TestaRossa

Midnight mass, yes but no carols unless you find an Anglican church. Some places are open Christmas day - none of the big chains but cafes, restaurants and Asian stores tend to open. Lots of fur coats here! It is a family day same as the UK. No boxing day, so back to normal day after. New Year is for friends and if you have any Italian friends and they invite you go - you'll see them letting their hair down! Good food too! The centres are for the teens who like letting off fireworks in the squares and it can get pretty scary and rowdy depending where you are. All the bigger towns will have decorations and a tree, most will have a crib somewhere too. Then if you are really lucky and you are around on the 6th you have Befana and the epiphany. Florence has a parade with everyone dressed in renaissance costume along with the 3 kings. The kids all get sweets or coal depending on if they have been good or not! In Florence it feels like the rehearsal for the main event here of Easter, with Carnival in the middle. The parades seem non-stop from the 6th Jan onwards to Easter!! But all good fun!

Lorna at Vicenza

Boxing Day is known as Santo Stefano and it is a national bank holiday so in theory everything is still closed - it is where I live anyway.

The kids and teens like fire crackers - bangers - here and there are always loads of big bangs around New Year and Epiphany.

Some of the bigger churches might have a sign outside advertising their "presepe" .....nativity scene. Some of them are quite spectactular but the manger will be empty if you go before Christmas Day. Baby Jesus is the last person to get put in place.

Even in my small part of Italy there are loads of decorations to be bought for Christmas trees and the house and lots of fairy lights so you can decorate your home as much as you wish. You won't find any fairies for the top of the Christmas tree though - just big stars or a spikey looking thing.

randomguy

Didn't know that crackers weren't sold in Italy being as i'm still in the uk would be happy to send some over if required

Lorna at Vicenza

I brought some in my suitcase once ............ not sure how they'd get through the postal system though. Would they get through ?

randomguy

Good point more than likely banned or something! Will check and see.

jdr

They may be refused under explosive laws, I remember at a carboot once in the UK a guy had his party poppers taken of him cos he didn`t have a proper licence to sell them. lol

Mr Posh

Mother inlaw sent 3 boxes of Crackers through the post and they got here fine.

LivingHere

Wow, three boxes! Were you stocking up or was a a big party?

Mr Posh

we gave some to Friends as presents, they loved them, I looked at bringing some over to sell i showed them to some bars and they loved the novel idea, but the company that i got in touch with wanted me to buy to many.

Lorna at Vicenza

out of curiosity - how many was too many ?

randomguy

This could be the start of an International cracker smuggling gang

jdr

Lol, they have loads here.

duffer

Last January I bought a couple of DIY cracker kits from Asda for something like 10p each. Each kit makes 6 crackers - the good thing is that you can put something with an Italian twist inside. Included of course are the paper hats and the snap thingy.

Lorna at Vicenza

and how long did that little project keep you busy for ......... or have you yet to make them ?

Lorna at Vicenza

if I see any this year (or next) I might buy some. It could be a good arty crafty project for the kids.