Santa Claus is finally coming to Italy! December 25 is near and Italian kids, just like many other children all around the world, are looking forward to waking up on Christmas morning to see if they have been good enough to deserve some presents from the misterious man in red they call Babbo Natale. However, Santa is not the only protagonist of our Christmas holidays. Let’s discover together some of the traditions that make Italy special at this time of the year.

In Italy, December 8, is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception and a public holiday. Italians usually take their time to decorate a Christmas tree and set up a nativity scene called Presepe or Presepio. The latter is a quite heartfelt tradition: indeed, even in small villages it is quite common to find exhibitions of nativity scenes created with different techniques, set in various contexts (may it be Palestine or the local surroundings), with static or moving statuettes, and in small or large scale. There are also many outdoor nativity scenes: this year the Vatican hosts a Sand Nativity in St. Peter’s Square.