Hi guys and welcome back to my channel
Today we're doing a video in italian with my friend Daniela aka miss Creamycreamy
We're talking about Christmas and the differences between Italy and America
I already did a similar video in English with Enrico
so I thought why don't we do this in Italian
Before we start I want to remind you all that my little Iconic palettes
Iconic plan, Iconic match and Iconic madness
are still on sale on Cosmify.com
so I'll leave you the link below in the description box
so that you can gift them to someone for Christmas
It's a great gift for any makeup lover
And if you order them now they will arrive on time for Christmas
Right. Let's start.
The first thing that I wanted to ask is when do you guys start getting ready for Christmas
Cause this was a difference that I noticed
Yeah, very late
I know that anglophones usually start decorating after the 5th of November
After Guy Fawkes is usually considered Christimas time
Would you confirm this?
Mmmh no lol
No?
Maybe that's the case in England
yeah probably, because in America a lot of people don't even know who Guy Fawkes is
I know because of V for Vendetta, but for the most part they don't
We actually start decorating and celebrating the day after Thanksgiving
After there's the Black Friday, that marks the start of the Christmas season
It's when you start buying presents etc.
So we generally start celebrating Christmas the day after Thanksgiving
And that's when I wanted to start decorating my house
But Enrico told me not to because here you start after the 7th of december ?
The 8th!Because it's  the Immacolata concezione (Immaculate conception)
But it depends
In Italy traditions vary a lot from a region to another
I'm from Liguria and there we start celebrating the 8th of december
And my mother who saw me carrying the tree decorations in mid-november
told me "are you crazy? it's not Christmas yet!"
The 8th is the Immacolata, the Immaculate conception
and after that you start thinking it's Christmas time
But I don't like it. I start decorating early because I want to enjoy seeing the decorated tree in my house for at least a month
That's right
I start feeling in a Christmas mood since the first day of December
I actually wanted to ask you, Daniela, since you just had a baby
you're the perfect person to ask this to
What do you tell children about Christmas? How do you explain the story?
Is there Santa Claus in Italy?
In Italy there's a strong christian culture
so we tell the story of baby Jesus
But there's also Santa Claus alongside
It's hard to explain to a child how the Santa and the birth of Jesus can go along
Also, the fact that it's celebrated on the 25th of december it's not historically correct
Because Jesus was actually  born in... September?I think ( it's actually april N.d.T.)
Yeah
It's a mixture.
But we usually tell them the story of Jesus, born in a stable with the ox and the haddock
And the Magi that came to visit the 6th of January
That's the story we tell them.
Also because we usually do the "presepe", I don't know if you do it in America too?
Yes we do it too. It's called nativity scene.
Here it's a very important tradition. In some families it's almost more important than the tree
Some presepi are really big
And while you're displaying it, you explain the story to the child
We put sheeps because there were shepherds,
because a lot of people came to visit Jesus
You can tell them about their professions
Because in the Italian presepi there are a lot of different professions. There is someone making bread, someone else cutting meat and so on
There are many little stands
I haven't noticed these details
Yes, often all traditional professions are represented, I don't know why
I don't know if there were actually all these different people surrounding Jesus lol
But in the nativity scenes there are, and some people even do an animated presepe
Oh, that's interesting.
So yeah, the story is more about the presepe than about Santa
But it's Santa who brings presents.
In the presepe baby Jesus is only added the 24th at midnight, or the 25th morning.
Before that moment, there is an empty spot in his place
There are Mary and Joseph, even if Mary doesn't have a pregnant belly lol, and Jesus is added later
that's because it's considered bad luck?
I think it's because of religious reasons, but I don't know
I've heard that adding Jesus before brings bad luck and the world ends lol
So,
In the US we have a lot of different stories that are put together
Now that I'm thinking about it I don't know how as a child I never asked how all these things could work together
But since ours is a very multicultural State
we actually learn in school about a lot of different celebrations
For instance we learn about Hanukkah because it's in the first part of December
Yeah, the date of Hanukkah varies
yeah, this year it's like from the 1st to the 10th of December
We also learn about Kwanzaa, which is an Afro-american celebration
We learn a bit about Ramadan, even if it's not in December
So we learn something about every celebration
And we try to get everyone involved
And even if we learn about religious traditions in school,
outside of those, there's the story of Santa that comes on Christmas Eve
You have to leave cookies so that he can eat them and he will give you presents
Otherwise he will bring coal to the children who've been "naughty"
A weird thing is that we did "cultural appropriation" of the tradition of leaving cookies
Because before American movies and shows became popular, we wouldn't leave cookies for Santa
Really?
Yeah Santa would just come and drop the presents without eating anyting
That's interesting because I asked other people and they basically told me they did the same as us
Like leaving milk and cookies outside the door
Yeah, I'm speaking for my region because Italy is all different
It's very internally diverse and it's difficult to know how everyone celebrates
That's true
I also wanted to ask you something about presents
What do I have to gift to an italian friend?
What are the typical italian Christmas gifts?
And also what's the difference between Christmas and Befana(Epiphany),since you too have this festivity
From what I recall, in America if you're not Catholic you don't celebrate the Epiphany
Okay, first of all you should check out my videos where I give gift suggestions.lol. I did three of them!
