Anton Du Beke has admitted he’s “slightly disappointed” not to be returning to the dancefloor for Strictly’s Christmas special.
Anton went from pro dancer to judge on Strictly this year, stepping in for Bruno Tonioli who couldn’t travel from the US due to the pandemic.
And he’s set to return to the judging panel for Christmas Day’s Strictly special, once again joining Shirley Ballas, Craig Revel Horwood and Motsi Mabuse.
Anton said: “I LOVE the Christmas special – it’s marvellous, the songs are great and the costumes are amazing.
“I’m slightly disappointed that I’m judging as I’d love to be dancing in it because I love it so much. And, you can’t get voted off, that’s what I love about it most!”
He added: “I’m looking forward to judging in it though and dressing up, I don’t know what costume I’m going to be in yet but it will be something fabulous.”
Meanwhile speaking about his own Christmas traditions, Anton shared: “I start thinking about it the moment Guy Fawkes is over, then it’s full steam ahead for Christmas. We get Christmas trees at the beginning of December so that’s when we start gearing up!
“We love a very traditional Christmas – we always have stockings – well I say that, it used to be stockings when we were younger but now it’s turned into pillow cases – it will be duvet covers in the next few years because of how big things are now!
“But we’ve just had lovely Christmas stockings sent to us which have been embroidered with the children’s names, so they look amazing.
“We’ll get the legend of Father Christmas going soon with the children and we’ll have mince pies by the chimney; turkey with all the trimmings – we’ll do it all.
“And this year we have a piano and we have a Christmas song book which we are going to learn how to play Christmas songs in the house – so that will become our new Christmas tradition.
“Oh and Christmas movies too, we always have the musical Scrooge on Christmas Eve, it’s the old one from the 70’s with Albert Finney – it has the best tunes.”
Strictly’s festive special will air on BBC One this Christmas Day (Saturday, 25 December) at 7:10PM.
Those confirmed to be appearing on the one-off show include TV personality Fred Sirieix who will be paired with Dianne Buswell, The Repair Shop’s Jay Blades, dancing with Luba Mushtuk and popstar Anne-Marie, partnered with Graziano Di Prima.
Newsreader Moira Stuart will perform with Aljaž Škorjanec, broadcaster Adrian Chiles will dance with Jowita Przystal and comedian Mel Giedroyc completes the line up, dancing with Neil Jones.
For now, the main series of Strictly continues Saturday night on BBC One.
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