Christmas in Naples - What to See and What to Eat Among Shepherds and Traditional Dishes

Experiencing Christmas in Naples is participating in something unique because here the sacred and the profane, faith and superstition, history and innovation, celebration and desecration merge, an explosive mix that is difficult to untangle, but which pervades between colors and smells.

For the Neapolitan, Christmas is a personal thing, to be celebrated faithful to Catholicism by going to church at midnight on December 24th, but only after having preceded it with a sumptuous dinner with traditional dishes, which they will then finish digesting by New Year's Eve.

The Neapolitan rigidly venerates the holy family and the nativity, but on his nativity scene he is ready to desecrate this scene by combining the figures of the Family of Nazareth with the statuette of the character of the moment which could be Queen Elizabeth, Charles of England, Messi or Ronaldo CR7, Chiara Ferragni with Fedez, without ever forgetting the superstitious sleeping shepherd Benito and his absolute saint... Maradona!!

The crib art of the shops in Via San Gregorio Armeno is one of the maximum expression of Neapolitan craftsmanship, with masters who have been creating beautiful statuettes for thousands of years, obsessively taking care of the chiseling of the ceramic faces of the shepherds and of the clothes, using rags if they are characters of the people or thirst of San Leucio if they are rich or "prestigious" characters such as Giuseppe or Maria. Each character is a real work of art which, placed on the nativity scenes, which are also handcrafted and beautiful, recreate the scene of the nativity, but translated into an irreverent popular Naples of the 1500s or 1600s.

For the Neapolitan, a walk in San Gregorio Armeno during the Christmas period is inevitable, either to buy the missing shepherd to add to the collection, or to replace one that broke the previous Christmas, or to buy the one that Edoardo De Filippo, in his famous comedy, he called the "enteroclismo" and that is the pump to make water flow from the waterfall or from the ever-present fountain.

The unfailing traditional personages on the Neapolitan crib are: Benino , the shepherd lying down, sleeping, apparently doing nothing, who, dreaming of the same crib, receives from the angels the announcement of the birth of the Child Jesus. The laundresses who hang out the white clothes as a sign of virginity of Mary and who rush to help the Madonna in the moment of childbirth. The vintner Cicci Bacco : depicted sitting on a barrel driving a cart. Zi' Vicienzo and zi' Pascale who respectively represent Carnival and Death and to ask for the numbers to play in the Lotto. The hunter and the fisherman representing the cycle of life (the hunter is death and the fisherman is life), the Shepherd of Wonder, the Gypsy, the Butcher, the Baker, the Shoemaker and others   more clearly the 3 Magi and the Angels .

San Gregorio is, therefore, an obligatory stop, as well as for the Neapolitans, also for the Tourists in Naples during the Christmas period (but also in the rest of the year), as it is mandatory to visit the historic nativity scenes scattered around the city. Among the major ones is that of the Museum of San Martino, a "nativity scene" (called in the Neapolitan style) of inestimable value for beauty, care, size, historicity. Also worth seeing are the nativity scenes housed in the Capodimonte Palace, the Nativity Scene of the Banco di Napoli at the Royal Palace, the Royal Nativity Scene of the Royal Palace of Caserta.

After the crib, absolutely not to be missed in Naples is a typical Christmas dinner or lunch. Real sumptuous marathons with endless parades of delicious foods, all absolutely tied to tradition. Among the inevitable, starting with the appetizer, we find the " Insalata di Rinforzo " (the name already says it all!), a cold dish made with cabbage, olives, anchovies, pickled peppers and lots of oil. Continuing there is the fried cod and capitone , the Scarole pizza or, the new entry, fried pizza with ricotta and cicoli (cured meats). Once the appetizers are finished, we continue with the traditional spaghetti with clams or ziti (candles) broken with Neapolitan ragù (tomato sauce with mixed meats and "pappuliato" meatballs for at least 8 hours). Continuing with the second courses we find the " minestra maritata ", a soup made with mixed meats (chicken, beef, pork) cooked in broth together with various wild field vegetables and broth, or stuffed chicken , or a healthier baked fish (clearly of at least oceanic size).

If all this weren't enough, there are still desserts: first and foremost the Pastiera , followed by Mostaccioli Napoletani (spicy biscuits), the legendary Roccocò (dry biscuits with almonds to be sponged in limoncello or citrus fruits), Struffoli (balls of pastry with honey) and Sicilian Cassatine (stuffed with ricotta). But then, after 10 minutes, between one bingo and another, space for dried fruit, dried figs and castagne del prete (chestnuts dried by smoking).

What to say? Christmas in Naples is the Christmas of opulence, of true and simple joy, of fullness (in all senses and for all senses), to be experienced to the fullest, wandering through the alleys and squares, mingling among the people, dancing on the street, having an excellent coffee and leaving a paid one (as is the tradition in Naples for those who cannot afford it), but above all enjoying a real Lunch or a real Traditional Christmas Dinner, with only one prescription, however, and that is, that a week before coming, you do a preparatory diet and then, once you leave, that you absolutely avoid having blood tests at least until February.