Maren, Basque Country, Spain
I’m from the Basque Country and I celebrate Christmas on the 24th and 25th of December.
My family and I have dinner with my mum’s family. Usually there are about 25 of us, including my grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins.
For dinner, we usually have starters such as ham, prawns, salmon, txaka (crab with mayonnaise) or fish pie; and as main dishes, we have cod in pil-pil sauce and roasted lamb.
As a dessert, we usually have different kinds of cakes like apple pie or cheesecake in addition to traditional sweets such as turrón (nougat) or marzipan.
After dinner, we love singing. One of my cousins plays the guitar and another one plays Trikitixa (a small accordion). We sing traditional songs.
In the Basque Country, in addition to the 3 Kings (Reyes Magos), who arrive with presents on the night of the 5th of January, we have the Olentzero, a coalman who comes down from the mountains with presents for the children. So we sing to him in order to receive the presents.
