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In Spain Navidad (Christmas) is a season that lasts nearly a month, beginning December 8th with the feast of the Immaculate Conception (the Virgin Mary is the patron saint of Spain) and ending January 6 with Epiphany. The season emphasizes religious rather than the secular traditions celebrated so much elsewhere. Much time is spent in church. Most homes have mangers. Festive aspects include special dances, bonfires and a Christmas dinner (featuring seafood). On Epiphany Eve children fill their shoes with grass, straw or grain for the camels of the Wise Men and place them on the doorstep. On the morning of Epiphany (Three Kings Day) the children find the gifts left by the Wise Men. The Wise Men play a role similar to Santa Claus — they visit hospitals, appear in parades and children write them letters requesting special gifts. The Christmas lottery in Spain is the largest in the world. The winning numbers are sung by orphan schoolchildren on December 22. Another lottery, the Christ Child, is drawn on January 7th.

In Sweden the Christmas season begins with St. Lucia's Day on December 13. "Lucia" is Latin for "light", and the "festival of lights" probably has its roots in pagan solstice celebrations. Homes commonly have four-candle Advent candelabras, one candle being lit on each Sunday after Advent. Saint Lucia is said to be a third century Roman Christian woman who refused to marry a pagan nobleman. The nobleman reported her adherence to the illegal Christian faith to the authorities, who killed her in prison as a result of her intransigence. Swedish girls dress in bridal white to honor Saint Lucia. St. Lucy's Day is also observed in Finland & Italy (especially in Sicily).

Italy, like Spain, emphasizes Nativity scenes and religious aspects of the season in its Christmas observances. People fast and pray prior to Christmas dinner. Epiphany is similarly the day for gifts, but the gifts are left by an elderly woman (La Befana) who had intended to help the wise men find the young Jesus — but had been busy cleaning. Children write letters to La Befana requesting toys. Dressed in black she flies on the broom she had been using for sweeping and slides down the chimney on Epiphany Eve to fill the good children's stockings with gifts and to leave a lump of coal in the stockings of bad children. A large Christmas tree is ceremoniously presented at the Vatican by the Pope, much the way the National Christmas tree presented by the American President. The Pope blesses crowds in Vatican square at noon on Christmas Day.