Celebrating St Nicholas Day in Spain

Nowadays, St Nicholas Day is a special day in Belgium, France, the Netherlands and even in Germany, but not in Spain as they actually celebrate the 3 Kings in January and not St Nicholas in December. So I was rather excited to take part in this celebration with my students and I have taught them all about this tradition.

In my line of work, I work with students of all ages. I had planned to see this festival with the youngest students, but not any more as I don't want to reveal too much about the celebration, in other words I don't want them to have doubts about the 3 Kings or Santa Claus, etc.

I instead gave them a worksheet depicting the two different representations of the Saint, as well as the famous carol "Venez Venez Saint Nicolas" (Come, come St Nicholas! ). Surprisingly, they much preferred the Legend of St Nicholas, which tells the tale of how he revived three children who had been chopped into pieces by a butcher. I told Dorothy's version, and they loved it! They even wanted to sing along, so I gave them the words. However this song is far from easy to learn! I had also made a little worksheet with an explanation all about the festival. That the good boys and girls receive presents and sweets whilst the naughty children get a lump of coal from the Père Fouettard (literally Father Whipper). To my surprise however, some told me that they received a piece of coal from the 3 Kings... to eat! Apparently, here in Spain, the "coal" is sweet and they can eat it. So everyone is happy, even the naughty ones!

Each child then wrote their letter to St Nicholas. They then had to decorate it and I gave them a prize.

I then looked forward to taking part in this experience with my housemates. So I had wanted to set up some empty plates on the table, like in Belgium, and then fill them with sweets in the morning. But I instead decided on glasses filled with Speculoos and sweets. So I went to Mercadona, which is a popular supermarket in Spain. But I was out of luck. The problem is that this supermarket only supplies its own brand. So no Kinder sweets and no Speculoos either! So I had to instead go to Corte Ingles. There you can find more international foodstuffs, even if I had to pay more.

So that was the little surprise waiting for people in the morning, everyone loved their present. I also stuck a photo of St Nicholas onto each glass, and we all laughed at his Pope-like costume.

Just for the fun of it... here's a quick glimpse.

And... Thank you St Nicholas!

Photo gallery