Tis' the Season to be Jolly fa la la la la, la la la la...

Christmas in Italy is celebrated very differently to what I'm used to. The most obvious thing being while us Kiwis are at the beach soaking up the sun and having BBQs, the Italians are piling on the layers and having a hot cup of mulled wine. This being said I really enjoyed celebrating the Italian style Christmas, although it was very strange being without my family at that time of the year.

Christmas in Italy is a lot more about the church than it is in NZ. I went with my host family at midnight on Christmas Eve to the Mass where the priest spoke and there were some traditional, Italian, Christmas songs for about an hour. After this we went home and everybody opened their presents that were left under the tree. The present opening was very fast because people wanted to go to bed and everyone was tired so it wasn't such a big deal as it is for us at home.

On Christmas Day we had a big lunch at home with some other family members. It was a lovely day but it really didn't seem like Christmas to me - probably because I was without my family and that's what Christmas is all about in the end.

In Italy there are two types of traditional Christmas cakes called Panettone and Pandoro. They're very similar but while Pandoro is quite plain and buttery, Panettone has bits of dried fruit in it.

When you buy Pandoro it comes with a little sack of icing sugar and you put it on the cake then shake it in the box. I know that this will always be something that I'll think of at Christmas from now on. There was an advert on TV for Pandoro this Christmas with the Italian Christmas Carol "A Natale Puoi" and now that's also super Christmassy for me and I'm sure I'll listen to it at Christmas' to come!

La Befana

La Befana is the Italian equivalent to Santa. She's a lady on a broomstick who leaves lollies and presents for the good children, and coal for the bad children on the night of January 5. The kids leave out their socks for her to fill so it's very similar to what we would do with Santa and stockings. There's also a kind of edible coal which they make for Befana which is just like a hard, black sugar cube and that's quite a traditional present for the celebration.