Feasting is a word that could aptly sum up December in Ibiza. Like the rest of the western world, Christmas and New Year celebrations are centred round big set piece meals and Ibiza's restaurants have now started to advertise their special menus for the pre-Christmas 'work's do's' and the family get-togethers on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve.
However, there are some cheaper alternatives for eating out running during December; the Restaurat scheme still has a couple of weeks to run in San Antonio, Cañas'n'Roll will be rocking San Jose until the 18th, and the De Gusta scheme lasts until Easter throughout the island.
Christmas officially starts on December 2nd when Ibiza town switches on the Christmas illuminations and they've stolen a march on all the other municipalities by publishing their programme of activities already.
Suffice it to say that the other towns will have marquees in the main squares where there'll be groups, music, live performances, and lots going on over the festive period. We'll have the details in our news section soon.
Here's our tip if you've never been in Spain for Christmas and New Year – absolutely no-one ventures out into the bars before midnight on the two big nights, in fact most are shut until that time, when the party really does start with a bang!
And finally, there are a couple of unusual sporting events which always take place this month; the swim across the icy waters of San Antonio harbour on Christmas Day at 12.00 and the race up to the Cathedral on NYE at 16.30 – rather them than me.