Christmas in Madrid - visit Spain’s capital for festive holiday
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Exuberant festive spirit makes Madrid ideal for a city break.
Madrid is not a place to miss out an opportunity for a festival. If there’s a chance for a parade too, all the better. So it’s hardly surprising that the first signs of the approach of Christmas start appearing in the Spanish capital as early as mid-November. After all, the locals have been waiting for an excuse to party since the Festivales de Otono (Autumn Fiesta) at the end of October...
Along Madrid’s busiest shopping street, Calle Preciados, next to Puerta del Sol, the lights and decorations start appearing on shop fronts, above doorways and forming huge decorative arches right across the street. The lights in Gran Via, c/Goya and c/Ortega y Gasset are pretty spectacular too.
By the end of November, the grand Plaza Mayor in the town centre has been taken over by a Christmas market. It’s the normal sort of thing - lots of wooden sheds selling seasonal stuff no-one really wants like spray snow and sweets but there’s a beguiling atmosphere of genuine Spanish jollity.
Locals buy Christmas trees and hand-made decorations here, and generally mill about in their winter finery savouring the festive spirit and wishing each other ‘Feliz Navidad y Prospero Año Nuevo’ (Merry Christmas and Happy New Year).
The Plaza Mayor market also sells the nativity figurines that Spaniards use to make a “Belén” . This Spanish tradition consists of making a model of the Palestinian village on the night Jesus was born, especially the visit of the three kings who are exceptionally popular in Spain. The Belenes are like giant cribs depicting the nativity scene - and there are enormous ones created throughout the city. The new city council headquarters in the Palacio de Cibeles has one of the best.
In some places Spaniards even create live Belenes; real people play the roles, and even a real baby plays Jesus. To get an idea of the stylistic pinnacle of this tradition, visit Madrid’s Royal Palace and admire the sumptuous 18th-century Belén del Príncipe, originally made for King Carlos IV.
In Retiro Park there is usually an ice-skating rink, in Plaza de Espana a craft fair and in Azca Park a mini ‘toboggan run’.
December 22nd is the day of the draw of the special Christmas Lottery. It has become a major winter occasion in Madrid. Every Spaniard buy tickets and all the media cover the event live. In Plaza del Sol there are long queues to buy tickets from early December. In the Square, thousands of people gather to hear the draw and it’s traditional to eat 12 grapes for luck. This being Spain, the event turns into a fiesta. Later it’s another tradition to go to a cafe for hot chocolate - so even if you haven’t won the draw, there’s a reason to be cheerful.
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