Everywhere in the world our compatriots abroad celebrate Italian Christmas with family or with each other, well integrated into local celebrations.
Italian Christmas at every latitude
Christmas also means summer, for Italians abroad. To find out how our compatriots live the Christmas traditions outside the beautiful country, let's start with the most distant ones, precisely those for whom “holidays” are synonymous with sun and long days. The Italians ofLatin america e quelli d 'Australia in fact, they live Christmas at 30 degrees or more, in short sleeves, with mosquitoes and in the open air. A nice barbecue willingly takes the place of the more classic winter foods, which in any case ―complete nostalgia, family traditions, but also the iconography of tales, songs and Christmas atmospheres, also revived by the cinema― mark presence even if you are in Bermuda shorts and under the fan. And then the desserts ... There is no Italian Christmas without panettone, pandoro, nougat, or struffoli, panforte, certosino ...
Di cribs and Christmas trees do not even speak: there is no Italian in the world who does not set them up!
In Australia
“The first Christmas spent here I thought I was dying from the heat!", tell us Lucia D'Urzo from Melbourne, "But I found Santa Claus in shorts, with sunglasses and surf under his arm a lot of fun." Lucia, originally from Lamezia Terme, explains that the Italians of Australia are many especially in Melbourne and Sidney, where they are organized in social clubs according to regional origins (Calabria Club, Reggio Emilia Club, Veneto Club, Aeolian Islands Society ...), and there are even two flourishing Little Italy which have little or nothing to envy to those of States, and where the Christmas spirit is evident in the decorations, lights and shop windows. They cannot be missing the dinners organized by clubs close to the holidays. And Christmas with the family. Even if often… at the sea! All this coexists with Anglo-Saxon traditions such as the Christmas cake (“Terrible”, according to Lucia) or the Boxing Day of 26 December.
Italian Christmas in Latin America
In Latin america, the warm season facilitates outdoor celebrations, as we said. Yet Santa still arrives on a reindeer sleigh! Poor reindeer! Luckily the children leave food and drinks for them and Santa Claus, as he explains Mirtha Aldunce, coordinator of itChile, of Venetian origins. In her country, as well as in the more northern ones of the subcontinent, the influence of American culture is felt, and for this reason the family makes cookies with Christmas molds, and her little girl can't wait to help her in this and in the put the star on the Christmas tree. Then he looks forward to midnight to open the gifts…! But with them, as in many families, Christmas is above all "The birthday of the child Jesus", and it is celebrated by singing in Italian You come down from the stars and other songs.
Living traditions
Amira Judge, from Buenos Aires tells us that they prepared the turdilli and grispelle that Calabrian grandfather prepared with the whole family, starting early in the morning. And he often made nougats too! “Now I continue the tradition of Italian holiday dishes”, he says, not without pride. “Grandpa said that it took twelve courses for the dinner! I don't know where this tradition comes from ... " (You do? Write it to us!) And then the memories light up on feast of Saint Lucia, which anticipated Christmas ... stalls, with those "strange" lupins, prize games and fireworks in the evening! Obviously, the midnight mass. “We also went together to the Christmas Concert at the Teatro Coliseo ”, he remembers fondly.
A "warm Christmas" also in the north of Argentina
from torrid Posadas, in Argentina, Chiara Forni, of Emilia-Romagna and Piedmontese origins (with Swedish and Paraguayan touches) evokes his (still few) Christmases and New Years between paternal and maternal families, in the most rigorous fairness of treatment (this too, after all, an Italian tradition!).
The coordinator of itMisiones "It's Christmas" on the 24th with his maternal great-grandmother, with a "summer" dinner of traditional Guaranì dishes and Christmas sweets that Chiara herself makes, and which she learned from her paternal grandmother. “Last year I did one gubana, which I did quite well, ”he says with satisfaction. “This year I'll try with one strudel". “We are not many”, he says, “but we want to be together for Christmas”. And at the stroke of midnight, after toasts, good wishes, kisses and hugs, they go out into the street to see the fireworks.
Italian Christmas made in USA
Even if Santa Claus is the master (ok, he is inspired by St. Nicholas - who was Turkish and Byzantine, but let's not touch it to the people of Bari! - ... but that's what he is starting from his American version) and the lights are a must all Anglo-Saxon and Northern European, in North America, there is no shortage of nativity scenes, invented by St. Francis of Assisi and "flourished" especially in Italy, and together with christmas carols and stuffed turkey, panettone (with many imitations) are everywhere.
Little Italy in New York, night view of one of the entrances with illuminated Merry Christmas sign in Italian 
Similar to those experienced in Australia are the celebrations of the Italian associations, with dinners, bingo and anything else that reminds us of “local” family births, with regional Christmas gastronomic specialties.
Two curiosities American
Two curiosities made in the USA. In the States the "Feast of the Seven Fishes", the Feast of the Seven Fishes, a “sea-based” dinner born among the italians. And, in fact, everyone is convinced that in Italy there is no Christmas dinner without at least seven fish-based courses ... Yet many Italians, myself among them, have never heard of it ...
And, speaking of nativity scenes ... in 2015 in Wadena, Minnesota, an association of atheists managed to cancel the traditional installation of the nativity scene in the park of the center, invoking the violation of the State - Church separation enshrined in the Constitution. Then the installer made her nativity scene in the garden and invited fellow citizens to do the same.
Never like a community
In the end, between those in the garden and those in the shop window, in Wadena there were more than a thousand, in a location of 4.000 souls! "It does not matter if we have not broken the record" (of 2.500 nativity scenes in one location), we read on the Facebook page of the initiative, because "we have never felt so much a community".
Main photo: Studio Sarah Lou - Flickr CC.
