Blog entry

Countdown to Christmas 2016 - Week 2 - Italy

Carved life size presepe, Santa Maria d'Aracoeli Presepe Christmas Day Rome, 2012; photo by Margot Balboni

Traditionally, Christmas in Italy is celebrated over several weeks, from December 6th, St. Nicholas Day, until January 6, the Feast of the Epiphany.  On St. Nicholas Day, children write letters to St Nicholas asking for gifts and they hang up either a sock or put a plate on the table on the eve of Nicholas Day’s.  If the children have been good throughout the last year, they will get some fruits, nuts and sweets from St. Nicholas while the naughty ones will also get a sweet, but one looking like lump of coal. The main gift giving day is January 6 - the day on which the Wise Men brought their gifts to the Christ Child.