Italy:
Christmas is celebrated on December 25th and is the most important festival in Italy. On this day, families get together, cook lots of things to eat, play and exchange gifts. The Children on Christmas Eve leave a letter and aa glass of milk with cookies under the tree to Santa Claus and wait for Christmas morning to see if Santa Claus has brought what they have written in the letters. The day before Christmas is called Vigilia and the eve dinner is one of the most important and takes the name of “CENONE”. For the Christmas Eve and Christmas dinner, in Italy you can cook a lot, especially fish.
Likewise, during the holiday period, special sweets are prepared or bought, such as panettone, pandoro or nougat.
The tree is usually prepared on December 8th which is the feast of the Immaculate Conception. Together with the tree is often also made the representation of Jesus´ nativity. In Italy we organize many exhibitions with cribs, even special, and the most famous is definitely the exhibition in Naples.
Traditional Finnish Christmas food and Christmas tree
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