How to Celebrate Christmas Like an Italian

Italy at christmas in a festival worth replicating, here’s how to do it

We Americans are good at many things, but serene holiday energy isn’t always one of them. Italians, on the other hand, seem born knowing how to sink into the season like a cat stretching into a patch of winter sun. And after living in Umbria, I learned a few ways to bring that spirit home.

Here are eight Italian-inspired ways to reclaim the holidays, to help you savor the firelight instead of wondering where the wrapping paper went:

How to celebrate Christmas like an Italian

1. Start late, savor long.
In Spello, the lights don’t flicker on until December 8th—the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. And Christmas doesn’t end until Epiphany in January. It’s a beautifully contained window: enough time to really feel it, but not so much time on the island of misfit toys that the magic wears thin.

2. Switch the soundtrack.
May I suggest Italian Christmas music? Preferably with a zampognari (bagpipe player). Once, in the fog outside our apartment, a man from Abruzzo played his bagpipe and—I promise you—it felt like standing inside a snow globe. My favorite song is Siam Pastori e Pastorelli, which Siena sang with her classmates in Santa Maria Maggiore. You can find it on Spotify if you want a little Spellano holiday moment.

3. Put away the butter.
Instead of exhausting yourself with 27 varieties of cookies, treat yourself to a really good panettone or pandoro. Slice it for breakfast with espresso or serve it in the afternoon with prosecco. Italians understand the magic of simple pleasures. (My favorite is from Williams Sonoma, though I've heard the Trader Joe's one is excellent and I'm tucking into that this week). 

4. Be with people.
Italian towns hum with social life in December. Here, by contrast, our holiday busyness can verge on apocalyptic. This year, take a breath. Invite someone over for panettone. Or just stop to compliment a stranger’s knit hat. It’s worth being three minutes late if you’ve shared a genuine human moment.

5. Eat fish.
Whether or not the “Feast of Seven Fishes” exists (Italians are united in telling me it does not except when they are convincing me it does), Christmas Eve in Italy is definitely a seafood night. We make linguini and clams every year—Keith cooks while I admire the fire and the candy. Often our holiday party is a "Feast of the Several Fishes"—all the fun without the number crunching. For example: Swedish Fish are a must. 

6. Create a presepe.
Instead of buying a nativity scene, the Spellani make them—out of boxes, moss, whatever’s on hand. It’s humble and heartfelt. And we always let the wise men wander the room day by day, inching toward the stable, while Baby Jesus stayed hidden until Christmas Eve. It’s infinitely more charming than anything that tattles to Santa.

7. Share the spotlight.
Why not invite La Befana, the kindly Italian Christmas witch, to your holiday season? If ever a time called for more whimsical elder women, it’s this one. 

Speaking of sharing the spotlight, one thing I love about Italy is how cities like Venice make a point of acknowledging Hanukkah with a festive menorah that stretches across a piazza. Let's celebrate our friends' devotion, no matter their symbology or image of divinity. Love's tent is huge.

8. Celebrate on Christmas Eve.
There is something transportive about opening gifts after a dinner of linguini, clams, wine, and tiramisu (though this year we'll have the poached pears from the recipe I included in the last Grapevine…are you signed up so you can get travel inspiration and recipes right into your email inbox?), by the light of the fire and the moon slipping across your children’s cheeks. If you’ve never tried it, I can’t recommend it enough.

So if your wicker angels stay in the attic this year, or the eggnog never materializes, or a few presents run late (though if you are actually stuck on gifts, check out my Gift Guide for people who want to slow down and savor life, Italian style!)—let it go. Lean into what the season can mean, rather than what you see on Pinterest.

Make it simple.
Make it joyful.
Make it Italian.

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