Christmas inItaly

© Christina Bainbridge www.bainbridgeclass.com

Ciao! That means “Hello” in Italian! My name is Nick and I

live in Rome, which is the capital city of Italy. Italy is

easy to find on a map… it’s in Europe and is in the shape of

a boot! See?

So, now that you know where I live, let me tell you about what I am getting ready to do today… I am so excited! A bunch of us

kids from the neighborhood are getting together to… well, why don’t you just come along and

find out!

Right now we are celebrating the Novena- the three weeks before

Christmas. One thing we love to do is go to the homes in the neighborhood to sing and say some of our favorite Christmas poems. Sometimes the neighbors give us treats and even

money we can use to buy gifts!

That was fun, but I’m glad we’re home! See the manger

by the couch? My dad will put that outside tonight. Many

families in Italy decorate with manger scenes outside of their

homes. I love seeing the different mangers in my

neighborhood! Let’s take the manger out to him.

I love my manger scene!We actually celebrate January

6th, or the 12th day of Christmas, as the day the

Three Wise Men brought gifts to Jesus. We get presents

that day too! Let’s head back inside and I’ll tell you all about

it!

Like I said, we believe that January 6th is the day the Three

Wise Men brought gifts to Jesus. We call it “Ephiphany”. Old

Befana, a silly old witch, leaves us presents on Ephiphany too. She leaves gifts in the socks of good children and coal in your socks if you’re naughty. I hope I’ll get a

gift!

We also get gifts on Christmas Eve! Babbo

Natale is the Santa Claus of Italy. We write letters to him and, if we’re good, he’ll bring us what we asked for when

he comes on Christmas Eve! I’m hoping for a new computer this year!

Oh! I almost forgot to tell you about my two favorite things

about Christmas in Italy! First… the tasty food! At my house, my nona, or grandma, makes lots of sweets, breads,

fish, and even eel for our Christmas meal.

But my all-time favorite part about Christmas in Italy is the time I got to

see the Pope give his yearly address at the Vatican. He always

blesses the people at noon on Christmas Day. He is very special to people in Italy and around the

world too.

I am so glad you stopped by. I’ve got to start writing

my letter to Babbo Natale! I hope you enjoyed learning about how we celebrate in Italy! Ciao! That means

goodbye too!

Do you know who I am? That’s right! Old Befana! I’m off to deliever presents

to Nick… I think you’d agree that he’s been quite

a good boy this year! Buon Natale!