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Amanda & Alan's Spanish Christmas

Best friends Amanda and Alan return to Spain in the festive season for a one-off Christmas special. They’re back in the village of Moclin, where they spent a long, hot summer turning an old wreck into a dreamy B&B. Before they put the house on the market, they want to throw one final party to say thank you to all their friends who helped them with the project.\n\nReuniting with some old faces, Amanda and Alan reveal that they want to celebrate an Anglo-Spanish Christmas, which will culminate in them hosting a big feast at their Moclin home. Keen to learn what local festive traditions they can adopt, Alan suspects it will be a unique experience, while Amanda warns there will be a couple of their own British traditions thrown in for good measure.\n\nAfter Alan professes a love of Christmas maximalism, Amanda worries that his festive decorating skills could be up there with his actual decorating skills. Not wanting anything clumsy this season, Amanda is all about a classy Christmas aesthetic when it comes to decorating their house. Unfortunately, Alan has other ideas as he heads to buy some tree decorations and gets carried away in the tinsel department.\n\nWith a menu to plan, the two friends swap their boiler suits for aprons. Alan invites over his favourite local, Marco the mayor, to help prepare his mum’s shrimp cocktail. But the mayor’s penchant for Tabasco nearly upends Alan’s precious recipe, and he has a job on his hands to keep his sous chef under control!\n\nMeanwhile, Amanda is in charge of desserts and visits one of Granada’s oldest bakeries to learn about Spain’s famous three kings cake, where gifts are hidden and the finder of the king is rewarded with special treatment for the day. Not to be outdone by Spanish traditions, Amanda introduces the locals to her nan’s famous sherry trifle. Who better to help her than her favourite sherry man, Juan, who travels over from Jerez to assist? The two of them embrace the festive spirit, and their dinner guests are in for a treat as Amanda is especially liberal with the quantity of sherry mixed into the cream.\n\nAway from the menu planning, the two best friends make the most of the Christmas season to enjoy other Andalusian delights. They take a trip to Malaga to enjoy the best light show in Andalusia, visit the Sierra Nevada mountains for some fun in the snow, sample the best churros and chocolate that Granada has to offer, and even head back to their favourite nudist beach for a festive dip in the sea – Santa hats and all!\n\nBack in Moclin, they throw themselves into a unique Spanish celebration and join in with a zambomba concert, a seasonal take on the flamenco dance. Having to play a percussion instrument with a difference by rubbing a stick up and down, the two of them struggle to control themselves, get the giggles and decide to leave it to the experts.\n\nKeen to get their party off to a bang, Amanda and Alan don their Christmas jumpers for a special cava tasting in Granada and get a lesson in making the perfect seasonal cocktail. As the pair host their friends for one final dinner, all the party planning comes together when they serve their Anglo-Spanish feast and celebrate a proper Christmas knees-up with all their friends.

Source: BBC 1