Christmas in Madrid

I have been incredibly slack about blog posts, so this is my pathetic attempt to revitalize my blog. 

I opted to not go home for Christmas break since I was required to work until December 23rd. I figured if I had tried to get home, I would have ended up stuck in an airport for Christmas, and I certainly didn’t want that. 

In some ways, I’m glad I stayed because the Christmas parties at school were sublime! I had so much fun with the children. December 23rd was a big day at Colegio Antonio Machado. After all, it was the day that the Los Reyes Magos visited the school! In Spain, Santa Claus is a new thing. Most families celebrate Christmas eve with dinner and drinks. However, Santa Claus is more mainstream and doesn’t bring a sack full of toys down the chimney. Most kids might get one present from “Santa” on Christmas day, but the real day they look forward to is January 6th, when the Three Kings come. One of my favorite students raised his hand during class when we were talking about Christmas to share that the Three Kings had visited his house last year, and he was sure of it. The other kids were intrigued, as was I, as he continued with his story. “I knew they had been because I woke up and there was camel hair everywhere! The Three Kings’ camels came right through my living room!” The combination of the statement and his face when he said it nearly sent me into hysterical laughter. I tried to hide my face as to not discredit what he had seen in his living room. I applaud the parents of this child for finding something that resembles camel hair, and then having such Christmas spirit as to scatter it all over their house. Now that’s dedication! Americans must be slacking -- I mean, come on, anyone can take a bite of a Christmas cookie left for Santa and drink a glass of milk. I think when I have kids I’m going to put reindeer tracks in my living room. Or, who knows, maybe I’ll adopt the Three Kings holiday and go rogue with some camel hair. Either way, it will be epic, and my kids will love it. 

On the last day of school before Christmas break, there were hardly any classes. It was probably a good thing, though, because there’s no way the children would have paid attention. I was a tad bit late to class that day, and I was a little worried because I didn’t really know what was in store or if I had any Christmas duties. No one informed me, but my first graders were to put on a Christmas play that morning. I walked into a chaotic classroom full of teachers and...sea creatures? I did a double-take as I looked at my 50 first graders dressed as everything from sharks to starfish to squid. I asked my teacher, Estrella, “This is a Christmas play, right?” To which she replied, “But of course! Christmas under the sea!” Of course! How could I not have seen that? Scanning the room, I had never loved those kids as much as that moment. They were absolutely adorable. Once they were in their places and ready for their big performance, different grades would come in, sit on the floor, and watch the Christmas Under the Sea masterpiece. The plot of the play was something like this: 

All the sea creatures were going about their daily sea creature lives when they spotted two sailors, a boy and a girl. They started asking each other why there would be sailors under the sea, and finally one brave starfish got up the nerve to ask them. The sailors explained that they were on the way to find the baby Jesus and they had gotten a little lost. The sea creatures pleaded to the sailors to let them join the sailors on their quest. The sailors, with the attitude of “the more the merrier”, permitted the sea creatures to join them and they sailed off to find the baby Jesus. 

I managed to get a video of the play...

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/89Vyln42bXgc-7Ocf-s7O-Y1Oxda9blzqvQV0z072Ts?feat=directlink

After being with the first graders for the morning, I headed down to the teacher’s lounge to find special Christmas treats! This is a traditional Christmas bread, which can have nata (cream) in between the layers. One fun fact about this Christmas bread is that there is a little prize baked into the bread. It’s usually a little toy or figurine. Each classroom was provided the bread as well, and the kids were very anxious to find the prize! 

One of the big events of the day was the arrival of the Three Kings, which, in reality, were three willing dads. Their costumes were absolutely grand. Each class had the opportunity to go downstairs, sing the Christmas songs they had been preparing for almost a month, and then give the Kings a letter that they had written indicating what they would like for Christmas. 

After “classes” were over, all of the teachers gathered in the teacher’s lounge for a Christmas lunch. There was such a spread, and enough wine to get all of us pretty tipsy. Viva España! All of the teachers had been participating in “Amigos Invisibles”, which is much like the American version of secret santa, but with a twist. The teachers would put little gifts into their “invisible friend’s” mailbox every couple of days. Sometimes the gifts would require that teacher to do something in order to get their big gift on the 23rd. For example, my first grade teacher, Estrella, received a gift that told her that if she wanted her gift, she had to sing and dance in front of all the teachers. It caught us off guard when she broke out into an extravagant flamenco number in the middle of the break room. It’s a shame she terrified of that kind of public display because she was wonderful! Another twist to the “amigos invisibles” is that when you give the big gift on the 23rd, you put a picture of yourself as a baby or toddler, and the person has to guess who it’s from before they can open it. It was great fun seeing all of the teachers, most of whom are old enough to be my grandparents, as little “youngins”. So, as we ate our Christmas lunch and drank our Christmas wine, we were entertained to the fullest. It was a lot of fun, and I’m glad that I stayed to witness the Spanish Christmas traditions at school. I certainly had a greater appreciation for Christmas celebrations in a different culture after spending that day at school.



 

The next day, Christmas Eve day, my friend Jamie and I spent the evening with some friends. We ended up cooking cochinillo, which is a Spanish delicacy at Christmas time. Cochinillo is a baby pig. The process of buying, cooking, and eating cochinillo is something I will definitely never forget. Surprisingly, it was rather tough, and had a not-so-pleasant taste. Personally, I don’t think we cooked it long enough. Guess we’ll never know!