Strictly Come Dancing 2026 Christmas special confirmed for format shake-up with returning favourites

It's almost the most wonderful time of the year!

Craig Revel Horwood, Motsi Mabuse, Shirley Ballas and Anton Du Beke sat at the judges table, all smiling ahead while holding up green Christmas paddles.

BBC/Guy Levy

Published: Monday, 2 November 2026 at 11:12 am

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The Strictly Come Dancing Christmas special is getting a festive shake-up this year!

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The BBC has confirmed that the yuletide special will be making a return in December and will see six couples battle it out under the glitter ball to be crowned the champion.

And, for the first time in seven years, all of the celebrity contestants taking part will be returning stars of Strictly past.

The dancing duos will each perform a brand new festive-themed routine, as well as taking part in opening and closing group numbers.

The contestants and their professional partners will be confirmed in due course.

The Strictly Come Dancing Christmas special celebrities and professional dancers in 2025.

The Strictly Come Dancing Christmas special celebrities and professional dancers in 2025. BBC/Guy Levy

This isn’t the first time Strictly has welcomed back previous contestants for Christmas, with it happening from 2004 to 2009 and then from 2014 to 2019, but this will be the first Christmas special with returning celebrities in seven years.

Just last year, four celebrities returned to the dance floor for one night only as part of a group dance for the Blackpool special.

Ashley Roberts, Danny Mac, Jay McGuiness and Layton Williams all performed with the professional dancers for a dazzling routine that saw them revisit one of their most famous Strictly moments.

Radio Times understands that the Strictly team were inspired to make this year's show a returning celebs special by the response to last year's 'alumni' dance in Blackpool.

Read more:

Strictly Come Dancing saw yet another celebrity exit the series following an all-new triple dance-off.

In the bottom three were Bethany Antonia and Nancy Xu, Jaime Winstone and Carlos Gu and Lawrence Robb and Jowita Przystał, with the latter pair not saved by the judges and therefore sent home.

The pair finished in ninth place on the judges' leaderboard during Saturday's show, with a total score of 26 points.

They received some positive feedback from the judges, with Craig Revel Horwood calling their routine "sharp, staccato and very entertaining", and Shirley Ballas saying he was "improving" and "shining". However, he faced an uphill battle in the dance-off as Bethany and Jaime had both finished ahead of him on the leaderboard.

Strictly Come Dancing continues on Saturday 7 November at 6:30pm on BBC One and iPlayer.

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Authors

Black and white cut-out portrait headshot of Katelyn Mensah, smiling against a lime green background.

Katelyn MensahSenior Entertainment Writer

Katelyn Mensah is the Senior Entertainment Writer for Radio Times, covering all major entertainment programmes, reality TV shows and the latest hard-hitting documentaries. She previously worked at The Tab, with a focus on reality TV and showbiz news and has obtained a BA (Hons) in Journalism.

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