The figures stand in the Plaza del Ayuntamiento and they are genuinely enormous: Saint Joseph at 17 metres, the Virgin at 10, the infant at 3.25, and Kings running from Melchior at 11 metres to Balthasar at 16. They are the work of the Alicante artist José María García, 'Pachi', and since 2020 Guinness has recognised the scene as the biggest in the world. Standing under them is the sort of thing that photographs badly and works completely in person.
What to expect. The nativity goes up through November and opens with a light-and-sound show — in recent years on the evening of 23 November — then stays in the square through to Twelfth Night. It is free and open air. Alicante builds a broader 'Navidad Gigante' programme of sixty-odd events around it, running to 5 January, and the square goes pedestrian for the season.
Practical bit. Come in the late afternoon or evening: the lighting is the point, and the square is uncomfortably busy on December weekends. Alicante in December is fifteen to eighteen degrees and dry, and the airport is twenty minutes from the centre. Exact opening dates are confirmed in November — check the ayuntamiento before booking around the launch night.
