Have you ever wondered what Italians eat on Christmas Day? Are you hoping to make a traditional Italian Christmas lunch or dinner this year and need some ideas? Let me help!
I have been celebrating Christmas in Italy with my family since 2012. Each year, like many Italian families, we spend the day with extended family at the table, enjoying a long, multi-course meal together on Christmas Day.
Although Italian Christmas traditions vary from north to south, one thing that is unmistakably present on every Christmas Day in Italian households is a long, sit down Christmas meal (lunch or dinner) with several courses, plenty of wine and of course, delicious Italian Christmas desserts.
Food on Christmas is actually so important that many Italian families attend mass on Christmas Eve so that they have Christmas day free to prepare one of the most important meals of the year.
Let’s take a look at a typical Italian Christmas Day meal, including:
- Christmas meal traditions in Italy
- Traditional Italian Christmas menu with recipes
- Tips for hosting an Italian Christmas Day meal
So put on your Santa hat and let’s get ready for a typical Italian Christmas lunch or dinner together!
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Italian Christmas Meal Traditions in Italy
The large Italian Christmas meal in Italy is usually lunch rather than dinner. Because the meal is multi-course and takes several hours, most Italian families start their Christmas food traditions early in the day. It’s such a large meal and takes most of the day that there isn’t even time (or room in your belly) for both a Christmas lunch and dinner.
An Italian Christmas lunch typically starts with an aperitivo around midday, served with small nibbles or snacks. Italians don’t eat a large breakfast so they are ready to start eating early. The first course is usually served between 1:00 pm and 2:00 pm and will last several hours. Italians, including my family, will typically stay at the table until 4:00 or 5:00 pm.
Mind you, not all this time is actually spent eating. There is plenty of time to enjoy each course and there is likely to be a pause between each one. Remember, Italians eat their food con piacere e in convivialità, enjoyably at their leisure in good company, so there is no rush!
A typical Italian Christmas lunch is usually meat based while seafood tends to be the star on a typical Christmas Eve dinner.
Traditional Italian Christmas Meal Menu
A traditional Italian Christmas lunch (or dinner) menu will differ greatly depending on where you are in Italy. Northern regions will be eating more rice and polenta while central regions enjoy stuffed pasta and southern regions tend to eat homemade pasta.
Everything from the crackers to the cheese and charcuterie served with cocktails (or mocktails) for aperitivo will be regional as well. Italians love to eat seasonally and locally, which is why typical Italian Christmas food traditions change dramatically from region to region, north to south and east to west.
Because each family has their own traditional Italian Christmas lunch traditions, it’s hard to cover it all but there are similarities to each, starting with order of operations, meaning, they follow the same meal structure.
Below are typical examples of foods and dishes served for each Italian course, covering northern and southern specialties. If you are cooking a traditional Italian Christmas Day meal this holiday season, choose from each category based on what your family likes to cook and eat.
Aperitivo At A Traditional Italian Christmas Meal
Before my Italian family sits down to the big meal, an aperitivo or pre-meal drink is served with local cheese (pecorino in my case, as we live in Tuscany) with olives, focaccia (schiacciata) crackers, chips, prosciutto toscano and other cured meats.
We start with prosecco, which is typical across all 20 regions of Italy. Italian cocktails are not typically served before the meal. If anything, Italians will have a Spritz (Aperol or Campari).
If you are looking for non-alcoholic Italian drink options for Christmas, take a look at:
Crodino Spritz
Italian Lemon Ginger Mocktail Recipe
Apertass Italian Mocktail Recipe
Italian Cedrata Long Mocktail Recipe
Aperol Spritz Mocktail Recipe
Drinks At Italian Christmas Lunch
After the aperitivo, all Italian families will serve both red and white wine at the table with both sparking and flat water.
The wine is typically regional and paired with the various courses. For example, our Italian family starts with white wine at antipasti and then moves to red for the first and second course.
After the dessert, coffee is served, always in the form of an espresso followed by a digestif (see below for more on this important topic!).
