Giving kisses is one of Rosa Pellettieri’s favorite Christmas traditions. To the delight of her guests, they are made from chocolate. At first sight, Pellettieri’s Christmas decorations differ little from those found in Canadian homes.
Giving kisses is one of Rosa Pellettieri’s favorite Christmas traditions.
To the delight of her guests, they are made from chocolate.
At first sight, Pellettieri’s Christmas decorations differ little from those found in Canadian homes.
A red-ribboned Christmas tree adorns the living room, glittering with bright blue lights and a white angel figurine watching from the top.
But there’s also the buffet, a richly decorated table set in the dining room waiting to indulge visitors in the finest Italian snacks and drinks.
Come December, Pellettieri fills it with the house’s best liqueurs, champagne, Italian chocolates (including Baci, the chocolate praline kisses), panettone and casatiello, homemade bread filled with cheese and salami.
“I am not a person who cooks 20 days before and then puts it into the freezer,” she says. “I like it fresh.”
Pellettieri’s traditions have travelled a long way. Her family emigrated from Italy to Argentina after the Second World War, and Pellettieri later moved to Canada.
Like many other immigrants, she holds on to her country’s traditions.
They remind her of her past and culture, of absent family and friends.
In Argentina, Pellettieri remembers people celebrating Christmas Eve with fireworks, greeting their neighbours in the streets, and inviting each other into their homes for food and drinks.
That’s why she still keeps the buffet in the living room.
Now, she says, her Canadian friends and customers at Luisa Ristorante, the local restaurant she owns with her husband Rocco, are family too.
On Dec. 8, she celebrates the day of the Virgin Mary by lighting the tree and gathering the family for prayer.
A small nativity scene is at the bottom of the tree, but Jesus doesn’t join his family until Christmas Eve, the time of his birth.
And he’s not the only one to appear on a specific date. The three wise men remain standing on the side until January 6.
Then Pellettieri lights a candle for their arrival and moves them with the rest of the family. The tree is taken down afterwards.
“You need the three wise men under your tree. It’s good providence,” she says.
“They come with the treasure … and it brings good luck. It’s good for the house.”
Traditional Christmas recipes differ across Italy, though in Argentina her family ate an assortment of fish, often served with vegetables and homemade spaghetti.
She says her mother made the fish because she grew up in Naples, a city on the sea.
On Christmas Day, Pellettieri cooks a number of Italian foods, but not pasta, she laughs, which they eat at the restaurant year round.
“I don’t like to do turkey for Christmas. We did it last Christmas, but we already have it in October,” she says.
Pellettieri says the family gets together on Christmas Eve to celebrate the birth of Christ with food and talk, and heads to mass at midnight.
The next day, she calls her family in Italy and Argentina, opens her gifts and spends time with her husband and children.
“That’s how I feel Christmas is supposed to be celebrated. It’s not the presents for me but for me it’s that someone important was born,” she says.
“Family is also a way to celebrate. My brothers and cousins are in other countries and it’s very hard for me to celebrate without them.”
A few kilometres down the road, another restaurant owner prepares for her annual Christmas dinner.
For eight years, Orysia and George Wozniak celebrated Christmas with friends, family and guests at “A Taste of Ukraine,” a local restaurant in which they are co-owners.
This year, they decided to invite family only, a group of 30 to 40 people.
Restaurant owner Orysia Wozniak says Ukrainian Christmas suppers differ from other feasts. They commemorate the hardships endured by Mary, as well as the presence of animals at the birth of Christ.
That’s why all twelve dishes are meatless and dairy free.
Wozniak sets the table with hay strewn over it, representing the manger Christ was born in, and covers it in white cloth symbolizing his swaddling.
In the centre of the table sits the ‘kolach’ (bread representing the body of Christ) with a candle in its middle that is lit on the appearance of the first star.
Before the dinner is served, Wozniak says the eldest family member carries in a sheaf of wheat representing the rich harvest of Ukraine.
At the restaurant, the sheaf is already set up at the front door in December. Wozniak says it gives her an opportunity to explain the custom to her guests.
Once the dinner begins, the family shares the prosfora, a bread dipped in honey.
What comes after that is a matter of debate, she laughs. Traditions on what to serve first can lead to arguments in the kitchen.
“I remember my parents, who were from different villages, had arguments how they did it in their family,” says Wozniak.
“But the one thing that is always consistent is they always serve the kutya as the first dish of the dinner.”
Kutya is cooked made of whole wheat, sweetened with honey and poppy seeds. As a symbol of fertility and family, the eldest family member throws a spoonful at the ceiling.
“If the kutja stuck to the ceiling, that was a really good sign. It meant it would be a really good harvest and good bees and honey,” Wozniak says, adding they don’t throw anything at the ceiling in the restaurant but only lift the spoon up high.
“And if it came back down, well, that was not so good.”
Some of the other dishes are borsch, pickled herring, beets, different fish, baked sauerkraut and vegetables, as well as stewed fruit and poppy seed rolls.
After the meal, Wozniak says the family listens to carols, and reminisces on the past.
She adds that she always loved this tradition as a child.
“The stories of ‘well, I remember in my village on Christmas,’ ” she says. “You just sat there with big ears and took it in.”
She says her children are adamant about keeping the old traditions alive, which is one of the reasons they decided to celebrate on their own this year.
Luckily for their restaurant guests, Ukrainian orthodox Christmas is celebrated on Jan. 5 and 6.
