Eating, drinking, and not getting much work done for most of December and into January sounds like a great way to spend the holidays, right? The festive season in Umbria and the rest of Italy is a joyous period, even when it gets a little…long and filling. If you’re curious about what we do during a month of feasting and celebrating, I’ve broken it down for you here. This is our family’s version of the holidays, though it’s more or less the MO for observances all over the country. And it all starts, like so many holidays in Italy, with Mary.
The Feast of the Immaculate Conception
December 8 marks the official kick-off of the Christmas holidays in Italy. It’s the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, the day on the Christian calendar that Mary was conceived without original sin. It’s a public holiday, so if it falls on a weekday, there’s no school and most people don’t work. For us and most households, it’s the day we put up our Christmas tree and outside lights on the house.
We get a ~10 day break before school gets out, but there’s something about all those lights being strung up all over town that just makes people hungrier and thirstier. Friends and relatives propose get-togethers for coffee, aperitivo and dinners, and there’s no getting off the rollercoaster. If there are young children in your family, you also have to expect holiday recitals — Naomi had her school concert and play, and then a dance recital, plus extra rehearsals leading up to both of them.
Christmas Eve
December 24, Christmas Eve, is called the vigilia, or the vigil, in Italian. The faithful don’t eat any meat or poultry that day, but fish is allowed. We’ve all placed our orders with the fishmonger ahead of time, so fridges are full of fresh fish and seafood. Paolo’s family all gather in his mom’s rustico, or basement kitchen, for a seafood feast that involves so many different courses of fish that everyone loses count. After spending most of my pre-Italy life in Florida eating shrimp cocktail, I’ve gotten more daring about eating seafood—I used to turn my nose up at a lot more courses than I do now. Still, it’s a bit of a food orgy, and everyone is groaning and saying basta! well before dessert comes around. But they just keep eating anyway. “Just keep eating anyway” is kind of a theme this month, come to think of it.
That same night, we play a rousing game of tombola, which is like bingo except with a lot more yelling, because Italy. I won a round this year, for what I’m pretty sure is the first time in 14 Christmases in Italy. Just before midnight, some guests head out to midnight mass while everyone else hits the sack.
Christmas Day
December 25, is, of course, the big day and this year, I finally got everyone to wear Christmas pajamas. Naomi has always liked to sleep in, so even on Christmas morning, we’ve never had to wake at 6 am, other than to assemble gifts or fill stockings while she snoozed away. Once gifts are opened, families with kids tend to make the rounds, to exchange gifts that Babbo Natale (Santa Claus) has left at their respective houses. Then we stop at the bar for an aperitivo before heading to Franca’s for another huge lunch. For most Italians that do a family meal today, it occurs at lunch, while evenings are usually just spent relaxing at home—or at the bar.
Dear reader, did you notice I’ve only gotten through December 25th?
Giorno di Santo Stefano and Presepe Vivente
December 26 is the Giorno di Santo Stefano (St. Steven’s Day), another holiday in Italy. We spend it relaxing, though lots of more ambitious Italians will get out and walk or hike today, if the weather allows it. The big event this evening is Allerona’s annual presepe vivente, or living nativity scene. It’s organized by our pro loco, a team of volunteers who put together community events throughout the year. The presepe is perhaps their biggest effort, and involves scores of volunteers working weeks ahead of time to set up dozens of vignettes in piazzas, staircases, alleyways and cantinas across the village, all designed to look like a biblical-era setting. Spectators pay to visit the presepe, which lasts about two hours—a huge undertaking that’s over in a flash.
This year, more than 150 of us dressed in handmade costumes and took our positions around town—Paolo was a Magi (a rather coveted role), and Naomi and I worked the spice market. I know this will come as a shock to everyone reading, but when the presepe is over, we all changed out of our costumes and headed…to the bar.
During the rest of the week after Christmas, people tend to have dates for dinners or drinks or coffee with friends, as everyone uses their time off to catch up over the holidays. Things are fairly quiet until…
New Year’s Eve
December 31, New Year’s Eve. As in most places in the world, Italians have either shored up their NYE plans weeks in advance, are suffering from major FOMO, or are content to stay at home, watch Gianni Morandi on TV and (possibly) wait until midnight before hitting the sack.
A few weeks before New Year’s Eve, a lot of restaurants, especially casual eateries like pizzerias, will present multi-course menus you can order for asporto, or take away. Menus vary in price and richness, but every one of them includes cotechino con lenticche, which is a type of pork sausage cooked with lentils. It’s traditional to eat this dish at midnight to bring good luck for the new year. Another tradition: you wear red underwear on New Year’s Eve—for good luck in the new year.
This year, we organized a small gathering of friends at our home, and ordered the NYE menu from a pizzeria in Allerona Scalo. We ate the lentils before midnight, though, so we could let off fireworks when the clock tolled. Hopefully, we did not condemn ourselves to bad luck in 2024!
New Year’s Day
January 1, New Year’s Day, gets off to a late start, and naturally, involves lunch at Franca’s. In many places in the Western World, this would be the end of the holiday season. But in Italy, we’re still not done yet. Christmas decorations remain in place, and for many, the first week of January is a vacation period while we wait for…
The Epiphany & La Befana
January 6 is the day of the Epiphany, when the three wise men, or the Magi, followed the star to the manger of Baby Jesus. In Italy, Epifania has been slanged into La Befana, and is marked by a visit from the eponymous Befana, a witchlike character who rides a broom, likes to drink red wine (because Italy) and visits in the middle of the night to leave stockings for kids, usually filled with chocolate and maybe a small toy. Here, we don’t leave stockings out on Christmas Eve (though I do for Naomi), so kids get La Befana loot instead. You will be shocked to read that we celebrate this day with lunch at Franca’s—though this year we’re mixing things up a bit by going to Paolo’s niece’s house for lunch—albeit all prepared by Franca and Paolo’s sister, Anna Rita.
January 7, praise Befana, we can take down the Christmas tree, lights and decorations. I confess that I have, on the excuse of having to sweep up too many pine needles, taken the tree down on January 2, but I’ve always felt like a bit of a Grinch for doing so.
I mean, it’s a lot. I’m sure it’s because I didn’t grow up with the tradition of observing the Epiphany, but by the first days of January, I get a little antsy, ready to return to a schedule of healthy eating, less drinking, and everyone back to work and school. And for there to please, please, please not be anymore chocolate in my house until Easter. Or at least until Valentine’s Day…
If all these happy gatherings, delicious family meals, gift-giving and joyous celebrations sounds like just the kind of suffering you seek, keep an eye on your inbox. We’ll be announcing our 2025 tour schedule soon, and it will include joining our family for Christmas and New Year’s, with plenty of time to explore our surrounding area of Umbria. Don’t forget to pack your red underwear!