Antipasti (Appetizers) At A Traditional Italian Christmas Lunch
Our Italian Christmas lunch always starts off with a variety of appetizers that set the stage for the main course. Here are some typical appetizers you might find on an Italian Christmas lunch menu:
- Crostini ai funghi – toasted bread with cooked, locally foraged mushrooms
- Crostini toscani – toasted bread with liver pate (Central Italy)
- Crostini con salsiccia e formaggio – toasted bread with sausage and cheese (Tuscany)
- Crostini con salmone – white bread with butter, smoked salmon and capers
- Crostini di polenta – slices of pan fried polenta topped with a small piece of fish, stewed vegetables, meat sauce or cheese
- Verdure fritte – fried vegetables such as artichokes, carrots, onion, zucchini
- Olive all’ascolana – fried olives (Le Marche)
- Mozzarella in carrozza – fried mozzarella sandwiches (southern Italy)
- Baccalà Mantecato – creamy whipped salt cod on toast (Venice)
- Arancini – fried rice balls (Sicily and Lazio)
- Panelle – fried chickpea fritters (Sicily)
- Cecina – Chickpea flatbread
In addition, depending on what Italian Christmas food traditions you are following or observing, charcuterie or Italian cured meats and cheese may be served on a platter as an appetizer instead of at aperitivo hour.
Primi (First Course) At Italian Christmas Lunch
Most Italian families will only have one primo or first course at a Christmas meal. Typically, it’s a baked or stuffed pasta but it may also be a risotto or polenta dish in some northern Italian regions.
Popular first courses at Italian Christmas lunch should include one of the following:
- Lasagne (across Italy)
- Crespelle alla Fiorentina – stuffed crepes with spinach in a béchamel sauce (Florence)
- Tortellini in brodo – stuffed pasta in a homemade stock (regional alternatives include cappelletti and agnolotti)
- Cannelloni – pasta tubes filled with a mixture of ricotta and spinach or meat, covered in tomato sauce and béchamel and baked (Central Italy)
- Pasta o’ Fùrnu – baked rigatoni dressed in a meat ragù, which is then layered with sliced eggplant, meatballs, cheese, cured meats and hard-boiled eggs (Calabria)
- Timballo – an elaborate baked pasta dish from Sicily in the shape of a cake with a ‘crust’ of sliced, fried eggplant filled with a variety of ingredients including layers of rice, crepes or pasta filled with meat, eggs, cheese, and vegetables.
- Risotto ai funghi – mushroom risotto (northern Italy)
Secondi (Main Course) At Italian Christmas Lunch
Il secondo, or the main course at a typical Italian Christmas lunch or dinner is usually meat-based. Historically, Christmas day was one of the few times a year many Italians could afford to eat meat.
Just like any other course, the kind of meat served at Italian Christmas lunch will depend on the family tradition based on regional specialties. If you are preparing this year’s Italian Christmas lunch, choose only one from my suggestions below.
My Italian families usually has roast beef served with several typical Italian Christmas side-dishes but there are several options to choose from including:
- Bollito misto – boiled meat, vegetables and potatoes served with salsa verde (or Tuscan salsa verde in Tuscany) and mayonnaise
- Agnello o coniglio fritto – fried lamb or rabbit
- lesso/arrosto di cappone – boiled or roasted castrated male chicken (considered the tenderest poultry of all)
- Vitello – veal prepared and served according to regional traditions such as vitello tonnato in Veneto or simply roasted
- Arrosto di maiale – roasted pork (Umbria and Tuscany)
- Brasato al Barolo – braised beef in Barolo wine (Piedmont)
- Baccalà – salt cod cooked with olives, tomatoes, white wine and pine nuts (southern Italy)
Contorni (Side Dishes) At Italian Christmas Lunch
Side dishes, known as contorni, in Italian are all the foods that accompany the main course of a meal. At an Italian Christmas lunch or dinner, there should be several, much of which will be made from seasonal vegetables found in December.
My Italian family always makes mashed potatoes, sauteed fresh spinach, salad made from winter greens such as radicchio and cooked artichoke.
If you are hosting an Italian Christmas lunch, plan on preparing at least three side dishes to accompany the main course:
- Verdure saltati – pan fried greens, usually swiss chard, kale, spinach or turnip greens
- Radicchio alla griglia – grilled radicchio
- Puntarelle – chicory salad with anchovy dressing (Rome)
- Purè – mashed potatoes
- Patate arroste – roasted potatoes
- Gratin – vegetables baked in bechamel sauce topped with cheese (potato, cauliflower, fennel)
- Insalata siciliana – fennel and orange salad with olives (Sicily)
- Cipolline al forno – baked small onions
- Caponata – a sweet and tangy Sicilian side dish made with vegetables, pine nuts, vinegar and raisins
- Pepperonata – stewed bell peppers
And don’t forget the bread at the Italian Christmas lunch table! Be sure to serve fresh bread with the main dish. In Italy, it will be the regional bread, which you can read more about in Bread in Italy.
