The Christmas special opened with a festive group routine.

Winners of Christmas Strictly

Scarlett and Vito lifted the trophy (Image: BBC)

Former Gogglebox star Scarlett Moffatt has been crowned the winner of this year’s Strictly Come Dancing Christmas special, alongside her professional dance partner Vito Coppola. The dancing duo, who performed a Cha Cha to Cher’s DJ Play A Christmas Song, won the hearts of the judges and the studio audience before being declared the champions.

They closed the 75-minute special and received a full score of 40 from the judges. The panel’s points, mixed with the studio audience’s votes, resulted in them lifting Strictly’s Christmas Star Trophy. Scarlett, 35, was full of glee as she spoke to presenter Tess Daly about the win. “This is amazing,” she exclaimed. “I feel like I should have prepared a speech! This is honestly the greatest gift that could have ever happened at Christmas. We’ve all just had the best time.” Scarlett and Vito were joined in the competition by Brian McFadden and Michelle Tsiakkas, Jodie Ounsley aka Fury and Neil Jones, Babatunde Aléshé and Nancy Xu, Melanie Blatt and Kai Widdrington and Nicholas Bailey and Luba Mushtuk.

Strictly Come Dancing cast

The star-studded line up wowed the audience (Image: BBC)

Unfortunately, not all fans were impressed with the winner announcement. Some fans thought that others deserved to win, mostly because Scarlett has a background in dance.

Posting to X/Twitter, one fan fumed: “@bbcstrictly. Justice for Melanie and Kai!! They deserved to win. #strictly #StrictlyComeDancing.”

Another sarcastically penned: “What a shock Scarlett winning #strictly,” as someone else added: ” #StrictlyComeDancing #Strictly #SCD Nicholas was robbed. Great show though.”

One more person raged: “THEY DIDN’T DESERVE TO WIN, absolutely not. #strictly.”

 

Scarlett and Vito

Scarlett and Vito were announced as the winners (Image: BBC)

The Christmas special opened with a festive group routine to Kelly Clarkson’s Grown Up Christmas List and We Need A Little Christmas from the musical Mame.

To end the BBC show, the celebs and their professional partners performed to Happy Holiday / Let Yourself Go from White Christmas.

The Strictly judges joined in for the closing number, which ended with Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman’s final ever “keeeeep dancing”, after announcing their departure before the end of the last series.

It was an emotional end to an era as fans admitted that they were “in tears” over the hosts’ exits.