Christmas and New Year's Eve in Alicante

Christmas and New Year's Eve in Alicante

Christmas and New Year's Eve in Alicante

Christmas in Alicante may involve swapping snow (or more likely rain) for some warm winter sunshine, but you most certainly won't be missing out on the festivity, in the south east of Spain if you want to spend your Christmas holidays in Alicante. Alicante is generally dry and pleasantly mild at this time of year. And, as with much of the rest of Spain, Valencians enjoy a good fiesta - and the festive season has plenty of reasons for celebration.

The season starts early in Alicante itself, with the puppet festival of the Festititeres, at the beginning of December. The International Puppet Festival is a great time to come to Alicante for those with kids. Puppet performances, displays, and even workshops, which your children will find fascinating, are held across the city.

During the build up to Christmas, the churches of Alicante out-compete one another with wonderful Nativity scenes. There are also many charming Nativity plays acted out by local children - shepherd boy plays (or pastorets) or crib-performances (known as pessebres), which are a delight to attend on a holiday in Alicante.

The Nit de Nadal, as Christmas Eve is called in Spain, occasions an evening of family dining. This evening meal is often the biggest culinary celebration of the year, with seafood, lamb and turron - and toasted almond nougat that is a real treat at this time of year. This meal is in preparation for the spiritual highlight of the season, which the whole family will often attend - La Misa Del Gallo. This is the Midnight Mass, and it is so-called because the 'Gallo', or rooster, was the first to witness Jesus' birth.

Christmas Day is a day for a quiet family get together, with small presents given to children but the best presents are reserved for the 6th January, and the feast of the Epiphany. The 26th of December, or La Segona Festa de Nadal, is also a holiday in Alicante, with families often travelling to meet up with far-flung relatives.

Some of the best fun to be had over the festive season is on Spain's Fool's day - traditionally occurring on the 28th December, the Festival of the Holy Innocents. This is the excuse for flour-based mayhem in Ibi, near Alicante, when the flour sacks are let loose spectacularly in a giant flour fight. Men, called Els Enfarinats, dress up in their worst clothes, and choose a mayor for the day; they then process through town, imposing fines on all sundry, and dousing with flour all who stand in their way.

New Year's Eve is marked with more partying, and also sees that splendid Spanish tradition of grape stuffing - the 12 chimes of the midnight bells are marked by a grape each, leaving everyone with grape-filled grins as the New Year comes around.

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