Hi Sunwish. The buses and trains will be running, but banks and most shops will be closed. The Immaculate Conception is not one of the BIG national holidays in Spain (many schools will remain open, for instance), so don't expect the place to come to a standstill. Crucially, bars and restaurants will be open as normal to cater for the lucky ones off that day. By the way, expect to pay 10% extra on taxi fares on the 8th.

the 6th December is also a holiday (Constitution day) giving two holidays in a week. Whenever there are two holidays close to a weekend, the spanish call it a "puente" (bridge) and many take a long weekend. In this case thay will be taking the whole week, as the holidays fall on Tuesday and Thursday. Although this creates havoc to the business world, it will not trouble holidaymakers.
you will find the spanish holidays and fiestas on the benal-life website at http://www.benal-life.com/fiestas/fiestas.htm

No they will not be taking a week for holiday !!

Puente is when the holiday is on a tuesday so they take the Monday off aswell.

We've been told school is open as normal for the 7th but they are still decing about the 6th and 8th.

Good thing is shops will probably be open on Sundays in Dec. That includes all the large centres and dept. stores.

Just visited the benal-life forum page and it's been hacked! All of the posts and all of the subscribed users have disappeared