Christmas 'Neapolitan' style

I'm not really sure what a traditional Neapolitan style Christmas looks like, but I do know that a Christmas with Gigi's family is almost the complete opposite to celebrating Christmas in Australia with the Banham/Bonner/Thurlow families.

We arrived at Rosa's early evening on Christmas Eve. They have just moved so the house is still full of boxes and things that are waiting for other things before they can be progressed. This is, of course, a universal phenomenon of moving house. Nevertheless I was surprised at the lack of the habitual Christmas tree....something about not being able to locate it following the move.

We sat down at about 9pm to Christmas Eve dinner, which was a slight variation on the traditional fare. Ordinarily they eat a very local dish of spaghetti with shellfish with a touch of fresh tomato and parsley. The last two occasions I've eaten shellfish in Naples I've ended up unwell, so instead Rosa kindly prepared the same dish but with local bugs. (see unfocused photo). The bugs are like mini lobster, very tasty, to the point where you really wish it was a full size lobster sitting in front of you. These little guys are like the women in the Victorian age giving you a flash of an ankle, just enough flesh to entice you and tease you but not enough to satisfy.

The bug teasers and the view from their new place.
This was followed by a delicious salad of smoked salmon and salty cod with onion, dressed with lemon, salt and olive oil. For Gigi's veganism Rosa had prepared a quintessential local dish made with florets of cooked cauliflower and pickled vegetables (the mixes available in a jar - pickled onions, gherkins, capsicum, olives, carrot) and dressed with light vinegar and olive oil. It's good, but something of an acquired taste I suspect. It's appearance on the table always reminds me of Gigi's grandmother, Nonna.

Just when you think you are nicely full the main course, 'secondo', arrives. Fresh salt water mullet baked in alfoil with a large, juicy prawn. The flesh just melted in your mouth, and I spent considerable time working my way through the bone wreckage enjoying each morsel. Ironically, I am usually the laziest eater I know - give me a big spoon and everything cut into bite size morsels as in most Thai cuisine and I'm a happy girl. Anything that requires too much effort or use of the fingers and I lose interest pretty quickly ... like chicken wings, spare ribs, quail, fish on the bone and spaghetti (that whole twirling it around your fork thing is so laborious!). But the fish was worth the effort.

Dessert was traditional Neapolitan Christmas affairs with a bundle of little baked pastry balls, coated in a honey syrup and sprinkled with cake decoration of silver, white and pastels. There was also a tray of pastries - refer to the photo. If you've been reading my blogs you know that the pastries don't grab me here, and the appearance of these heavily sugared, artificially coloured pieces of art didn't change me opinion.

In order to take the edge off, I polished off the majority of a bottle of white wine. I was preparing for the 'we are just talking' episode of raised voices and wild gesticulating hands that I've experienced on previous Christmases, but alas it was not to be.

Now I understand that traditionally gifts are opened at midnight. Now, I would appreciate that with smaller children you might want to bring this forward but for some reason as soon as Gi's sister is ready - say at 9.45pm - we are at the opening present stage. Gigi scored a new winter jacket - see photo - and I received a huge English-Italian Italian-English dictionary to replace the one we posted last January that never arrived, plus a dictaphone (the highlight of my Christmas as I can now go around Naples recording things, in particular Gigi when he starts telling stories) and a diary.

At about 1am we headed home, stopping at the clinic to briefly make a MSN messenger call to my family who are all gathered in Melbourne for Christmas. Australia is ten hours ahead of Naples, so it was getting close to lunch on Christmas Day when I spoke to them. Surprisingly it was only 15 degrees in Melbourne, much like the maximums we are having in Naples, and certainly not a typical Christmas summer day. I was delighted to speak with my parents, sisters and their spouses and three of my four nieces/nephews. We also spoke to our god son who lives in central Queensland, and starts prep school next year. It was 5am by the time we packed up and headed home to bed...where Gigi tested out the new pyjamas his mother had given him, and promptly removed them for more gift giving.

What's so different to the Banham version? The main meal and exchanging of gifts was over in Naples well before midnight on Christmas Eve. At home we do presents in the morning, with Dad having nominated one person to hand out the gifts piled up under the tree, one at a time while each gift is unwrapped, appreciated and the giver thanked...although this does seem to be slipping with the rif raf approach of the newest members of the growing family. (I'm sure their grandfather will pull them into line over the next few years though). We then drift off to shower, dress, tidy up the mess of wrapping paper and discarded packaging whilst the serious business of preparing lunch gets underway. Lunch will be served, sometime between 12noon and 2pm depending on a variety of factors, with the obligatory popping of bon bons, wearing of silly hats and reading out of jokes. It might be a hot lunch of roast turkey, pork, ham and vegetables, or perhaps a cold spread of seafood, sliced meats and salads. Everyone will eat too much, and then this will be followed by desserts of maybe pavlova, Christmas pudding with custard and brandy butter, and a tray of tropical fruit. There will have been significant saucy conversation during the meal, and much interest as we watch how the children deal with the excitement of finally receiving Santa's loot and all those new toys to play with. Inevitably it will be the empty boxes and wrapping paper that attract the most attention.

Following clean up, everyone will collapse onto beds or sofas or tiled floors to escape the heat to rest and recuperate, swearing never again to eat that much in one sitting. Someone will play some corny Christmas music, Bing Crosby or The Wiggles. We'll all sit around marvelling at how Kim, Tania and I are all adults and married and that Katy starts school next year, and baby Lachlan, who is not turning one until February 2007, is already scooting up the stairs and climbing up on the furniture.

The main difference though is the atmosphere, celebrating being together and enjoying the it all.

Here are the photos that I took of Gi and Irene on Christmas Eve...they pretty much sum up her mood.

We hope you all had a lovely Christmas, and that it started and ended with hugs and smiles just like ours did. Buon Natale!