Christmas in Spain: the lottery, the grapes and the Kings

How a Spanish Christmas runs from 22 December to 6 January, and the Spanish you need for each day

Christmas in Spain is not one day. It runs for more than two weeks, from a lottery draw just before the 24th to the Three Kings on 6 January, and for children the last day is the biggest. Each stop on the way has its own words, and most of them are names rather than translations.

22 December: the lottery

For many people Christmas starts with la Lotería de Navidad, the Christmas lottery. The draw is on 22 December, and children from a Madrid school sing the winning numbers on live television for most of the morning. The top prize is el Gordo, the fat one. Tickets are sold in tenths called décimos, which cost 20 euros for the 2026 draw, and they are shared between family, friends and workmates.

That sharing is why you will hear ¡Que te toque el Gordo!, I hope you win the big prize, all through December. It is a wish, built with que and a verb, and the same shape gives you que lo pases bien, have a good time.

24 and 25 December: Nochebuena and Navidad

La Nochebuena, Christmas Eve, is the big family dinner, and it starts late. Seafood, roast lamb, turrón (almond and honey nougat) and polvorones (crumbly almond shortbread) are on most tables. If you are invited, the question is ¿Dónde cenáis en Nochebuena?, where are you all having dinner on Christmas Eve, with cenáis in the vosotros form that Spain uses with friends.

La Navidad, the 25th, is a public holiday and a slower family lunch. In many homes Papá Noel now brings presents that morning, but he is the newcomer.

28 December: the day of tricks

El Día de los Santos Inocentes is Spain's April Fool's Day. People play pranks, called inocentadas, and newspapers and television slip a fake story into the day's news. If you fall for one, expect to hear ¡Inocente!

31 December: twelve grapes

On la Nochevieja, New Year's Eve, almost everyone in Spain eats las doce uvas, the twelve grapes, one on each stroke of midnight. The chimes, las campanadas, are broadcast live from the clock in the Puerta del Sol in Madrid, about three seconds apart. Before them come los cuartos, the quarter chimes, and someone in every house starts eating too early. Ask for uvas sin pepitas, seedless grapes, at the market. After the twelfth, it is ¡Feliz Año Nuevo!

5 and 6 January: the Kings

Los Reyes Magos, the Three Kings, are the big day for children. On the evening of the 5th they ride through towns and cities across Spain in la cabalgata, throwing sweets from the floats. Children leave their shoes out, the presents arrive overnight, and a child who has been naughty may find carbón, a lump of sugar coal. The question for any child on the 6th is ¿Qué te han traído los Reyes?, what did the Kings bring you?

The day ends with el roscón de Reyes, a ring cake hiding a small figure and a dried bean. Find the figure and you wear the paper crown; find the bean and, by custom, you pay for next year's. The 6th is a public holiday, and the January sales, las rebajas, traditionally start on the 7th.

One nativity, three words

The nativity scene in Spain is el belén, from Belén, Bethlehem. Cross the Atlantic and it changes: el nacimiento in Mexico, el pesebre in much of South America. The guides for Christmas in Mexico and in Latin America have the words that go with them.