Having a large primarily Italian family full of cousins, aunts, uncles and family friends can certainly get quite interesting around Christmastime. You can expect to receive and give tons of hugs and kisses as well as stuff your face with gloriously mouth-watering food. There's no such thing as feeling "full" in an Italian household. If your stomach is telling you to stop, that's more or less deemed a bad thing and serves as a signal to keep on eating. It's as if you have to not eat anything for a whole day in advance to prepare for the immense variety of food. Christmas Eve can be very stereotypical at times for a big Italian family. Expect to see a diverse abundance of seafood. From clams and mussels to scallops and cockles; it's usually all provided. Most Italians embody the "feast of the seven fishes" for their Christmas Eve meal, however, that is not nearly enough to satisfy anyone's lingering appetites! You can also expect to find a toothsome variety of cheeses, particularly fresh mozzarella as well as a plethora of different types of pasta dishes ranging from linguine to penne vodka. After a night of celebration with my family, I definitely feel myself gaining weight by the minute. Nonetheless, it's totally worth it.
Don't even get me started on the noise. If you're looking for a peaceful, quiet evening don't attend one of my family's parties! It tends to get noisy very fast, however, it's nothing to complain about. It's a very fun time seeing loved ones you haven't seen in some time and catching up with everyone. Since there's so many people present, there's always "new" people to talk to and chat amongst. Like many family gatherings, expect to get an insane amount of questions about school and potential jobs. Especially for the college students in the family. Usually you need to have some answers rehearsed in your head considering you'll be repeating them an indefinite number of times. Needless to say, the conversations are very unique and all of the laughter and commotion of loved ones celebrating Christmas together doesn't get old.
Below I've composed a few different experiences that can occur at a big Italian Christmas party (and other families, too!) Things can get kind of crazy, but they're undeniably enjoyable.
1. When you get to the party and see all the food.
2. When you stuff your face and realize that they were only appetizers and the main course hasn't even started yet.
3. The overwhelming and heartwarming feeling of greeting everyone as they come.
4. Having to endure conversations about school, jobs or comments about your height and "how much you've grown" over the past few months.
5. When you realize you still need to eat dessert, however you're super full....oh well.
6. When Santa Clause makes a visit and all the little kids get super excited.
7. When an older cousin brings their new baby and everyone obsesses over him/her.
8. When you can't leave without taking home leftover food. And if you refuse, you get the "look."
Having large families in general can be a very interesting, yet amazing thing. Even though big Italian families can be a lot to handle, they're just so loving and fun. There's truly nothing like the embrace of having a large, warm, and welcoming family to celebrate the holidays with.
