Belén, Turrón y Papá Noél

On a big department store in Sevilla

Christmastime is here! Or, as the 5-foot tall motion-sensor singing/dancing Mexican-Norwegian Santa Claus that Mom gave us would say, “Navidad . . . Navidad . . . Hoy es Navidad.” (Sung to the tune of Jingle Bells.) Downtown Sevilla is filled with lights, store windows are decorated, and that feeling of anticipation is in the air. Advent in Spain feels much different from Advent in the U.S. – mainly because, here, it’s not such a season of frenzied, desperate shopping. (For me, Christmas shopping always feels frenzied – you can imagine the mall parking lot traffic in L.A.)

A view of the main pedestrian/shopping street in Sevilla; in the foreground, you see a man roasting chestnuts
The Ayuntamiento (City Hall)
A window display

From what I can tell, the hottest item to buy in Sevilla this season (and every season I bet) is a Belén. That’s Spanish for “Bethlehem” and it’s what they call a nativity scene or creche. There’s a big Belén market set up for the entire month in one of the big plazas downtown. The market is made up of vendor stalls all selling little figures, little rustic-looking buildings, miniature fruit, bread, mini fried fish. At this market, you can find things that you never dreamed were in Bethlehem – much less in the stable with baby Jesus. Notably: waterfalls, peacocks, pigs being slaughtered, a barefooted man crushing grapes in a big barrel for wine, windmills . . .

Items for sale at the market – check out the miniature cat catching mouse (bottom left corner)
A vendor/realtor; "We've got your basic stable - 2 sticks holding up some brush - and we've got a studio, the 2-bedroom condo and the condo with stable addition. Now, if you ask me, your best value is going to be the split-level with covered patio."

Our dinky little Nativity scenes in the U.S. have nothing on the Nativity scenes here.
This . . .
. . . Versus this. (When there's a waterfall, it's simply no contest)

Papá Noél (Santa Claus) is a part of Christmas in Spain, but I’m not sure if he’s just a character that they borrowed from the U.S. They’ve seen all our dumb Christmas movies, so they know how American movie families celebrate the holidays. The “Reyes” (Kings, a.k.a. the three wise men) put gifts in the shoes of Spanish children on Epiphany, which is 12 days after Christmas (the real Twelve Days of Christmas). In the Christian calendar, Epiphany is the day the Magi arrived in Bethlehem.

The Adoration of the Magi by Diego Velazquez

It’s surprising how familiar many of the Christmas decorations look here. At one of my favorite stores, Casa, the following items are on sale: reindeer candle holders, snowman nightlights, stockings, Santa Claus Advent calendars and (ick) pillows embroidered with “Merry Christmas.” I know that many of our Christmas traditions, like putting a tree inside one’s house, come from pagan cultures of ancient Germany. And, of course St. Nicholas and the reindeer come from Lapland or somewhere. But, so much has become tackified and commercial. Don’t get me wrong, I miss my special tacky decorations at home. Mostly I will miss the ritual of hanging all our beautiful, funny and meaningful Christmas tree ornaments.

Turrón, a sweet confection made mostly of crushed almonds, is a special Christmas tradition in Spain

The most important part of Christmas is something we luckily won’t have to miss out on in Europe. Spiked eggnog!!! Just kidding. I’m talking about church of course – the reason for the season, etc. We plan to attend many services and sacred music performances. I imagine that Christmas Eve will be mysterious and holy no matter what language the hymns are in.