Well, gifts can vary a lot.
I don't know if it's just my family or if other people do it too, but a tradition (in my family) is to gift at least one pyjamas.
Okay
A pyjamas to wear on Christmas morning
That's nice!
And we usually open presents at midnight on Christmas Eve
Some people open them on Christmas morning, there are two different opinions on this.
Yeah, that's a difference.
But we(my family) open them the 24th at midnight so that we can go to sleep wearing the new pyjamas
Oh, that's cute
So there's that
It's also tradition to gift a pair of underwear for New Year's
Oh, right. The red ones?
Yes, red underwear (panties) for New Years and they're usually gifted at Christmas
I ,for instance, am the one that gifts underwear to all the family
I don't know why, that's my role
And then there are regular gifts, like a camera or a book and so on
It depends on the person
A common gift is a Christmas basket:
they are gourmet baskets
Since Italy is very regional, if you're from somewhere else known for the food
You bring some specialties from your hometown
That's cool
They can contain pasta, marmelade and so on
It's also a gift that your boss may give you
Oftentimes companies give gift baskets to their employees
yes, I heard about it
With prosecco, salami etc
There are these packaged baskets with various things inside, they're nice.
Then, on the Epiphany, there's the stocking.
Generally, it can contain some small gifts depending on the region,
maybe a necklace or something small so that it can be put inside the stocking
And the rest is all candy. A lot of candy
Oh okay, so we put the two together.
Yes, cause you do the stocking for Christmas right?
Yeah, that's right
We open presents on Christmas morning
Always after the parents get up
And obviously on Christmas they decide to get up much later than usual
So first thing you open the stocking, bacause it's the only thing you can open without them
And inside there are small gifts, candy
So you're good until they decide to get up
And then when they get up we open regular Christmas presents
Which can be anything, honestly
It's really trendy doing Secret Santa
Where everyone in the family has to give a present to only another member
So you don't have to think about buying a thousand different things and spending a lot of money
It's less consumerist
Right. You can buy just a thing for someone and put a lot of thought into it
It's nice
I like the idea
Okay, so since you're italian now I have to ask:what do you eat at Christmas?
It's a very hard question.
First of all we have three big meals
Oh that's true. This is my fourth Christmas in Italy so I know
Actually there are even more than 3. The three meals are just the basic ones.
They are: the dinner on the 24th, the lunch on the 25th and the lunch on the 26th (at grandma's in my case)
These are the main ones
There's also New Year's dinner but that's a different story
At the cenoni (big dinners) there can be anything
It varies a lot depending on the region. In Italy you don't eat the same things from here to a 100 km distance
It's very different
Generally, there are some oven-baked dishes
There's always at least one pasta dish
Classic meals are cannelloni or lasagna, but also tortellini are quite popular at Christmas
What about the stockfish?
The stockfish is popular in my region
In the Marche too
Really?
Yeah
Yeah generally near the sea fish meals are popular
But in Liguria for instance we also have lasagna or pasta at Christmas
Generally Christmas Eve is considered a lean day, so we eat fish
Yeah, so if you're like me...
You eat peppers!
Right, you can't eat anything because I don't eat fish, I don't like the taste of it
I mean, I can eat a piece of stockfish, but I can't eat anything else
So I eat bread
Want to know a trick?
What is it?
Frying everything
What?
You have to fry everything!
What does it mean? [Tia is not understanding that "friggere" means fry]
Ah, fry! Yeah it may be a solution
In my region we have fried salted codfish
fried shrimps, a variety of fried fish which is called paranza
Where I'm from, being near the sea, we eat these sort of things on Christmas Eve
Also, there's the classic lasagna
My mother-in-law always makes a mushroom lasagna
It depends on the region, but generally there are three culinary appointments: 24th, 25th and 26th.
And fresh home-made pasta is also typical
Usually the women of the house make homemade pasta, it's tradition
Interesting
Tortellini, Ravioli, Tagliatelle etc...
In the US I think it depends more on family traditions
what you eat and when you eat it
We usually had an early dinner or late lunch with the family
I think other people do the same because I've seen it in movies
But I know that there are some people who have to work on Christmas Day
Yeah
In America, so...
In Italy too
So it's not always doable
But the important thing is being together in the morning, having breakfast with all the family
That's a little less important here
Generally in Italy breakfast is a less important meal
But, on the contrary, my family did cultural appropriation
and we eat pancakes, bacon, scrambled eggs etc
It's great that you do!
And in the video we did together on my channel we're making Cristmas crackers
Which are a typical gift for Christmas morning, aren't they?
[perplexed Tia]
The crackers that you open
[perplexed Tia 2.0]
No?
Yeah?!
Maybe in England! I know more about English traditions than American ones
It's okay
Okay, well my list is over
I think we covered a lot of differences between Italy and America, but not all of them
leave me a comment with the ones we forgot
Let me know what you think
And as always remember to like and subscribe if you haven't already
Go on Daniela's channel and watch our video that we did on her channel
And I'll see you guys in my next one
made by just pasquy
