#ItalianChristmasCustoms | Valentina Expressions

Once Upon A Time

There was a time when Christmas trees had nothing artificial hanging from the branches, but only real fruit such as apples, oranges, tangerines, homemade cookies and wrapped chocolates.

On January 6, it happened in all homes, people invited friends, family and neighbours to play the game of stripping the Christmas tree. The game was mainly for kids, a few adults participated as well, and it was fun. Those who played had to be blindfolded to avoid picking up the best prize: the chocolates. After the tree was completely naked of fruit ornaments, the count began to see who picked up the most chocolates. Kids received simple utilitarian gifts on January 6, not on Christmas. The simple gifts could have been a new sweater, a new pair of shoes, maybe an electric train with one track, a doll, wooden toys that could not be easily disassembled or a book. Kids played with other kids, hardly with toys, we were so creative in inventing our own games, told each other stories of our bravery, and talked to oblivion until our heads exploded. No kid ever stayed alone in his/her room and parents were always present.
Then the lights of the tree were turned off and one more large dinner took place with all the people invited for that evening, officially closing the Christmas holidays, unless the next day, on the seventh, was a Sunday. The new week was business as usual. Everyone returned to work and the kids went back to school. Street decorations did not exist, as Christmas in Italy was a religious event, thus there was nothing to turn off.

Christmas customs have changed even in Italy and consumerism has taken over. The Christmas custom I described was the Christmas I experienced as a girl living in Italy and today this ritual came out of the blue from the drawer of my memories.
I am glad I was born in a different latitude where I learned strong life values that helped me everywhere I lived in the world. I hope all of you had a nice Christmas and I wish you and your family a splendid 2025. Ciao,
Valentina

Copyright © 2024 Valentina Cirasola, All Rights Reserved

Valentina Cirasola is an interior-fashion consultant, author of 6 published books, a storyteller, and a longtime blogger. Her books are non-fictional practical ideas to apply in the home, fashion, cooking and travel.
Get a copy of her books here: Amazon and Barnes&Noble

Letter To The Parents | Valentina Cirasola | Author and Designer

Certain gestures are like fleeting moments to which we pay little attention, but the memory of them is sculpted forever in our mind.
I was enjoying a tasteful Christmas dinner when in a small moment I had a vision of a custom of my childhood, which repeated every year until I was 10 years old: the Christmas letter to the parents.
It was a letter all the pupils in elementary schools wrote for their parents in class with the aid of the teacher. Everyone wrote his/her thoughts, just one-page or a paragraph that expresses all the gratitude to the parents for raising us the best they could. Some letters were funny and comics and some others were very serious, they followed the kid’s character and personality. The teacher only corrected each letter and had no part in composing it, basically, we forced ourselves to find something good to write that made us look good with our parents.
In this letter addressed to both parents, we promised not to do the bad things we did during the year (often it was an empty promise, we forgot it as soon as the holidays passed), we promised to bring home good grades and keep the parents happy with good behavior. Mainly we praised them for all the good things they did for us, and we thanked them every five words.

Both parents knew about the letter but acted as if it was a surprise. Here, I recreated the table in the simplicity of the era: two plates, two glasses, and the necessary dinnerware, no Christmas decorations on the table, nothing spectacular, not even close to how we decorate holiday tables today. It was an essential table, real food and conversation took all our attention.

The letter was hidden under the father’s set of plates. After the first course, generally, a pasta dish, one of the women in the family removed that plate and pushed the letter out to make it more visible. The father accidentally pretended to see the letter and with a surprised voice exclaimed: “It’s Christmas and the postman came!” Then, he checked whose signature was and invited the author of the letter to come closer to him to read the letter out loud. Followed applauses and compliments from the members of the family sitting at the dinner table. In richer families, the kid who wrote the letter received some sort of gift or money, in less rich families, the kid received lots of kisses and hugs.

I have not had this vision in my life before this past Christmas. The scene was so vivid, real and all the people in it, now gone from this world, appeared the same, immortalized to the time I was ten years old.
It was my film, nobody saw it, I had slid through time, it felt like I had stopped there for a long time, but it was a brief moment and I was happy. A voice in my house brought me back to reality: “Can I take your plate and are you ready for the second course?”
Has this ever happened to you? Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola is a storyteller by nature. Stories are very important to her design career to convey ideas because making someone’s home or personal images is not only about building around shapes, lines, forms, and colors. It is about the story one can create around their spaces and how they want to appear to others. She is the author of four books, all available on
Amazon – http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w
The latest book just published is The Road To Top Of The World – https://tinyurl.com/y7tuyfh8