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Lucky children got to see Santa Claus in person at a recent holiday party hosted by the Federation of Italian American Organizations at the organization’s community center, Il Centro. It was an afternoon filled with fun and laughter as Santa Claus happily posed for pictures with smiling children in the spacious community room at Il Centro, 8711 18t...

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Grandma Bruni lived in a working-class neighborhood in a two-family home that I’d struggle to describe — it was that ordinary, that humble. But it was known for blocks in every direction, at least around this time of year, and not because she went wild with multicolored lights or put one of those sleigh-plus-Santa monstrosities on the roof, the way...

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Osvaldo Riccio began the work when Christmas was still months away. Hour after hour, day after day, he carefully built, painted and arranged the models and figurines. He would work from morning into the afternoon, until the day when he decided, finally, that it was done. Osvaldo built a presepe, a nativity scene. He built it for Pupa, his wife. Osv...

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There’s was last-minute shopping rush on in the Bronx on Monday. But not for gifts. It was for food. As the days count down to Christmas, CBS2’s Andrea Grymes visited Arthur Avenue in the Belmont section of the borough. Monday is the busiest day of the year in the Bronx’s Little Italy. “I now live in Montclair, N.J., so I had to come all the way ba...

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Si trova in Sicilia, a Siracusa, la prima rappresentazione figurativa della Natività. “Si dispone la greppia, si porta il fieno, sono menati il bue e l'asino. Si onora ivi la semplicità, si esalta la povertà, si loda l'umiltà e Greccio si trasforma quasi in una nuova Betlemme.” (Tommaso da Celano,  primo biografo di San Francesco) La rievocazione d...

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If you’re in Rome during the holidays, you may want to take a day to head nearby to Castello di Bracciano to attend what has been hailed as Italy’s largest living nativity scene. Known as the Living Presepio of the Orsini, it will be staged inside the 15th-century Castle of Bracciano, and set in the year 1481, when the fortress belonged to the powe...

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Food has always been a big part of my family's gatherings, but when a holiday rolls around, we take it to a whole new level. Christmas has always been my favorite holiday. It is a great day to get together with immediate family, but for an Italian-American, Christmas Eve is the main event.  Many Italian-Americans eat what's known as the Feast of th...

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Tortellini and capon for broth, certosino not panettone. A few mortadella cubes and chocolate-covered orange peel. What to eat in Bologna at Christmas and every address for where to find it. The essential point is the tortellini. And the only way is with broth. It’s okay to be missing something else. But not tortellini, as it’s just not Christmas i...

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It’s all about Christmas Eve Second and third generation Americans whose ancestors immigrated from around the world in the 19th and 20th centuries grew up with holiday traditions from their families’ country of origin. Today, as adults, many carry on those traditions, especially during the Christmas season, and the Italian-American Christmas Eve vi...

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Around the Christmas season, it is common to see a display of the Nativity scene: a small manger with the baby Jesus and his family, shepherds, the three wise men believed to have visited Jesus after his birth and several barnyard animals. One might ask, what are the origins of this tradition? Biblical description The earliest biblical descriptions...

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