How to host an Italian Christmas?
This question makes me smile because it shows two things: firstly, you’re new to the whole Italian Christmas experience, and secondly, you’re clearly committed to doing it right.
It could well be that you love Christmas so much that you can’t get enough of it, wherever it comes from. Or maybe you simply want to learn how other countries and cultures celebrate.
It’s beautiful either way, so let me help you answer that.
Table of Contents
10 Practical & Feel-Good Ways To Host An Italian Christmas
I thought the best way to chat about this topic is to make it super practical by giving you a list of things you can keep in mind. In reality, it’s as emotional as it is a practical list, but I think that’s what makes it even better. Let’s start.
1. Let Your Heart Take Over
Honestly, if I were to give you a simple and quick answer, number one would be the most important thing I can tell you. And it’s this: whatever you do, however you do it, make sure you’re doing it from your heart.
Italians are well known to live life very emotionally, to put a lot of heart into everything that has to do with family and friends, so you shouldn’t be surprised this should be the foundation of your entire Christmas party.
But what does this really mean?
It means that it’s more important to think about how your choices will make people feel than how it will make things look.
Let me give you a few practical examples:
- Your Christmas decor should make people feel comfortable, cosy, happy, as opposed to look so good they’re almost scared to mess it up. Don’t worry, we’ll talk more about Christmas decor in detail.
- The same applies to your menu. The best is to go for traditional dishes you know everyone loves, rather than getting experimental or serving a few unique recipes that you love but others might not be familiar with. Remember Christmas is about tradition.
2. Keep The List Of People Intimate
There’s a very popular Italian saying I mention often in my posts. It’s “Natale con i tuoi, Pasqua con chi vuoi.”
That translates to Christmas with your family, Easter with whoever you want.
I think that says it all. Italians love an intimate family Christmas, especially big celebrations like Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
Of course, the people you and your family consider family is up to you. Your neighbors might be like family, and they might be alone for Christmas. Or your friends. If so, the more the merrier, but only when the more doesn’t dilute that special family feeling that Italian Christmas is all about.
Let me tell you about my Christmas growing up in a big Sicilian family.
My Sicilian dad has four siblings, and each of them has two children. You can make the calculations, and also count in my Sicilian grandparents.
18 might not sound like a lot, but when you have to fit them into a 5x4m kitchen (I am talking about my grandma’s tiny kitchen) that’s many people. It also means a lot of cooking, especially when the meal is full of different dishes.
Anyway, you get the point. For us, each and everyone of those people was indispensable. It was family. Sure, there were other relatives, but each of them was doing the same at their own house with their own big families. They would then drop on Christmas day in the afternoon, or on boxing day. Or it would be us going to visit them.
3. Don’t Make It Just About That One Meal
You might think the most important thing about an Italian Christmas is the meals, but it’s not. It’s the time we spend together with our loved ones. And the best way to combine both is to cook together.
Let me give you a glimpse into my childhood Christmas preparations.
My mum would help my grandma the most because we lived in the apartment above hers. But her daughter and her daughters in law would come early to help too.
The men would usually be in charge of doing the food shopping, and the women would cook. I know that sounds very old fashioned, but it’s part of the Sicilian and Southern Italian culture, especially many years ago.
Other than cooking together, our Christmas eve wouldn’t start just when we sat down to eat. For me, it would start the moment I would go down and see my grandma prepare the scacciate (Sicilian stuffed focaccias traditionally prepared on Christmas eve as one of the main courses).
It would continue when my cousins would arrive and we would get to play, or help the adults set up the table.
We would be chatting and laughing in the kitchen while food was being made.
And then after eating we’d help cleaning up, and prepare for dessert, but also play cards, and wait for the fireworks.
That’s the same for Christmas day. Christmas lunch (in Italy most of us have a big lunch, not dinner) wouldn’t start until 1 pm, yet, everyone would show up by 11 am. Again, we would all help my grandma, and spend quality time together.
What I’m trying to say is that you shouldn’t only focus on the food you’re serving, but also on the experience and memories you’re creating. And if you want the true Italian Christmas spirit, tell people to come over early, to help or just keep you company.
4. Keep Your Christmas Meal Traditional
We already touched on this, but let’s really get into the nitty and gritty.
