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