Barcelona La Fira de Santa Llucia Christmas Market

About Santa Llucia Christmas Market

The Market of Saint Lucia, Fira de Santa Llucia, is Barcelona's oldest Christmas market dating from 1786. The stalls sell Christmas decorations such as trees, mistletoe, figurines and nativity scenes. Before visiting it is useful to understand Catalan Christmas traditions so that what you will see seems a lot less weird!.

Tio de Nadal Christmas log tradition

A section of log about 30cm long standing up on two sticks with a smiling face painted on one end of the log and wearing a Christmas sock hat, a miniature of the traditional barretina.

Beginning with the Feast of the Immaculate Conception (December 8), one gives the Tio de Nadal a little bit to eat every night and usually covers him with a blanket so that he will not be cold. The story goes that in the days preceding Christmas, children must take good care of the log, keeping it warm and feeding it, so that it will defecate presents on Christmas Eve or Christmas day.

On Christmas Day or Christmas Even evening the Tio de Nadal is put partly into the fireplace and ordered to defecate. The fire part of this tradition is no longer as widespread as it once was, since many modern homes do not have a fireplace. To make it defecate, one beats the tio with sticks, while singing songs of Tio de Nadal.

Before beating the Tio de Nadal with a stick, all the children have to leave the room and go to another place of the house to pray for the Tio de Nadal to deliver a lot of presents. Children go to a different room, usually the kitchen, to warm their stick next to a fire. This makes the perfect excuse for the relatives to put the presents under the blanket while the kids are praying and warming their sticks.

The Tio de Nadal does not drop large objects as those are considered to be brought by the Three Wise Men. It does leave candy and sweets, nuts and torrons. torrons are bars of sweets made from nougat, almonds, marzipan, chocolate, eggs and honey. Tio de Nadal also leaves small toys and in more rural areas dried figs. What comes out of Tio de Nadal are communal gifts shared between the whole family.

The Tio de Nadal is often refereed to Caga Tio ("poo log"). This derives from the many songs of Tio de Nadal that begin with this phrase.

Pesebres de Nadal Christmas tradition

Pesebres de Nadal is the custom of representing the birth of Jesus in a Nativity scene. The first instance of a Pesebre in Catalunya appears on a Roman sarcophagus from the 4th century. The first documented pesebres from the medieval period of the 14th century. Pesebres first started in Palaces and churches and later moved into homes becoming an established household practice during the 18th century.

In Catalunya the traditional nativity scene is built from plant elements such as moss, cork and butcher's broom. The nativity scene is normally located in a cave or a stable and can include the annunciation and the three Kings to complete the story. The manger can contain more scenes and characters such as the woman who washes, the old woman who spins, a fisherman, shepherds bringing presents to the baby Jesus and some rather old fashioned ones like a chaplain with an umbrella, a guard civilian, the hunter, etc. Standing out in a Catalan nativity scene is the caganer. (The pooper) A squatting figure with pants round ankles.

Image Gallery for Santa Llucia Christmas Market

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Visiting Santa Llucia Christmas Market

This year 2023, the christmas fair is open from Saturday 25th November to Saturday 23rd December Every day from 10:00h to 21:00h.

Notable stores are Artesania Bertran, Artesania Bonet, Caganer.com, Deulofeu artesans del pessebre since 1929 and Els Pessebres de la Pepa

Getting to Santa Llucia Christmas Market

Address: Plaza Nova S/N, Barcelona. 08002

Santa Llucia Christmas Market is held in front of Barcelona Cathedral located in the middle of the Gothic Quarter approximately equidistant from Plaza Catalunya on the green (L3) line or Jaume I on the yellow (L4) line of the metro network. Use a T-Casual or Hola-Barcelona travel card.

Where to stay overnight in the Santa Llucia Christmas Market