What do Italians really eat on Christmas eve and day?
I have three guides that cover all of that:
Italian Christmas Traditions (including food from North to South)
Italian Christmas Food: 11 Staples Italians Can’t Do Without
Traditional Italian Christmas Dinner Ideas For Your Table
What I can tell you is that there is a list of dishes that’s common to most Italian tables. On top of that, every region and family has its specials.
Here’s what my Sicilian family would cook for Christmas:
On Christmas Eve it would be a selection of the stuffed focaccia made by nonna (you can google Sicilian scacciate to see how they look, and all the fillings). As per tradition, we would have a little fish (not the whole feat of 7 fishes); one of our favorites was fried eel. There would be many side dishes. But the main food was those stuffed focaccia. It might look like a really simple meal, but that was our tradition.
Desserts were a selection of chocolates, dried fruits and nuts, and panettone of course. Red wine and sparkling wine were always present.
I am pretty sure there was more, but that’s all I remember.
On Christmas day, it was usually a few simple antipasti like my grandma’s homemade marinated olives with fresh bread bought from one of our neighbors’ home bakery. Then, there was authentic lasagna, and a main course. Lamb chops on the grill were one of our favorites. We didn’t really love roasts. And we loved to pair it with cavolo nero salad with a lemon and oil dressing. Baked polpettone (meatloaf) baked served with its own gravy was another recurring Christmas main course.
For dessert, we would have more panettone and definitely pasticcini. Pasticcini are what we call mini sweet cakes. We would get them from our trusted local pastry shop. It would include a mix of large and mini cannoli, truffle balls stuffed with chantilly or chocolate cream, fruit tarts, eclairs, bigne, and baba rum.
Coffee and a liquor like Averna would also be a must to end this lunch. And most of the time, we would be serving coffee and cookies after just a few hours, once our extended family came to visit.
So what should you cook for your Italian Christmas dinner?
I suggest you read those guides above where I suggest many ideas and full on menus. But if I were to give you two things that would feel very Italian for Christmas would be lasagna and meatloaf.
Here’s my authentic lasagna recipe.
One thing I definitely remember that might be fun for you to know is that leftovers were limited, because the next day (on Boxing day) we would be cooking all fresh from scratch. That would usually be a full on grill day with fresh meats and lots of salads, probably a nice plate of pasta too.
5. Don’t Forget To Dress Up!
Now that we’ve talked about food and you know what went on behind our Christmas dinner and lunches, I want to remind you that while we kept it comfortable, we all made a little effort to show up nicely dressed. It was a nice outfit, not a dressy one. Comfort and staying warm was the most important thing, after all, we were just going down one flight of stairs and into my grandma’s home.
My nonna too made the effort, and you should too, even if it’s you hosting.
Focusing on food and making it delicious, and having everything ready is really important to make Christmas special for you and all your loved ones. But if you don’t feel good in your skin, you’re likely not going to enjoy it to the fullest; the others will sense that. Dressing up, taking the time to have a prep shower the day or the morning of, before you start all the preparations, and then a quicker turnaround, will make you feel so much better. What you wear is up to you. You can go comfortable chic or dress up.
Here are some outfit ideas I have put together last year. There’s a little inspiration for every occasion throughout December, including cosy hosting days, and New Year’s.
6. Think About The Activities
As I keep saying throughout this post, Christmas food is one of the essences of everyone’s Christmas, even more so for us Italians. However, you can’t just be eating. You need to entertain yourself.
So what else can you do other than chatting, telling stories, and sharing fun jokes? You need to come up with a few activities.
For us, it was playing cards or other board games. We would definitely play the famous Italian game scopa. I also remember a set of pickup sticks.
The most exciting activity was fireworks on Christmas eve which we would enjoy outside on the terrace.
There are many more things you can organize, like karaoke, or a guessing game, or a talent show. The latter was my specialty. Every year, I would come up with these acting stories and dance choreographs and teach my younger cousins. I think it was TV that inspired me, as I never took any dancing or acting classes. We would practice for at least a month or two in advance, and then we would have the show in front of everyone after Christmas day lunch.
If you have kids, you should encourage them to try doing something similar, and maybe have the adults participate in the show too.
