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CHRISTMAS

Where to find traditional British Christmas food in Spain

Here's where Britons can find all their favourite British Christmas treats if they're staying in Spain for the holidays this year or find that they can't bring them with them on the flight due to the customs rules that now apply after Brexit.

mince pies in Spain
Where to buy mince pies in Spain and other British Christmas treats. Photo: bluemorphos / Pixabay

Many of Spain’s 400,000 British residents prefer to stay at home for Christmas rather than go back to Blighty, and thousands of UK tourists also choose to spend the festive period in the warmer areas of Spain.

While this may mean missing friends and family back home, it doesn’t necessarily have to mean missing out on the things that make it feel like a traditional British Christmas.

Mince pies, Christmas puddings and crackers can be a little tricky to find in some places in Spain, but it’s not impossible.

Those that are going back for Christmas may find that as a result of Brexit, they can’t bring their usual treats back with them such as chocolates, sweets, fudge and custard. 

This is because of the EU’s strict customs rules, meaning that imports of animal-derived products brought from outside of the common market are banned or strictly controlled, including anything containing milk, cream, gelatine and the suet you find in your mince pies. 

READ ALSO: Christmas travel between Spain and the UK: What can I not pack in my suitcase?

The Local’s Esme Fox has scoured the country to find the best places to source your British Christmas treats, for those who can’t bring it back with them or who don’t feel quite up to the task of making it all from scratch!

READ ALSO – KEY POINTS: What are the new Covid travel rules between Spain and the UK?

Spain-wide

Overseas Supermarkets stock a range of different British products, including many from Iceland and Waitrose. They have branches across the Costa del Sol, the Costa Blanca, Alicante, the Canary Islands, Ibiza, Murcia and Almería. They sell British Christmas stapes including mince pies, Christmas pudding, ginger sponge pudding and Christmas cake, among others.  

The Food Co. a chain of British supermarkets that opened its doors across Spain in 2019, and have branches in Puerto de Mazarrón (Murcia), Sotogrande, Calahonda, Guadalmina (all in Andalusia), Málaga, Lanzarote and Ciudad Quesada in Alicante. They sell mostly Tesco-branded products, as well as other much-loved British treats.

Taste of America stores can be found in many of the major cities in Spain including Madrid, Barcelona, Sevilla, Zaragoza, León and Valencia. While they stock mainly American holiday treats such as candy canes and cranberry sauce, they do sometimes sell British items too.

British Christmas

British Christmas fare in Spain. Photo: Jill Wellington / Pixabay
 

The gourmet food section of El Corte Inglés is always a good place to look when searching for anything out of the ordinary that you can’t find in the regular supermarkets here. You should be able to find a selection of mince pies and they sometimes stock Christmas crackers too.

Homeware store Muy Mucho, which has branches across the country and sells things such as boxes of Christmas crackers, candy canes and Christmas hot chocolate with marshmallows. Furniture and homeware store Maisons du Monde also sell Christmas crackers. 

Dealz, which is similar to a Poundland-type shop also often sells British favourites and can be found in Madrid, Valencia, Malaga, Alicante, and various towns on the Costa del Sol.

While it’s easy to make your own mulled wine, if you want to buy it instead, both Ikea and Lidl have good alternatives. Ikea sells the Swedish version called glogg, while Lidl has the traditional German glühwein. Lidl also has a great selection of German and Italian Christmas treats in case you’re missing those too, from gingerbread biscuits to panettone

Barcelona

If you’re spending the holidays in Barcelona, the best place to pick up your traditional British Christmas fair is A Taste of Home supermarket, which also has branches just down the coast in Sitges and in Cubelles. They stock everything from Christmas crackers and Christmas puddings to brandy sauce, stuffing mix and chocolate selection boxes.

Valencia

Mercat Central Valencia has a specialist British food stall which sells Christmas must-haves such as mince pies, Christmas puddings, crackers and golden syrup to make those all-important Christmas gingerbread men.

Christmas pudding

Find out where you can buy your Christmas puddings in Spain. Photo: Matt Seymour / Unsplash

Andalusia

Andalusia is one of the easiest regions in Spain to source any British products, including Christmas ones, due to the number of Brits living there and the international shops and supermarkets.

As well as the Overseas stockists of Iceland and Waitrose and the new Food Co. there are Marks & Spencer stores in Marbella and Malaga. Overseas Supermarkets can be found in Puerto Banus, Mijas and Pueblo Nuevo, among others.

