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The 3 wise men vs Santa A Spanish holiday tradition that Coca-Cola couldn’t market:

We are all familiar to a certain extent with the fact that the figure of Father Christmas was crafted by Coca-Cola. Santa Claus had been portrayed in various ways before 1931. Still, that year the soda company commissioned illustrator Haddon Sundblom to paint the happy, white-bearded character with a red costume that we know today, for their Christmas advertisements. Once those ads were released, the image of Father Christmas was unified all around the globe. However, there is still a corner on this planet where even though Santa has made his presence known through the ways of capitalism, he co-exists with a relatively similar - but at the same time ancient - Christmas tradition: The 3 wise men in Spain. In a nutshell, the story - which appears in the Bible - tells of how a bright star guides Melchior, Gaspar, and Balthazar, filled with presents, to the newly born King of Kings (aka Jesus). They started their journey with their camels on Christmas Eve someplace in the Middle East and made it to Bethlehem with their gifts on the 6th of January. That is why nowadays, children in Spain go to bed every 5th of January full of hope to see presents under the Christmas tree the following day. The festivity is also known as the Three Kings Day, and coming from Spain, for me, it signifies the epitome of tradition and one pillar of the country’s culture. The celebrations start the evening of the 5th - the most magical night of Christmas for everyone in Spain - when towns and cities across the country put on grand parades to greet the justarrived Three Kings from the Middle East. After the parade, children go back home, prepare some cookies and milk for the Kings, water for their camels, and jump into bed full of excitement. The following morning the food is gone, and in its place, presents fill the space under the Christmas tree. This day is spent with family, and there is a vast breakfast where the “Roscón” is the star of the feast. “Roscón” is a crown-shaped, brioche-like cake bread garnished with dried fruit. It also contains two surprises: a porcelain figure of a baby and a dry bean hidden in the dough. Whoever finds the baby will have good luck and be the king of the party, but if you find the bean, you pay for the cake. words by: Eva Castanedo

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The More the Merrier:

For many people including myself, the perfect Christmas, worthy of a John Lewis advert, isn’t all that realistic. Coming from a family which has been changed and expanded (for the better, may I gratefully add) by parents’ divorce and the additions of stepparents and siblings, it goes to show how traditions don’t always have to be old-fashioned – nor do they have to be limited to your closes, immediate family. In my houses, both mum’s and dad’s, it’s always a big, slightly frantic, run up to the holiday. Whether it be taking my younger half-sister into town for a hot chocolate or baking mince pies using my grandma’s filling, there are so many little things that help contribute to our version of a traditional Christmas.

One of our main traditions is to host and attend a ‘progressive supper’ with two other families who live locally. All this entails is moving from one house to the next for each course of the meal – starters, mains, and deserts. Doing so has always been so much fun for all of us and I always look forward to the food, the company… and the drinks! With 13 of us in the whole group, it’s always a bit of a squash and a squeeze around the dining table, but that’s all part of the joy! Getting to share quality time with some of our closest friends, especially now that the ‘kids’ are getting a bit more adult, is so valuable. To be able to spread the responsibility of hosting across each household, certainly leads me to believe that the tradition of generosity at this time of year is so special.

Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or any other holidays you may be celebrating around this time of year, I think it’s crucial to remind ourselves that quality time can be had with anyone close to you. The whitewashed version of a picture-perfect family is so difficult to achieve for so many reasons. But more importantly, why should we need to aspire to that when new traditions can often be better? Finding a family, blood or not, who you genuinely want to be around, this time of year, is surely the sweetest tradition of all and I am so grateful that I can share in a piece of Christmas magic with those that I love, year after year, after year.

Words by Charlotte Crispin Design by Julian Tse