Just When You Thought it was Safe...

So you've bought all the presents, decorated the tree, left out some carrots and a mince pie, opened the presents, eaten the turkey, even celebrated New Year. It must be all over by now!

But not here in España. If you really, really, REALLY love Christmas, then Spain is the place for you.

It was the 5th of January when I got a call from a friend telling me to go down to my local port if I was interested in Spanish traditions. I arrived to find that I wasn't alone. There were hundreds of people there, most dressed in 'Sunday best', all looking out to sea...

Can't spot them? Look closer...

See them now? It's the Three Kings (Reyes Magos in Spanish); Melchior, Baltazar and Gaspar arriving by boat! Actually, you shouldn't be too surprised by the boat, because (according to newspaper and TV reports) in other towns and cities across Spain they were arriving by all manner of transport including catamaran (Marbella) and helicopter (Fuengirola).

Having arrived and disembarked these Reyes continued their tour of the town...

... by open-top car!

Across Spain, Kings led processions through towns and villages (sometimes throwing sweets) wishing everybody well for what is traditionally the Spanish Christmas Day on January 6th!

I spoke to a number of my Spanish friends and discovered that until quite recently, Spanish children received their presents on the 6th. But in more recent years, Santa Claus (Papa Noel) has joined the party and many (lucky) young Spaniards now get presents on the 25th of diciembre and the 6th of enero!

You can see the tradition changing in the streets of my local town where you'll see the Reyes Magos visiting...

...as well as Papa Noel...

Some families are obviously keen to hedge their bets...

While others seem slightly confused...

You'll no doubt know that Spain is a hot country and that many people live in pisos (flats). That means that there aren't many chimneys about, which explains why it sometimes seems that there's a spate of burglaries going on during the festive period...

 I hope you all had a ¡Feliz Navidad! (and a Prospero Año Nuevo) and are ready to learn more about the wonderful country that is España!