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I love holiday traditions. Growing up, we had a lot of Christmas traditions that led to beautiful memories. Now that T and I are getting married and own our first home, I am looking forward to our own holiday traditions that we will start, especially after we finish our home renovations.
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As a child, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were celebrated much differently. Since I am Danish (mother’s side) and Italian (father’s side), we designated each day to each culture. Christmas Eve was reserved for my Danish family since Danes actually celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve, not Christmas Day (to this day, Christmas Eve feels more like Christmas to me than Christmas Day). Christmas Day was reserved for my Italian family.
Christmas Eve always happened at my Mormor and Morfar’s house. We would dress to the nines (no jeans allowed), which is still my favorite thing to do for Christmas. Presents were already towered under the tree when we would arrive mid-afternoon, but dinner wouldn’t be served until around 6 pm. Dinner was always delicious Danish food (roast with horseradish, anyone?) cooked and prepared for by my Mormor, and certain phrases like “May I leave the table?” would be spoken in Danish. After dinner we would all gather around the tree and open our gifts, which was then followed by dessert (always my Mormor’s lemon meringue pie). I do not have any memories of the drive home on Christmas Eve because I would always be exhausted except for one night when I looked up into the starry sky hoping to see Santa.
Christmas morning would begin with my sister and I in our pajamas opening our gifts first, which was then followed by mom’s delicious cinnamon rolls (with extra icing!). In the early afternoon we would then travel to my Nana or one of my aunt’s house to celebrate Christmas Day. Everyone would bring a dish like a potluck, but my Nana would still always cook a lot of food herself. You could count on there being baked ziti (we are Italian, after all) and my mom’s sweet potatoes with marshmallows. All the adults would hang out around the kitchen table while the food was cooking and all the kids would be playing outside or with toy cars. Gifts were opened immediately; there was never any designated gift opening time and the attire was more casual. Coffee and a potluck of desserts would conclude the evening.
Two very different ways to celebrate Christmas, but I loved how different each day was. This year we will be celebrating Christmas with T’s family, and I still like to somehow throw in my traditions on Christmas Eve since that’s the day I am personally used to celebrating Christmas on. Mixing traditions is fun!
On the blog today I am dressed how I would for Christmas at my Mormor’s house. I absolutely LOVED dressing up for Christmas (still do!). My mom would style us in traditional Christmas colors of white, red, and green so I continued that tradition here with a gorgeous white blouse (with sleeves to DIE FOR!) and a red tulle skirt screams holiday flirty fun!
Comment below with your holiday traditions!
Top: Alexis (also available here) | Skirt: Needle & Thread | Shoes: Manolo Blahnik | Clutch: c/o Reiss (old, similar here) | Lips: Tom Ford in Naked
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Love this post!! Actually made me hungry with all of the food mentions…sorry you missed out on the Italian Feast of the 7 Fishes for Christmas Eve!…Merry Christmas! 🙂
Hi! I like this lovely skirt. So pretty! Also I read a post with interest. I like what in your blog not only photoshots, but also reasonings. I love your blog
I’m Italian too and that’s my way to celebrate Christmas. On Christmas eve all the family dine together at my grandparents’ house. We usually prepare panzerotti and calzone, and we have a lot of fun making them. After dinner, we play tombola or some cards games, waiting for midnight. When the time comes, the younger in the family (usually a child) puts the figure of little Jesus in our “presepe” (a small reproduction of the Nativity scene). Then we go to sleep, waiting for gifts.
On Christmas day, we open gifts under the tree and we have a great lunch all together. We eat a lot, and baked pasta or lasagne are always in the menu. We eat also sweets made by us (in South Italy where I live we make “cartellate”, a kind of fried biscuits with sweet wine on them). After the lunch, the family stay together, playing for all the evening.
I love the atmosphere this celebration creates, and it’s the only period in the year in which we are all together 🙂
hmm lovely outfit
Totally in love with that outfit. You look stunning. And could totally relate to all the Danish Christmas traditions since I am Danish myself and live in Jutland in Denmark. You need to visit DK again soon, Alyssa-could be so cool to meet you!
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