Italian exchange student shares her Christmas traditions

In Italy the Christmas holidays for students generally start Dec. 22 and extend until Jan. 7. This is the period of the year that everyone looks forward to with more excitement than the summer holidays.

Just before the holidays everyone begins to decorate their home and a lot of people crowd all kinds of shops to find presents. They begin to decorate their Christmas tree and to prepare their creche (Nativity scene) during the second week of the December, because it often takes many days to finish. In my home we have a big tree out on the terrace and when it's decorated with lights and ornaments it's very pretty seeing it through the glass of the window.

Our creche is quite simple compared to the creches that people can see in the churches of Rome. There are colored lights inside the houses, fountains that create a pleasant sound of water, fires in the gardens that give off a warm red light and all kinds of figures representing the nativity. There is the carpenter in his workshop, the blacksmith, the salesman of vessels, the florist, the shepherds with their sheep and guard dogs, the children that play in the streets, and at the least the modest hut of Joseph and Mary. In the cowshed there are the ox and the ass that with their breath heat the little cradle of straw of the infant Jesus. The infant will be in these only when it strikes midnight on Dec. 25. In a village near my city the people organize a living creche with real animals and the younger baby of the village personifies the little Jesus. One time with some of my friend I took part in playing the shepherds.

In my city, Rome, you can see the reed-pipers. They are men dressed up. They play the reed pipe in the streets of the city.

On Christmas Eve, all the family cooperates to organize a big dinner of fish, because tradition is to not eat meat. Finally, at midnight, everyone unwraps presents. On Dec. 25 there is a big lunch, but this time with a lot of meat, accompanied by the better nougat and typical Italian sweet cakes: "panettone" (big bread) and "pandoro" (gold bread). They are one of the reasons why I am proud of be Italian!

I know for Americans Christmas has many of the same traditions and customs. But in the short period I've been here, everything I imagine would be the same has turned out somewhat different. So I expect a new and surprising Christmas time this year.

~ Margherita D'Andrea