Madrid 

While a few years ago there used to be several British shops in Madrid, the Covid-19 pandemic seemed to put an end to most of them. Luckily, Living in London has reopened and continues to sell a range of Christmas puddings, mince pies, cranberry sauce, jars of brandy butter, and biscuits. 

Americans in Madrid may want to check out Yummy Planet, which sells a whole range of imported goods, from cherry and apple pie filling to candy and cake and cookie mixes. 

Go for the Spanish experience! 

Spain of course has its own Christmas traditions and this being Spain, food is at the very heart of it. Don’t miss out on trying seasonal treats such as Roscón de Reyes cake, turrón, polvorónes and so much more!

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TERRORISM

Spain sees heightened terror risk amid global conflicts

Amid rising tensions and conflicts in Ukraine, Gaza and elsewhere around the world, a meeting by Spain's National Security Council has identified several threats to national security, some pre-existing and some new.

Spain sees heightened terror risk amid global conflicts

Global conflict and instability has raised the terror and security risk in Spain. This is what Spain’s National Security Council (CSN) has concluded following a meeting with government ministers on Tuesday to approve security reports and outline new anti-terror strategies. A 61-page document was compiled to replace the previous one approved in 2019 and will be valid for five years.

Among the topics discussed, which are outlined here on the National Security Council website, were the ongoing conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine and the heightened security threats they pose to Spain.

The war in Gaza, the Council states, presents “a real and direct risk” of an increase in “the terrorist threat, violent extremism and the emergence of new movements that promote a radical and violent ideology.”

READ ALSO: Spain could enforce conscription of ordinary citizens if there is war

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the document stresses, is also “a potential catalyst for terrorism”, as it “has led to an increase in the circulation of arms and explosives [in Europe], as well as the participation in the war of volunteer fighters of other nationalities”.

These uncertain global conditions could be exploited by groups or individuals “to undermine public security”, the document adds, and suggests that “state actors could carry out terrorist actions,” in what appears to be an allusion to the assassination of a Russian soldier in Alicante earlier in the year.

READ ALSO: Mystery surrounds death of Russian helicopter deserter in Spain

The meeting and report also outlined broader “risks and threats to national security” grouped into 16 categories, some older and long-established, some much more modern. They range from terrorism and violent radicalisation to the effects of climate change, space vulnerability, cyberspace, organised crime, migratory flows, foreign espionage and interference from abroad.

The CSN detects growing dangers to Spanish airspace, namely “events of commercial satellite launches from aerial platforms crossing controlled airspace, events of re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere of satellite launcher debris, uncontrolled hot air balloon overflights and an increase in drone overflights over military bases,” things that have all been noted in Spain in recent years.

In terms of terrorism, despite the conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine Islamic terrorism remains the greatest threat to Spanish security. “The repeated dismantling of the leaderships of Daesh and Al Qaeda has not succeeded in eliminating these groups, which act in a more decentralised manner than in previous years,” the report states.

During the period covered by the previous security strategy (2019-2023) “more than 110 [security] operations related to terrorism activities have been carried out,” more than 90 of which were linked to jihadist terrorism, the document details. Just 5 percent were linked to domestic terrorism.

Foreign spies operating in Spain were also highlighted as a threat. The CSN report stated that the decision to expel 27 Russian diplomats from Spain at the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 was useful in this regard. “These expulsions significantly reduced their ability to operate on European territory, which led to a notable decrease in the rate of activity of foreign intelligence services in Spain,” the report states.

READ ALSO: Judge in Spain extends probe into Catalan separatist’s ‘Russia ties’

However, the potential threat from the Kremlin is again mentioned as the driving force behind the barrage of hoaxes and disinformation campaigns. In the case of Spain, Moscow reportedly “focuses on trying to spread a distorted image of migration in the Mediterranean and the situation in Ceuta and Melilla”.

But it’s not just the Russians attempting to misinform the public in Spain. The report also points to “official Chinese media and their propagandists on social networks in Spanish have amplified many pro-Russian narratives”, with messages “based on expressing a rejection of the US and the current international order”.

The report lists 83 Russian disinformation incidents and 12 Chinese in the last year alone. Among these, several were aimed at “creating mistrust” in Spain’s electoral processes.

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