe shop.

4. People usually set up a crib which shows figures that represent the birth of Jesus. The figure of Jesus is
not on the crib until Christmas Day, because he hasn’t still been born. People also decorate their
houses with a Christmas tree. The picture on the left shows my own crib last Christmas.

5. This is a very important day in
Spain,because it is when the popular
ChristmasLottery draw takes place. It is
held in Madrid, the capital city of Spain.
It has been organized every year since 1812.
There are several prizes and the biggest
one, known as “El Gordo”, was 3 million
euros this time (2.291.019,07pounds).

6. This is the day in which all the family buy presents, food, drink and
many more things for the Christmas preparations.

7. Christmas Eve is the day on which the whole family gather for
dinner. Children usually play videogames, board games or
something like that, while adults prepare the dinner. At nine
o’clock the king of Spain, Juan Carlos I, gives his traditional
Christmas speech on tv, and he wishes us a Merry Christmas and
a Happy New Year.

8. I wish you a Merry
Christmas and
a Happy New Year

9. “The Nativity” is one of the most
important celebrations of
Christianity, because it
commemorates the birth of
Jesus of Nazareth.
This is the day when Baby Jesus is
put on the crib, because he has
just been born.

10. These days are not particularly special, but they are school
holidays. Most families usually do things together. They
go shopping, watch films on tv or go to the cinema.

11. 28th December is special, because it´s Fools' Day
in Spain. Children usually play tricks on other
people.
There are a lot of associations, foundations and
tv programmes that get money by means of
donations in order to give it to disabled
children on this date.

12. New Year´s Eve is the last day in a year, and the
whole family meet again for dinner. People
usually eat seafood, fish and suckling pig or
lamb.

13. Roasted suckling pig
Prawns

14. Galician-style octopus.
Cuttlefish, shellfish, cheese,
spiced sausages and prawns.

15. Shrimp
Dessert

16. After dinner people prepare 12 grapes, and
just at midnight we eat one grape on each
stroke of the clock . Then we wish each
other a Happy New Year and kiss each
other. It’s said that if you have eaten twelve
grapes before twelve o’clock you will have
good luck during the next year; and it’s
also said that if you wear something red on
New Year’s Eve, you will be lucky.

17. On New Year’s day
people don’t usually
work. They usually stay
at home with their
families or friends and
maybe they go to
church.

18. These days aren’t very special, but you can hear
everybody saying “I wish you a Happy New Year”.

19. This is one of the most important days for children because of the Three Wise Men parade. The Three
Kings bring presents for everybody tonight and children get very excited watching the Kings’
carriages . Then all children go home, have their dinner and prepare some dinner for The Three
Wise Men too. They have to go to bed early, because The Three Wise Men will come at night and
leave everybody presents under the tree or next to their shoes.
These are the Three Wise Men (from left to right): Melchior, Caspar and Balthasar.

20. These are Melchior’s, Caspar’s and
Balthasar’s carriages.

21. These are some other carriages with
people wearing costumes.

22. This is the day of The Three Wise Men.
They brought Jesus gold, frankincense
and myrrh.
Catholic tradition says that their journey to
Bethlehem took twelve days and they
arrived on Epiphany.
People have followed this tradition for
many years and it has continued with all
the children until now. When children
get up, they run to see their presents and
play with them.

23. In the morning of 6th January the other
important lottery draw takes place, “ Sorteo
delNiño” (“Niño” refers to Baby Jesus), and
the prize can be 2 million euros
(1.660.705.08 pounds).

24. At about six pm people eat this cake, usually with hot chocolate.
It’s a ring-shaped cake with
sweetened fruits, almonds and
many more ingredients.
There are also some trinkets
in it: coins, small figures and a
bean. If you find the coin or the
small figure in your piece of
cake, it’s yours and you have
been lucky; but if what you find
is the bean, you have not been
lucky and you will have to pay
for the cake next year.