CHILDREN in Spain are more excited about the Three Kings bringing them presents than Santa Claus, according to a survey by the Spanish Association of Toy Manufacturers (AEFJ).
The group, based in the village of Ibi (Alicante province), where practically every resident lives off the toy-making industry, interviewed 23,500 parents and young people via social networks.
Whilst in the rest of Europe and the Anglo-Saxon world, Father Christmas brings the presents and fills stockings on Christmas Eve – between tea-time and the early hours – and these are unwrapped either on the night of December 24 or Christmas Day morning, in Spain it is the three Wise Men from the East who bear gifts, delivering them on the night of January 5.
In Spain, the Magi are known as the Three Kings, and January 6 is a bank holiday in their honour and the only chance Spanish children get to play with their new toys before going back to school on January 7.
Father Christmas does not even visit some children, but in most cases, where he does, he only leaves a few token gifts.
The study by the AEFJ found that two-thirds of children look forward to Casper, Melchior and Balthazar visiting them, and only 27.48% uphold the tradition of Santa Claus.
Other festive gift-bearing figures in different regions in Spain include the Tío de Nadal and, in the Basque Country, Olentzero, who are the preferred mythical faces of 2.7% and 2.8% of children respectively.
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