Dolci (Desserts ) At Italian Christmas Lunch
And of course, no Italian Christmas lunch would be complete without something sweet to close the meal with. Italians serve several desserts and cookies on Christmas and will have a little bite of several.
Desserts in Italy are extremely regional and what you decide to make at your Italian Christmas lunch will likely be different from your neighbor. These are popular choices, all of which you can read more about in Italian Christmas Desserts and Italian Christmas Cookies.
- Pandoro – a brioche dough cake from Verona (be sure to serve it like this)
- Panettone – a brioche dough cake studded with candied fruit and raisins from Milan (slice it correctly and serve with mascarpone cream)
- Torrone – Italian nougat with nuts
- Frutta – Italian fruit likely to be seasonal citrus that you find in December
- Frutta Secca – all kinds of freshly picked Italian nuts served in their shell to be cracked open and other dried fruit such as dates and dried figs.
- Cannoli – fried pastry tubes stuffed with ricotta cheese filling (Sicily)
- Biscotti vari – different regional Italian Christmas cookies
- Bonèt – chocolate creme caramel (Piedmont)
- Struffoli – balls of fried dough coated in honey and decorated with colorful sprinkles (southern Italy)
Coffee At Italian Christmas Lunch
After all that food, Italians love an espresso or caffè. According to Italian food etiquette, espresso is the only Italian coffee drink permitted after a meal. Most families would agree with this, including my Italian family.
At most, coffee is served with a splash of milk, known as a caffè macchiato and/or a spoonful of sugar. Historically, Italians used a moka pot to make coffee but many families use an espresso machine with capsules today.
Digestif At Italian Christmas Lunch
And lastly, an Italian Christmas lunch is finished with a nightcap or a digestif. The Italian digestivo is sometimes referred to as an ammazzacaffè meaning “kill the coffee”. The Italian digestivo is meant to kill the taste of the coffee and leave you with a clean pallet.
Other Italians believe a digestivo can help with digestion (and we all could certainly use a little help with that after this long Italian Christmas lunch).
Digestives will usually be a locally made or even in-house favorite such as:
- limoncello – lemon liqueur
- grappa – made from grape pomace
- amaro – bitter liqueur
- sambuca – anise based liqueur from Lazio and Campania
- mirto – myrtle herbal liqueur from Sardinia
Some Italians like their coffee and a digestif together, known as a caffè corretto.
Hosting An Italian Christmas Lunch Or Dinner
The idea of hosting a multi course Italian Christmas lunch or dinner can be overwhelming if you are doing it for the first time but the good news is, much can be done in advance to ease the burden come Christmas day. Keep these things in mind when hosting:
- Order meats and specialty Italian items well in advance and be sure to confirm your pickup time from your favorite grocery store, Italian deli or butcher.
- Choose the drinks, including wine and digestifs in advance.
- Choose what serving dishes you are using and know what is going in each (this is important when everything is simultaneously hitting the table at once at the main course).
- Set the table and prepare a buffet/aperitivo table early in the morning (or after dinner on Christmas Eve).
- Make the baked pasta or broth for tortellini two days beforehand. The pasta can be baked as your guests enjoy aperitivo.
- Make most side dishes ahead of time and reheat. This can be done with some, but not all including mashed potatoes, sauteed greens, gratin, pepperonata, caponata, and cipolline al forno.
- Don’t get worked up about time between courses. The extra time is crucial to getting the next course put together and allows your guests to relax and prepare for what is coming next.
- Delegate desserts. Have each household guest bring one dessert. Don’t be afraid to be specific and ask them to prepare a specific recipe.
Toasting On Christmas: It’s tradition for the host to make a toast at Italian Christmas lunch. This may happen initially when everyone first sits down or can be reserved for the main course.
And that’s a wrap at the dinner table. At my Italian family’s house, we always play tombola, or bingo to conclude our meal, which is usually around 5:30 or so. This goes on for about an hour and then we call it a night!
Learn More about Italian Christmas:
Traditional Christmas Foods in Italy
Italian Christmas Day Meal – What We Eat for Lunch or Dinner
Traditional Italian Christmas Eve Dinner
Italian Christmas Cookies to Try
Italian Desserts to Serve at Christmas Dinner
Pandoro vs Panettone – An Italian Christmas Cake Showdown
How to Cut Pandoro and How to Cut Panettone
Foods to Eat in Italy in December
My Gift Guides (Perfect for the Holidays)
Italian Food Stocking Stuffers
Christmas Gifts for Chefs
The Christmas Market in Montepulciano
Sweet Treats Italian Kids Get From The Befana