Visiting Italy at Christmas? 6 Dates you Need to Know

Thinking about visiting Italy over the Christmas holidays?

Are you wondering about Italian traditions and national holidays?

It’s fun to celebrate holidays in other countries and cultures. You’ll see a whole different way of celebrating, and discover what is important to you.

So what should you expect when celebrating Christmas in Italy? Natale, or Christmas, is full of lights, markets and nativity scenes.

Christmas Day is a family affair, but there are many festivities to take part in when visiting Umbria, Italy.

Not able to be in Italy this December? Why not have New Years Eve Italian Style? I explain all about it here.

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Christmas in Italy: Important Dates In An Italian Christmas Calendar

There are 4 national holidays over the Christmas period, December 8th, 25th, 26th, and January 6th. As an extra in some regions Italian Christmas calendar also includes December 13th. And don’t forget the twelve days of Christmas are from December 25th till January 5th!

December 8th

Christmas celebrations officially start on December 8th. Family and friends share their decorated Christmas trees and nativity scenes with each other via photos on phones.

A Catholic holiday, and National holiday in Italy, December 8th is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. It’s the day they celebrate Mary for being free from sin. There is a special Mass, so expect Churches to be busy. In Rome the Pope will kneel and say a prayer while laying a floral wreath at the statue of the Madonna in the piazza Mignanelli.

As schools, the government and business are closed Rome can become a party with performance artists on display.

This is the day I, and many others in Italy, give the house an extra good clean and drag out all the Christmas decorations. Since everyone has the day off, the tradition is to clean the house and then decorate for Christmas. My mother-in-law has a tree she decorates, but I make do by decorating my many houseplants with garlands and decorations.

December 13th

The feast day of Saint Lucy, or in Italian Santa Lucia (283–304). She was made famous by the Swedes but called Syracuse, Sicily home. The story goes that a disappointed suitor reported her as a Christian. A crime, she was executed for this in Syracuse, Sicily in 304 AD.

Her feast day once coincided with the Winter Solstice before calender reforms, the shortest day of the year. So it became a festival of light returning. Even her name, the root luc means light.

Not all of Italy celebrates this holiday, it’s the south and the north of Italy who celebrate. In central Italy it doesn’t hold the same importance.

In the south, Sicily and Calabria, they celebrate with pasta and a special dessert of wheat boiled in chocolate milk. Which is a bit grim. The soft wheat symbolizes her eyes, dug out before her execution, and eaten only on December 13th.

In the North, regions like Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna, Veneto, Friuli Venezia Giulia and Trentino-Alto Adige, celebrate her with her donkey, bringing gifts to all the children. Like with Santa they leave out food for her, and for the donkey hay.

December 24th

In Italian Christmas Eve is called La Vigilia. The tradition all over Italy is to have fish on Christmas eve. In the same way Catholics abstain from meat every Friday, it’s also traditional for Christmas Eve.

And while the 24th should be a fast, not eating until after midnight mass, I don’t know anyone who doesn’t sit down for a large (meatless) meal.

For this meal the number of courses can be significant. 7 courses represent the seven sacraments. Or go wild with 9 courses for the Trinity (squared), 12 for the apostles or 13 for the disciples of Jesus.

December 25th

Babbo Natale is Santa Claus/Father Christmas in Italy. Babbo meaning father in Tuscany and northern Umbria. Italian kids get only presents from Santa on Christmas day. Family and friends give presents, but under the tree they are all from Babbo Natale.

Most will attend mass and return home for a feast, Christmas lunch. Being that most things are closed attend a mass for full cultural immersion, just don’t take communion unless you are Catholic.

Christmas lunch is the big meal of the day. And unlike in the UK, Canada or the States, there is a huge variety in what people cook to celebrate. My experience is in Perugia where my talented mother-in-law creates a feast for us.

Primo, or the pasta dish, is Cappelletti in Brodo.

Cappelletti in Brodo are small meat tortellini. The meat filling is made first, then together we spend an afternoon rolling pasta, filling and shaping hundreds of cappelletti. On Christmas day the cappelletti boil in a homemade broth and severed in flat bowls.

The Secondo, or the meat dish, is cow’s tongue. Served with sauces, one is roasted peppers and another olive oil, garlic and parsley which go nicely with it.

The contorno is the side dish. This dish is the most work, la Parmigiana al Cardo, or Gobbi in Perugia. Cardoon in English, these massive plants are from the thistle family. Peeled (like celery), blanched, battered and deep fried before being baked with tomato sauce and mozzarella. It’s a full days work but so worth the effort.

December 26th

The Feast of Santo Stefano most things are closed. Here in Italy it’s a day to eat all the leftovers from Christmas day.

January 6th

The Epiphany, or la festa dell’epifania, is celebrated in many European countries. Children receive sweets and small presents. In Italy the sweets are delivered by a witch on her broom. Watch la Befana (the witch) fly across the main piazzas of many small towns, like Assisi.

Similar to Santa, la Befana enters people’s homes through their chimneys and they leave her a treat, a small glass of wine and a snack. The Befana rides on a broom with a black cape leaving coal for the naughty children.

La Befana originates from Rome and they celebrate her with a Christmas market from December 26th to January 5th. On sale are toys, sweets and black candy looking like coal in Piazza Navona.

Her link to the bible is meeting the three wise men. Perhaps they stayed at her home, they may have asked for directions to baby Jesus, or they invited her to join them and she refused. Later she felt regret and tried to find baby Jesus on her own without success causing her to always search the night sky for him.

Highlights of Celebrating Christmas in Umbria

Along with decorating a tree, children make nativity scenes in their homes. Adding baby Jesus only on the 24th. All over Umbria, especially Assisi, you’ll find small towns with live nativity scenes, life size nativity scenes, and small ones in shop windows.

There are even nativity scenes made from pastry or chocolate. Naples is famous for theirs.

Saint Francis of Assisi created the first live nativity scene. Called a Presepe in Italian, in 1223 he recreated the nativity scene for his Christmas Eve Mass in a cave outside of Greccio, Lazio. Every year Greccio celebrates this event with a live Presepe the week around Christmas.

Gubbio unveils the largest Christmas tree in Italy every year on December 7th. Mount Ingino, behind Gubbio, becomes a 650 meter Christmas tree. With 700 lights, even 50km away the tree is visible.

Perugia holds their Christmas market in the Rocca Paolina, great as it protects everyone from the rain and wind, for three weeks in December.

For live music head to Orvieto. They host the Umbria Jazz winter addition from December 28th to January 1rst. Find other concerts throughout the Christmas season in Umbrian churches, like the Basilica in Assisi, on posters or on line.

Come Enjoy A Christmas In Umbria!

The festive spirit in Umbria is catching. All the classic Italian Christmas delicacies available in restaurants.

Be sure to indulge in some Italian hot chocolate, chestnut flour pastries and watch at least one firework display celebrating the season.

Plan on shopping trip. The Christmas markets are hard to resist, full of local cheeses, wine and honey, beautiful pottery, and watercolours.

A Christmas experience in Umbria is full of tradition, beauty, and treats.  And if you are planning a holiday in central Italy in the winter make sure to pack the right things; I’ve written a post all about staying warm in here in Umbria in winter.