The Christmas basket, today converted into an almost mythological object of the work calendar and Spanish commercialwas not born as an innocent gesture or as a marketing strategy, but as a very ancient expression of power, hierarchy and dependence. If the Romans raised their heads today they would not believe it: their sportula is no longer a simple basket, it is something much bigger than the Christmas “Gordo” himself. Literally,
From Rome to the draw of the 21st century. In imperial Rome, during the Saturnalia in December, patrons gave their clients the sportula: a wicker basket with quality food (figs, bay leaves, select products) that was offered during the morning greetingthe morning ritual in which the protected came to pay respect to the patron. That basket It wasn’t just food.: It was a tangible reminder of who protected whom and how subsistence was articulated around personal relationships of fidelity.
Centuries later, this logic reappeared in other forms in the Anglo-Saxon tradition of Boxing Daywhen the wealthy classes distributed boxes with gifts to their domestic servants, and also in the medieval ecclesiastical sphere, where the “Christmas boxes” functioned as donations to the most disadvantaged. The central idea was always the same: close the year with a material gesture that strengthened social, work or moral ties.
The Spanish basket. In Spain, the Christmas basket began to consolidate late 19th century in public organizations and administrations, but it was not until the 1950s when it became widespread as a recognizable business gift, first in the public sector and later in the private sector. Those baskets, wicker and almost Roman in appearance, combined Christmas sweets, sausages, cheeses and bottles of wine or cava, and were usually delivered along with the extra pay.
They were not a luxury, but yes a symbol: the worker brought home something that was opened as a family and consumed on key dates, integrating the world of work into the domestic ritual of Christmas. As the decades passed, the lot stopped being an accessory and became an identifying gesture of the company, an object that spoke of both the budget and the corporate culture.
From ham to musical. The social and labor evolution of the country has been pushing the basket to transform without extinction. Generational diversity, changes in consumption habits and new food sensitivities have made the unique model stop working. Today, traditional baskets coexist with digital catalogs where employees choose between technological products, cultural experiences or gourmet gifts.
The whole ham gives ground to slicing for economic, practical and demographic reasons, and high-proof beverages are reduced. Vegan, gluten-free or alcohol-free batches appear, and more care is taken with design, sustainability and the continent. However, even those driving the change recognize that a “romanticism” that is difficult to replace persists: the experience of coming home with a box, opening it as a family, and associating that moment with the recognition of the work done during the year.
An industry that lives on a month. Behind this apparently simple gesture there is a highly specialized economic sector that concentrates a good part of your billing in just three months. Companies that think about baskets all year round, that negotiate with suppliers, adjust prices in response to inflation of ham, cocoa or oil, and that have survived crises like that of 2008 by becoming professional and gaining scale.
Large stores and wholesale distributors move hundreds of thousands of lots each campaignfrom modest baskets of less than 10 euros to premium proposals that exceed 1,000. At the same time, the basket has also become a delicate tax area: it is a remuneration in kind when the company delivers it, a capital increase when it is won in a raffle, and a detail that, depending on its value, may require taxation. That fiscal component, paradoxically, has driven some of the most striking innovations.
Promotional image of the “basket” of El Paisano
When the basket surpasses the Gordo. The definitive leap from the symbolic to the spectacular comes when the basket stops being a set of foods and becomes a great vital draw. The best-known case this year is that of the grill The Countrymanin the province of Seville, which since 2008 has been expanding its “Great Basket of Kings” until reaching a value in 2025 close to 850,000 eurosa figure that doubles the net prize of one tenth of the Gordo de Navidad.
High-end cars, motorhomes, motorcycles, an apartment on the coast, technology, gold bars and food coexist in a single prize that, in addition, is awarded with taxes and expenses assumed by the organizer. For ten euros of participation, the winner can wake up with a completely different material life. Here the basket stops being a metaphor and becomes an economic, media and social event.
The bizarre thing is also Christmas. But if anything shows how far this tradition has come, it is its ability to embrace the unusual without complexes. In Ourense, a funeral home decided to put together its Christmas basket inside a coffin displayed in the window. The content, valued at 2,300 eurosincludes everything from technology and appliances to ham and sweets, and the coffin itself can be carried “if the whim is too much.”
Far from being a gratuitous provocation, the raffle has a solidarity purpose and seeks to energize the life of the neighborhood. The scene well summarizes the contemporary spirit of the basket: an object that no longer fears excess, uncomfortable humor or exaggeration, because its main function is to attract attention, generate community and close the year with a story to tell.
Tradition that was never innocent. As we see, since the sportula roman to the basket that is raffled in a coffin or the one that is worth more than the Fat Man without going through the Treasurythe Christmas basket has changed in form, content and scale, but not in profound meaning.
Deep down it is still a closing ritual, a material transfer loaded with social meaning, or a way of saying “you belong to this” or “remember who gave you this joy.” In 2025, this gesture may take the shape of a ham sliced meat, a ticket to a musical, an apartment on the beach or a coffin full of gifts.
What hasn’t changed is its ability to condense in a box (or in something that looks less and less like it) the tensions, aspirations and contradictions of each era.
Image | PXHere, Barcex, Public Domain
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