We’re Italian, We Celebrate Christmas Eve

“We’re Italian, we celebrate Christmas Eve.” Those were the words of a young girl shopping at a New Jersey mall in a story about last minute shopping on the 11:00 news on Monday night. She was explaining that she could not wait until Christmas Eve to finish buying gifts because her family would be too busy celebrating. Her answer brought a chuckle from my husband and me.

Indeed, she was absolutely right because today, Christmas Eve, will be a full day of celebration for my family. We will be up bright and early. I will fry the baccala fritters. Then the kids will pick up the bread from Caputo Bread Store, the antipasto from Caputo Fine Foods, and the fish from Carroll Gardens Fish Market. We already got the Italian Christmas cookies, including everyone’s favorite cuccidati full of figs and nuts, from Court Pastry. Then we will pack up the car and head over to my sister's house.

As soon as we get there, we will set up the antipasto including a salted mozzarella almost as big as the Baby Jesus, and have a “little something” to eat. Then we will get to work preparing for the Feast of the Seven Fishes. We will be breading shrimp; cleaning twelve dozen clams, mincing some and baking some; frying shrimp, more baccala, smelts and scallops; bringing my brother’s spectacular seafood salad to room temperature; boiling linguini; heating up my Aunt Debbie’s vegetables (heavy on the garlic and olive oil) and broiling lobster tails. We’ll listen to all of our favorite Christmas music from Jimmy Roselli to Lou Monte to Darlene Love and even some Earth, Wind and Fire. As soon as we sit down, someone will read my dad’s prayer that he wrote so many years ago on the back of a tally sheet from his job working on the docks. And then we will dig in!

After the seafood extravaganza, we will divvy up the leftovers, put the coffee pot on, cut up the finocchio, roast the chestnuts, and start ladening the table with desserts, the most important one being the struffoli. We grew up making struffoli with my mom every holiday season. Now my sister makes my dear Uncle Louis’ recipe, my niece makes my sister Lisa’s recipe, my brother makes a hybrid of the two and I still make my mom’s (which was actually carried down from my grandmother). So we have a variety of four different struffoli! There will also be my son-in-law’s mom’s famous to die for crumb cake. There will be a load of homemade cookies, the aforementioned Court Pastry cookies, chocolates, almond croccante, figs and nuts, maybe my brother’s linzer tarts, and my sister-in-law’s delicious mince tarts. And we’ll have a little after dinner shot of my brother-in-law Lenny’s homemade creamy limoncello.

We will play some favorite holiday games including the hilarious Saran Wrap ball (made this year with 220 feet of Saran Wrap!), open the Secret Santa gifts, and sing some karaoke. Then it will be time to divvy up the desserts, everybody swapping struffoli and cookies. We’ll pack up the car, hope we can fit everything, hopefully bringing back less than we brought.

And before we leave, we will kiss everyone goodbye, hug each other really tight and maybe more than once. We will call out ‘Merry Christmas’ before we drive away. And as soon as we get back home, we will put the Baby Jesus in the manger.

Christmas Eve is truly the most important holiday of the year for my family and for most Italian-American families, a time to gather together with the ones you love the most in the world, to cook and feast, to observe all of our time-honored traditions, to lovingly remember all those who gave us those traditions and who aren’t with us, and to cherish all those who are. I wish you all a Buon Natale, a Merry Christmas and all the very best in the New Year.