Toy shops

There are two toy shops in Torre del Mar: a branch of a national chain on Avenida de Andalucía, with more than three hundred public reviews and the wider range, and a small children's shop in the centre with a perfect score on a much smaller number.

The presents arrive on 6 January

The main gift day in Spain is not 25 December, it is Epiphany, the day of the Three Kings. Children write to the Kings, the parade goes through the town on the evening of the fifth, and the presents are opened on the morning of the sixth.

What that means in practice

• Order weeks ahead. Between the last days of December and 5 January the shops are stripped, and what is not in stock cannot be brought in for the date.
• The fifth closes early. Shops shut in the afternoon for the parade. If you have left it to that day, you have left it too late.

Outside that fortnight the trade is quiet and both shops will order what they do not carry.