Celebrating Christmas Away

Humourous story. We used to go on skiing road trips over Christmas. One year I took green lights and taped it into a tree shape on the patio glass door and put presents under it. My son was underwhelmed. Following August he bought a plastic Christmas tree from a garage sale up the street, dragged it home and said 'THAT is what we are taking next Christmas trip'. Moral is, ask kids what makes Christmas 'Christmas' for them and how you might carry some of that to Italy.
Maybe do a family 'secret santa' and they draw one name for a surprise small gift. Bring the Santa Hat and the giver puts it on after the gift is opened and then choses the next gift to be opened.
Have the kids (or hubby) down load some Christmas play lists.
Christmas socks you all have to wear that day.
If in an apartment, you can look to bring some canned or packaged item from home that fits into part of your traditional meals. Maybe candycanes to stir hot chocolate for breakfast, with Italian panettone toast.

Hi Ernst924,

Since you will be in Florence, maybe you can take a stop and look see at --- https://leatherschool.biz/en/

https://leatherschool.biz/en/131-small-leather-goods

Looking at the pictures and drop down menu of goods, it seems they have many things to choose from in the store/school that won't break the bank. Cute gifts -- leather keychains in certain shapes, little purses, belts, fun bracelets.

The leather coin purses start just under 7€ as an example -- unique design
https://leatherschool.biz/en/home/428-701m-2000000137025.html#/875-color-fuchsia_bluette_fucsia_bluette
https://leatherschool.biz/en/home/382-9010m-2000000136561.html#/954-color-turquoise_turchese

It might be fun to pick up little things and wrap them individually. And, the gifts would be useful too.

Have fun in Florence at Christmas.

Go to Christmas Eve mass somewhere - the Duomo will be packed, good news/bad - even if you don't usually do church. It'll be the intense Italian cultural capsule, impressive, big visuals & aurals, memorable, surprising, probably at least one really moving moment & one that makes you want to laugh. Your kids will remember it!

Re presents, maybe stealth-buy local goodies - edibles, ornaments, little toys, souvenir chatchkas - & hang Xmas stockings on their beds (in new Florentine socks?).

We were in Pienza one Christmastime, where there was a lovely local tradition. Maybe Florence has similar, maybe in neighborhoods? A big log bonfire had been built in the church's piazza during the day, while the little kids (with mamas) took gifts door-to-door to the town's elders. Then after nightfall, everyone - big crowd! - gathered around the blazing fire, sang carols, & waited for Santa to arrive. He had a gift for every child, but each one had to come up to him, have a conversation, & sing a song/recite a poem/something, & only then got the gift. Great lesson in giving/sharing. (Also great photo opps, for both tourists & parents.)

Have a wonderful time!

I have not been to Italy at Christmas but a few ideas from other holiday travel:

-rent an apartment and have a holiday meal. You don’t need to spend all day cooking as you might at home - just buying wine, cheese, bread, fruit, and maybe an easy to cook meat (like roasting or sautéing chicken) or just prosciutto or something ready to eat, would be lovely. Of course if anyone is a hobby cook then diving into all sorts of local recipes could be fun for them. But if not a simple meal at “home” still seems celebratory.

-go to a Christmas mass. If you’re catholic or not it’s still a good experience.

-exchange presents to the extent possible. Gift cards or small things, IOUs, photos. At least buy some candy or something locally for a version of stocking stuffers. Heck, bring Christmas stockings and set them up.

-some restaurants have special holiday meals. Many others are closed so do your research and reserve one that is open. If you have an apartment and liked my “eat at home” idea, maybe find a restaurant for Christmas Eve and stay in on Christmas or vice versa

-Find where the best Christmas lights and manger scenes are and be sure to walk around there on Christmas or Christmas Eve - even if you went earlier in the trip

-download Christmas music and play it. Italian if you want to keep the local feel going, or your favorites from home if that keeps you more in the Christmas spirit.

I send money to selected good charities so that others can enjoy christmas too, that my gift to my frends and kids when they grow up, might be a nice idea this year for your fmaily

We packed some stocking stuffers and bought a few local things.

We have a family tradition of buying each person an ornament symbolic of the year. As the kids got older they took over buying for us. In England one year for Christmas, we ended up with a little bobby hat, an embroidered lion, a fox made of brushes. In Paris one year for Christmas we ended up with similar local ornaments.

On our first Christmas away, it was long enough ago that we didn't have kindles and we are all readers, so we decided Christmas presents would be books. That way everyone came back with the same suitcase space they went with as they gave and received books and we all has things to read while we were traveling.

we bought a small tree and decorated it with our special annual ornaments and then odds and ends we created.

Christmas dinner is really fun. In England we went to family. But in Paris we bought cool stuff the day before in the shops. We had a duck stuffed with pate and trussed up ready to go in the oven. lovely appetizers (I remember the little duckie made of pate. We had charcuterie, good bread etc. and a magnificent dessert that looked like it had been created by an architect.

Holidays are a great time to travel and there are so many lovely local things to be a part of or to purchase for celebrations.

thank you so much to everyone - these were all such great ideas!! Now I am really excited.

Our boys, now 28 and 35, still like to hear my husband read "A Child's Christmas in Wales" out loud, and they and our grandchildren enjoy hearing "Twas the Night Before Christmas." You can find both online.