Alicante already has its famous Christmas tree up on Avenida de la Constitución. The firm that is putting up the Christmas lights was working on getting everything ready yesterday. The official lighting ceremony will take place here on November 21st at 7:00 PM, a week before Black Friday. This will be the commencement of the Christmas season in the city.
The tree, which has been in the middle of Alicante for the third year in a row, has become one of the most famous emblems of this time of year, together with the huge nativity scene. The Christmas lights will turn on a series of activities and events for residents and tourists during the holiday season.
The Christmas lights, which started going up in September, are going to be the biggest and best in Alicante’s history. They will change the look of the principal streets and squares in the city centre.
Lights
A new holiday lighting contract, thought to be the most ambitious in the city’s history, is being used to show off this year’s Christmas lights. The deal is worth €2.1 million and will last until 2028. It includes a display that has never been seen before, with more than 120 decorated locations instead of 77. The annual budget is €633,000, but it can go up to €700,000 if the Carnival and Bonfire lights are added. Also, every Christmas, four big lighted things, like baubles or present boxes, will be put up for free.
The new decorations will make famous parts of Alicante look better. The Marvá-Soto-Gadea axis will get eight more decorations, Jijona and Novelda avenues will get 22 new light points, Castaños street will get three new decorations, the City Hall plaza will get eleven new decorations, and the Teatro Principal will get two new decorations.
The Central Market will also be a big deal. There will be 600 light lights at the Plaza del 25 de Mayo (560 more than last year) and 900 inside. The Mercado de Carolinas will also get more lights, with 160 more bulbs. Benalúa and Babel will keep the decorations they had last year.
Big Nativity Scene
The giant nativity scene will open next Saturday, November 23rd, at 7:00 p.m. This is earlier than in the past, when emergency work on the municipal facade after a large piece of rubble fell in October 2024 forced the installation to be pushed back to the beginning of December.
Cristina Cutanda, the Councillor for Festivals, confirmed this last Tuesday. She said that the installation will start on Monday, November 17th, in the early morning. The figures, which the Guinness Book of World Records has called the largest in the world since 2020, will once again be on display in Town Hall Square. The sculptor and creator of the figures, José Manuel García Esquiva “Pachi,” who is in charge of the installation, says that this will happen until Thursday, the 20th. The installation will go in the usual order, starting with the figure of Balthazar, then Saint Joseph, the Virgin Mary, Gaspar, Melchior, and lastly, the Baby Jesus.
Also, the nativity scene will be finished being set up in the City Hall entrance hall in the next few days. It will be open to the public on Thursday, November 27th. The four scenes of the social nativity scene will be shown in the Plaza de la Montañeta on November 26th and 27th, respectively, in collaboration with the Association of Nativity Scene Makers of Alicante.
Author: Derek Appleton
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