How a Catalan Theatre Keeps Its Christmas Tradition Alive on Stage
Roughly three decades ago, a small production team in Figueres staged a show that families could share during the long winter nights of December. What began as a single weekend performance has grown into an annual Christmas show that anchors our winter programming. The story of how it has survived changing tastes and tight budgets is worth telling, especially for readers in Sydney, Melbourne, or Adelaide who might wonder how a Mediterranean town builds the kind of year-on-year theatrical ritual many Australian cities know so well.
Teatre El Jardí sits at the centre of this story. From the first edition in the early 1990s, the programme has been about giving local families a reason to gather. Sala La Cate, our smaller venue, plays its part too, particularly when we experiment with pieces aimed at teenagers and adults.
Over the years, the show has become a marker on Figueres' cultural calendar. Tickets sell out before the end of November, schools ask for matinee slots as soon as autumn arrives, and parents phone the box office the morning after each run ends. That loyalty is why we keep refreshing the production while protecting its heart.
For an Australian audience, the most surprising thing about our December programme is the weather. While broadcasters in Melbourne film sunsets over Bondi Beach on Christmas morning, we wrap up rehearsal in gloves and scarves. The warmth in the room has to work harder, because the chill outside the auditorium is real.
Where It All Began
The first Christmas show at Teatre El Jardí was modest in every sense. The set was built from borrowed flats, the lighting rig was essentially what we used for drama nights, and there were just four performances across two weekends. None of us expected it to become a recurring fixture.
The decision to repeat it came from a small but important conversation. Local families wrote to the box office asking if the show would return, and several mentioned that their children had talked about the characters for weeks afterwards. We kept the same core story for almost a decade before retelling it from scratch. That choice, to honour the familiar shape while refreshing its details, has shaped every version since.
The Creative Team and Rehearsal Rhythm
Building the show is a six-month undertaking that begins quietly each summer. The artistic director sketches a working theme, writers develop a draft, the composer creates melodic motifs, and the set designer starts sketching spatial ideas. By autumn, the production is usually halfway through rehearsal.
| Phase | Timing | Lead Role | Shared With |
|---|---|---|---|
| Theme development | June to July | Artistic director | Writers, composer |
| Draft writing | July to August | Lead writer | Teachers, parents |
| Set construction | September to October | Scenic workshop | Reused modular flats |
| Rehearsals | October to November | Director | ATEB students, choir |
| Performance run | December | Full company | Front-of-house volunteers |
The rehearsal schedule reflects how deeply the production is woven into community life. Adult performers join younger actors from the ATEB theatre school, and parents often volunteer as wardrobe assistants or front-of-house helpers. The whole rhythm feels like preparing for a family reunion.
Behind-the-Scenes Pillars
Each edition rests on a small infrastructure the public rarely sees.
- Carpentry workshops build modular props in late October.
- Costume staff source fabric from regional textile suppliers.
- Lighting designers programme cues on weekends.
- Sound engineers rehearse alongside dancers to balance voice and live music.
Bringing Local Artists On Stage
Local artists sit at the heart of the show. Every edition features at least one musician from the Empordà region, often alongside members of the orchestra we use for opera and dance programmes. We also invite circus performers, dancers, and puppeteers to bring texture to particular scenes.
The set is rarely built from scratch. Our scenic workshop reuses modular flats, doors, and window frames that can be rearranged into dozens of configurations. This saves money and keeps a visual thread alive across seasons. Returning audiences will spot familiar carpentry, freshly painted, playing a different role.
For the 2024 edition, the lead performer wore a coat reconstructed from patterns preserved in the municipal museum. Those choices help the show feel rooted rather than imported, which matters in a town of fewer than fifty thousand people.
Working with Schools and Young Performers
Schools have always been central to the Christmas run. Each year, our education team visits between fifteen and twenty primary schools across the Alt Empordà region to introduce characters, share songs, and fill weekday matinees.
ATEB, the training arm of the organisation, plays a quiet but crucial role. Students often audition for small parts or ensemble spots, and the Christmas production is treated as a graduation of sorts for each cohort of teenage performers. Parents appreciate the chance to see their children on a professional stage. For more on how these young performers engage with our wider programme, the article on our a-look-at-the-children-s-workshops-during-school-holidays page offers a clear window into that world.
Australian audiences might draw a parallel with the way state arts organisations tour school holiday programmes into regional centres, from Townsville to Hobart. The challenge is the same wherever you sit.
A Christmas Season Unlike the One Down Under
Conversations with colleagues who programme venues in Brisbane and Perth have made us aware of how different our Decembers really feel. Australian audiences think of Christmas with humidity, seafood lunches, and Carols in the Domain. Our version leans into woollen scarves, hot chocolate at intermission, and woodsmoke drifting through the lobby from the cast party across the street.
That contrast is part of the appeal for international visitors. Audiences who travel from Adelaide or Canberra say a cold-climate Christmas show feels like stepping into a small European film set, making familiar rituals feel just a little more theatrical.
The programme is calibrated to that feeling. We schedule more matinees than evening performances during the school break, knowing families want to be home before dark. We also programme at least one relaxed performance each season.
What Audiences Often Notice First
- The smell of pine garlands tied to the balcony rails.
- A slower, softer lighting cue before the opening song.
- A live musician tucked into a corner of the set.
- Hot drinks served in real mugs at the lobby kiosk.
The Craft Suppliers Who Help Build the Magic
Very few of the props, costumes, and puppet figures on stage are made entirely in-house. We work with a network of trusted suppliers who understand the pace and tone of a Christmas season. Finding partners who can deliver quickly, repair reliably, and occasionally improvise is half the craft.
For the puppet figures used in recent editions, including the talking fox in the 2023 production and the wooden king in last year's staging, we worked with the team at puppet theatre suppliers. Their workshop handles carved figures, fabric marionettes, and the smaller hand-puppets that appear during children's workshop sessions. Working with specialists gives the production a tactile quality that pre-recorded effects cannot match.
Australia has its own ecosystem of theatrical prop makers, from busy studios in Fitzroy to smaller artisan workshops around Fremantle. The relationship between a regional theatre and its trusted craft suppliers is one of those quiet partnerships that keeps seasonal programming alive.
Each September, the artistic team gathers for a working weekend that sets the tone for the following December. Notes from the previous run are reviewed, audience suggestions are sorted, and a working title is chosen before the meeting ends. That ritual has held for almost twenty years. The 2026 edition is already taking shape, with a collaboration with a flamenco ensemble from Seville confirmed and a young Australian-born playwright based in Barcelona contributing text for a secondary scene. Set designers are experimenting with projection mapping for the first time, and tickets usually go on sale by mid-October with early bird pricing for family passes and pensioners. Follow the build-up, behind-the-scenes photographs, and rehearsal diary posts through the website, subscribe today, and we hope you will join us on the first Friday of December wherever you happen to be celebrating your own winter or your own summer this Christmas.