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Christmas in Italy
One of the most important ways of celebrating Christmas in Italy is the Nativity crib scene. Using a crib to help tell the Christmas story was started by St. Francis of Assisi in 1223 (Assisi is in mid-Italy). The previous year he had visited Bethlehem and saw where the stable, where it was thought that Jesus was born. A lot of Italian familes have a Nativity crib in their homes.
One old Italian custom is that children go out Carol singing and playing songs on shepherds pipes, wearing shepherds sandals and hats.
On Christmas Eve, no food is eaten until after Midnight Mass. Then the main Christmas meal is eaten. The meal includes Italian Christmas Cake called 'Panettone' which is like a dry fruity sponge cake. Here's a recipe for panettone.
In Italian Happy/Merry Christmas is 'Buon Natale' and in Sicilian it's 'Bon Natali'. Happy/Merry Christmas in lots more languages.
Epiphany (see Spain for more information), is also celebrated in Italy. On Epiphany night, children believe that an old lady called 'Befana' brings presents for them. The story about Befana bringing presents is very similar to the story of Babouska told in Russia. Children put stockings up by the fireplace for Befana to fill.