Christmas

What better place to finish our series of Christmas blogs than in Finland, and specifically in the city of Rovaniemi? Not only can it boast the northernmost McDonald’s in the world, but as the capital of Lapland, it also qualifies as the ‘official’ home of Father Christmas himself.

About 5 miles northeast of Rovaniemi is Santa Claus Village, built at precisely 66°32′ north because that’s precisely where the Arctic Circle is. Well, OK, it isn’t really. The Arctic Circle is technically defined as read more

Today, as the focus of this series of seasonal blogs switches to Italy, we’re considering strategies for doubling your Yuletide present haul. And the Italians have come up with a smart answer: why not arrange for two sets of magical deliveries over the festive period, instead of just one?

In Italy, you see, Santa is something of a Johnny-come-lately, muscling in on the traditional territory of La Befana – the Epiphany witch (whose name may in fact be a corruption of read more

Christmas hasn’t always been a big deal in Greece. Greeks have, not unreasonably, considered Christ’s death and sacrifice as being more central to the message of the Christian gospel than Christmas, and therefore have traditionally focused on Easter instead – although this isn’t to say that Greece doesn’t have its own distinctive Christmas traditions. Historically, the main festive symbol in the country over the Christmas period has been a shallow wooden bowl with a sprig of basil and a wooden read more

Today’s Christmas blog features Spain. In something of a departure for this series, I’m not going to attempt to sum up a range of typical Spanish Yule customs, but instead I’ll focus on one particular festive obsession in Spain - the national Sorteo de Navidad Christmas lottery, commonly (although technically incorrectly, I understand) referred to as El Gordo – ‘The Fat One’.

El Gordo – technical accuracy be darned, I say – is a festive government cash-in scheme with a surprisingly long heritage, read more