The switch-on
The season starts the evening the Ayuntamiento throws the switch on Avenida Ramón y Cajal, with a flamenco zambomba on the same stage and a lantern parade through the old town beforehand. The date is set fresh each November; the most recently confirmed one is below.
- Lights switch-on (2025 season)
- Saturday 29 November 2025, 20:00, Avenida Ramón y Cajal
- Pasacalles (2025 season)
- Hadas de la Luna, 18:30 from Plaza Santo Cristo
The Alameda
Through December the Paseo de la Alameda is the family end of the season: the municipal belén is inaugurated there at the start of the month, and the Casa de Papá Noel takes letters in the runup to the 24th. Both are free, both are the Ayuntamiento's own doing, and both keep the same shape from year to year even as the dates shift by a few days.
- Belén Municipal (2024/25 season)
- Paseo de la Alameda, inaugurated 5 December, 18:00
- Casa de Papá Noel (2024/25 season)
- Paseo de la Alameda, 13 to 24 December
Parque Mágico de Navidad
Between the two holidays the Delegación de Fiestas runs a children's park with a synthetic ice rink, a Christmas train and inflatables. It closes on New Year's Day itself, which tells you who it is for and what their parents are doing the night before.
- Dates (2024/25 season)
- 30 December to 5 January, closed 1 January
- Venue (2024/25 season)
- Complejo deportivo Antonio Serrano Lima, campo Jesús Cortés 'Pori'
Nochevieja
New Year's Eve is the one night the town does in public: fireworks and the midnight campanadas in the Parque de la Represa in Marbella and the Plaza de la Iglesia in San Pedro, and twelve grapes eaten against the chimes, one per stroke, which is harder than it sounds. No ticket, no minimum spend.
- Fireworks and campanadas
- 31 December, 23:00 onwards, Parque de la Represa (Marbella) and Plaza de la Iglesia (San Pedro)
Reyes
The season does not end on 1 January. The Reyes Magos arrive by boat at the marina on the 4th, spend the night at the castle, and parade through town on the 5th; the 6th is the gift morning and the roscón. Ask a local child which matters more, Christmas or Reyes, and you will get a firm answer.
- The Kings arrive (2024/25 season)
- 4 January, 17:00, by boat at the Puerto Deportivo
- Cabalgata route (2024/25 season)
- 5 January, 18:00, Plaza Monseñor Rodrigo Bocanegra to Avenida Severo Ochoa
The gala dinner file
The other half of a Marbella New Year is the hotel gala dinner, and its defining feature in August is that nobody prices it yet: the festive brochures land in autumn. What each house currently publishes is recorded below, and when the menus and prices appear they will be linked here, from the organiser's own page, exactly as published.
How we date this
Every date above comes from the Ayuntamiento de Marbella's own programme or the organiser's own page, read on the date shown. A season not yet announced is represented by the most recently confirmed one, clearly labelled, never projected. Prices follow the same rule: one number in the source is one number here, and a menu is linked, never republished.