7. Create A Space Filled With Warmth
Earlier I told you how decor shouldn’t be about picking a theme, nor sticking to a specific color palette, or making sure everything looks immaculate. Instead, you should focus on making your family feel the Christmas joy, reminding them of their childhood and what a traditional Christmas truly looks like. That’s why my best advice on this is to stick to a very traditional Christmas decor.
You’ll find plenty of ideas in this posts:
14 Timeless Classic Christmas Tree Ideas Inspired By Italy
11 Festive Italian Christmas Table Decor Ideas You’ll Love
If you like pairing your tree and table decor, you’ll find beautiful matchy looks. There’s one from Naples, two from Puglia, and at least one from Sicily. I also shared the theme I picked last year, and it’s the same one I will use this Christmas too.
8. It’s Not About the Gifts
When I think about my childhood Christmases I never think about the gifts, especially when I am recalling the time spent together as a family. The gifts happened at home with my parents, but Christmas in Italy is about the extended family, and it rarely focuses on gifts. Even if grandparents choose to give their children and children gifts, it’s only a detail, that’s kept fairly short and sweet. In our case, we would get money from our nonna and nonno.
The gifts that matter are usually food ones, the ones you give to your neighbor, or your school teacher, or your doctor, and your relatives. And it’s nearly always a panettone or pandoro, a bottle of spumante, or a hamper with all of that plus more (chocolates, Sicilian nougat, candied fruits, almond cookies). Those are all typical Sicilian treats.
If you do make something homemade, then give that. For example, my grandma’s cousin would make wine, and he would sell it to friends and family, but at Christmas he would also gift it. It was very special.
9. Keep Those Traditions Alive
For us Italians keeping our traditions alive is at the core of every Christmas. That’s why we prefer spending time with family, going to our grandmas or parents, cooking traditional dishes, eating the local sweets, as opposed to going out for lunch or dinner. Throughout my childhood, there was no single Christmas we ate out.
I know for many of you an important tradition might be going to midnight mass, or having Christmas brunch. If that’s so, it’s important you keep it up, because that’s how you make special memories that will last a lifetime.
For us Christmas traditions included going to the supermarket as a family (not literally everyone) but a few of us. There would be many shopping trips before and throughout, since an Italian Christmas requires a lot of ingredients.
Going to the Catania big fish market was another tradition. It would usually be my dad, my grandma, and myself going every Christmas eve morning. We would also make a stop to have a coffee (for them) and a pastry (definitely for me).
As I mentioned, spending boxing day together was another tradition. Eating panettone and dry fruit throughout December was yet another one.
In short, all I have to say is find your traditions and treasure them. This guide is full of all the Italian Christmas traditions.
10. Be Present
Finally, but most importantly, there’s no point in doing all this effort, bringing all those people together, decorating, cleaning, cooking, and planning activities, if you’re not going to be present.
You know what I mean, right?
I am talking about putting those phones away, and limiting screen time.
Taking the time to speak to people, rather than scroll on Instagram.
You can do all of that the day before and the one after. Christmas comes once a year, and there will be one day when certain members of the family will be long gone, and you’ll want to go back and relive every second you spent with them. So make the most of it now that you can.
More Italian Christmas Inspo
I hope you enjoyed reading this heartfelt Christmas post. I loved writing it. I laughed, I got an appetite, and I even shed a few tears at the end. And Christmas is all about that – being in tune with your emotions and in the moment.
Before you go, here are more resources to help you plan your Italian Christmas, or get a little inspiration for your own kind of Christmas.
Make Ahead Christmas Breakfast Recipes (coming soon)
Want to say Merry Christmas and a few more festive words in Italian?
Read this: Festive Phrases To Say Merry Christmas In Italian + Pronunciation
In case you’d like a pre-Christmas Italian trip, or just want to daydream about it:
Read this: Christmas In Italy: 12 Fairytale Destinations You Need To Visit
Don’t forget to join my Italian newsletter, so we can wish each other a Buon Natale, and chat about all the great stuff. You can do that through one of the boxes on this page. I hope to see you there.
In true Christmas spirit, I’d like to remind you to please like and share this post with your community. It’s the best way to support my work.
Thank you so much.
Buone feste,
Alessia
