Christmas in Spain, Explained by a Spaniard

Dear Eddie,

Today on the blog we are excited to bring you a very special collaboration! We have partnered with David who is a Spanish teacher you can find at YourSpanishGuid on Instagram or his website yourspanishguide.com. David has lots of great videos explaining Spanish expressions and grammar to help you learn the language but today we’ve asked him to help us out with something a little bit different.

In the following video, you can learn about ten of the most important traditions of how Christmas is celebrated in Spain. David speaks in Spanish in this video, so it’s an excellent way to practice your language skills! However, he has included subtitles in English and Spanish as well, so turn those on if needed.

 

 

In this video:

1.) The extraordirnary Christmas lottery, or el sorteo extraordinario de navidad
2.) The Christmas lottery drawing singers, or los niños de San Ildefonso
3.) The most popular lottery adminstration to buy a lottery ticket from, or Doña Manolita
4.) The social component of the Christmas lottery
5.) The New Years tradition of eating twelve grapes at midnight
6.) The uncertain origen of this New Years tradition
7.) Nativity scenes of Bethlehem, or Bélenes
8.) The “pooper” of Catalán nativity scenes, or el caganer de Cataluña
9.) The Three Wise Men, or los reyes magos
10.) Other traditions across Spain – every region has its own traditions!

While you can find out more information about some of these in our other articles linked above, we hope you’ve enjoyed this opportunity to hear directly from a Spaniard about some of the more unusual aspects of Navidad here in Spain (or at least the aspects you might not have expected). If you’re looking for some Spanish listening practice, be sure to check out his other videos as well as consider taking lessons with him to aid you in your Spanish language-learning journey.

Which of the things he mentioned shocked you most? Let us know in the comments below!

Feliz Navidad,
Spain