Christmas in Italy + Nativities AND Coal in Stockings
Buon Natale is the Christmas greeting in Italy, whose religious history is what popularized the nativities we see everywhere this time of year!
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NATIVITIES
Supposedly, St. Francis of Assisi made the very first manger scene – a presepio – so that people would remember to worship baby Jesus, and also supposedly used wooden figures to tell the Christmas story in play form. It is now customary for most of the presepio to be displayed earlier in the season, but the addition of Baby Jesus doesn’t happen until Christmas Eve.
BOOK & SCAVENGER ACTIVITY:
While there are so many beautiful picture books about the very first Christmas, we used this really simple one called The Beginner’s Bible: The Very First Christmas. Or you can simply read straight from your child’s bible!
We then did a scavenger hunt using our Little People nativity scene pieces. If yours is more like an heirloom … fragile/breakable … you can easily print nativity images from online and just cut them out! This blog has a super cute and fun 3D printable that’s FREE!
I simply put clues about each figure on a piece of paper and made it pretty by attaching cardstock. We started doing this when the kids were little, and it was something they looked forward to doing each season for many years. 🥰
ITALIAN CHRISTMAS BREAD
And of course, we can’t do a Christmas in Italy unit study without enjoying some Italian Christmas bread!
My husband’s grandma LOOVVED panettone (a light, fluffy sweet bread with dried fruit) so I’ve tried to incorporate it into our Christmas traditions as a way of remembering her. However, my kids were never keen on the dried candied fruit in the traditional panettone, so I found one with chocolate chips instead!
A rival to the panettone is pandoro, which is slightly more dense (more like cake) and does not have anything in it. It is usually served with powdered sugar on top.
FUN FOOD ACTIVITY:
Battle of the Christmas breads! I thought surely the modified panettone (with chocolate chips) would win, but it was unanimous vote for pandoro!
OLD BEFANA
Another fun connection between Italy and Christmas stockings? Apparently, the idea of putting coal in those of naughty children stem from an Italian Christmas tale about Befana, an old lady (witch?) who is continuously in search of the Christ Child. On Epiphany Eve, she visits all the children of Italy and leaves gifts in their socks: good children get candies and other goodies, bad children get a lump of coal.
BOOK TO READ:
This retelling of Old Befana by Tomie dePaola paired perfectly with our Christmas in Italy study! As with all his other books, we loved the illustrations. This would also be a great read for learning about Epiphany.