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Re-blog: Italian Christmas traditions, the American way!

Christmas is in full swing where I live, and in most of the world where it is celebrated. Today I’m sharing another blog I found, and I’ll let “Una Mamma Italiana” tell you about her Christmas traditions:

http://unamammaitaliana.blogspot.com/2011/12/italian-christmas-advent-traditions.html

And now I’d like to hear what you do to give your Christmas an Italian touch. I’ve posted before about my family tradition of making torcetti, and will be doing that when my sister arrives from out of town. My daughter has already made hers, across the country. What about you? Please comment!

Christmas_postcard_from_Bressanone,_Bolzano,_Italy,_1931

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Food for the feasts of Italy

Celebrating Italy: the tastes and traditions of Italy revealed through its feasts, festivals and sumptuous foods (English and Italian Edition)

I began looking for food topics to post about for today, and ended up buying this book. I wanted something about food traditions surrounding the Feast of Santa Lucia, December 13. In our family, our oldest daughter, starting when she was nine or ten, dressed in white with a crown of candles (battery operated!) and delivered freshly baked Orange Danish rolls to us in bed. We usually thought of the celebration through the lens of my husband’s Scandinavian roots. But she was, after all, a Sicilian girl.

I’m looking forward to cooking my way through Carol Field’s beautiful book of Italian festivals and their foods, and you are sure to hear more about them as I go along!

To allow you time for your Christmas preparations, I’m keeping this short. Enjoy the journey through Advent, to Christmas.

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Time to make torcetti

My Italian great-grandparents, the source of my torcetti tradition. Josephine (Gualtieri) and Francesco Arcuri.

With December approaching, my Italian thoughts always turn to torcetti, the Italian pastry I grew up with. So for this “fifth Friday” bonus post, I’m giving you the recipe again, via my original torcetti post last year.

I’m also including a link to another blog with a torcetti recipe–however, it is in Romanian. I could not resist sharing it because of the beautiful finished product. I have never used chocolate on mine, but might try it after seeing this.

Do you have an Italian Christmas tradition–food, religious observance, family activity–that you love? Please tell me about it in the comments!

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Book Review: The Generosity of Strangers

Thomas Antonaccio heard stories all his life about his mother’s childhood experiences in the village of Fornelli in central Italy. A few weeks ago, he published “The Generosity of Strangers: When War came to Fornelli” which retells many of those stories in the first person, through the voice of Lucia, the little girl who lived them.

Lucia is introduced as a young child with a fascination for the simple life in her rural village. She loved catching butterflies, and loved to hear her father play the concertina and sing. When World War II breaks out, taking many people away from the village and bringing others in, life changes dramatically. Lucia’s story let’s us see the historical events from a new perspective.

The storytelling is simple and suits the character of Lucia. The book is described as a children’s non-fiction history book. It would be a good way to introduce children to significant events of 20th century history in Italy. It is a fairly quick read, available on Amazon for Kindle.

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Blog Envy

Harbor panorama of Bisceglie, Puglia (from Wikimedia Commons)

Another blog I follow (on a completely unrelated topic) posted yesterday on their Facebook page that they are creeping up on 50,000 followers, and encouraged them to share with their friends, to put them over the top, with just a couple hundred to go.

Well, here I am down in the small time. Likely today I will hit 10,000 total page views in the entire 18-month life of this blog. And I have… well, let’s say fewer than 100 followers.

So today I am borrowing from the toolbag of the big-time blogger mentioned above, and urging you, my wonderful readers, to share my blog with any Italophiles you know, your fellow Sons of Italy members, a friend planning a trip to Italy, your neighbor with an Italian sounding last name, heck, anyone you know who drives a Fiat or a Ferrari. Or a Ford, because I’m not at all picky.

I would especially love to have your suggestions for topics to cover related to the Italian south, in the areas of food, travel, history, and books or movies to review.

I’m thankful for all of you, and wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving!