This is normally the time of year for snowy shopping trips, cutting down a Christmas tree, and slowly building a pile of presents as packages come in from relatives. But there's no snow here and I have yet to see a cut-your-own Christmas tree farm. As I found in Holland, most elements of the Christmas season are far from universal. Spain is no different.
In these last few weeks before the holiday break, I'm reading my classes Dr. Seuss' classic How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Despite its use of strange and made-up words, it seems to hold their attention, and I think the story's message is generally understood. Even such a simple story is not without cultural hiccups, however. To help explain why the Grinch hates Christmas morning (the noise, noise, noise, noise!), I asked one of my fourth grade classes what time they get up on Christmas morning. The teacher had warned me that they still believe in Santa Claus, so I naturally expected them to be among the Christmas early risers that the Grinch hates so much. When one student said she gets up at two, I assumed she was just extremely eager - until I realized she meant two in the afternoon!
The explanation for this lack of interest in Christmas morning is the celebration of the Epiphany on January 5. Apparently many households here celebrate Christmas with a large meal and a family gathering, but the presents wait until after New Year's to be opened. In addition to Santa Claus decorations, it is quite common to see images of the three wise men. I suppose it makes sense, as they were the original gift-bearers.
Christmas decorations are equally popular here. However, since there seem to be no stand-alone houses in Logroño, people decorate their balconies. The most entertaining decoration I've seen is one of Santa Claus climbing a rope ladder up over the balcony. In keeping with what I wrote above, you can also have the three wise men climb over if you like. According to the stories here, the three wise men bring presents in through the window (but Papa Noël comes through the chimney...which most people don't have. No wonder they get their presents at the Epiphany.)
For me, Christmas means lots of holiday dinners, a happy consequence of not being a poor student anymore. My housemates and I are having one on Thursday, followed by a work dinner on Friday, and one with our landlord on Saturday, which actually conflicts with a dinner that my friends from basketball are having. Is this why people get stressed at Christmas?
This won't be my last post before Christmas, but I hope everybody is enjoying themselves as 2010 winds down.
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