Christmas Event: Pan Dulces & Mince Pies

What a wonderful way to start the Christmas celebrations! The Gibraltar Heritage Trust hosted a Christmas Event on Wednesday 4th December for members, volunteers and supporters of the Trust. We would like to thank all who attended. The event was based around our new publication, ‘Pan Dulces & Mince Pies: A Llanito Celebration of Christmas Traditions and Memories’, written by Manolo Galliano with illustrations by Victor Hermida. Our Chairman welcomed all guests to the event. Manolo shared some readings from his book and he and Victor spoke about the collaborative journey to bring the book to life, adding that in drawing from their own memories, this book has been the most personal of all their publications. The event was made even more special with the beautiful voices from the Tears of Joy Choir who joined us to sing some traditional carols and villancicos that we all know and which can be found in the book. Much like the recipes you will find throughout the chapters and in the appedix, we brought these foods to life with an assortment of Polvorones, a selection of Turron, Alfajores, Christmas cake, Hojuelas, Rosquitas de Anis and of course Pan Dulce and Mince Pies, all of which were washed down with a warm cup of mulled wine. On display we had nativity cribs (loaned by Alice Mascarenhas), a selection of Christmas cards (donated by Manolo to the Garrison Library),  Zambombas and Panderos (loaned by members of the public), and other memorabilia and festive items liken Anis de Mono, walnuts, serpentinas (paper streamers), matasuegras (curled party horns) and las doce uvas.


Tears of Joy Choir sang Silent Night, 'Arre, Arre Arre La Marimorena', 'Feliz Navidad' and more local villancicos from the book.  

We would also like to thank The Gibraltar Garrison Library for allowing us to use their beautiful historic building for this event which certainly added to the Christmas spirit of the evening. Dive into your Christmas memories and purchase a copy of the book in our bookshop on on our website.

Merry Christmas from the Trust!