Christmas Day Activity to Try in Your Portofino Home
What to do as a Christmas day activity?
Christmas is truly the giving season. Celebrate Christmas day itself by doing these fun Christmas activities your whole family can cherish. Or you can also try other fun ideas with the family to make fun family tradition. For many the pandemic has prevented us from doing our Christmas activities with the whole family like Christmas carols, physically visiting a local shelter or a local nursing home and even making holiday parties.
Make this a Christmas day activity: Attend A Church Service
Palazzo Verde has a Mass Schedule you can check out.
The true Christmas spirit is starting the day by honoring the birth of Jesus and attending worship. With the pandemic, physically attending a mass might not be permissible but most worships are now televised. Portofino Alabang is near to a lot of Churches. And who’s stopping you from worshiping while wearing your ugly Christmas sweater.
Humanitarian work on the holidays is one of the most beautiful things anyone can do.
Christmas is the ideal time to reflect on your blessings — and to encourage your entire family to do so as well. If you have time on Christmas morning for some holiday spirit, volunteer as a family to help others and begin the day with gratitude. If you or a loved one belongs to a high-risk group, always follow all COVID-related safety criteria and investigate virtual solutions.
Or, you can pay it forward by giving it to a local toy drive so that less fortunate children can also enjoy Christmas time. This is great excuse to cleaning out the playroom or bedrooms that also gives room for new toys to be appreciated to their full potential as the perfect gift. Around the holidays, many churches and community centers host toy drives, but Toys for Tots is a terrific national alternative as well. You can also write letters to them or send out Christmas cards to make them feel the holiday mood.
Set up a hot chocolate bar as a Christmas day activity
Having a hot chocolate bar can really bring any place alive!
It might also be a nice gesture to set up a mini chocolate bar to give to children strolling around during Christmas season. During the holidays, who doesn’t like a cup of hot cocoa? Set up a hot chocolate bar to celebrate the warm and fuzzy sensation of Christmas with your favorite chocolate beverage. This is a great addition to any holiday gatherings or visits from relatives.
Filipinos love collecting ornaments. Collect something each year that would signify a good memory for the family. More than merely tying everything together, collecting nutcrackers, holiday cards, Santa Claus figures, snowmen, and other attractive Christmas ornaments. It also adds to the spirit of putting out your annual holiday décor by providing your family with a simple gift suggestion year after year.
Organize a scavenger hunt
This is a fun Christmas activity for family members. Divide the family into teams and assign them the responsibility of locating a variety of Christmas-related goods or photographing each other performing a list of festive actions. Consider hiding lawn ornaments on your luxury real estate or serenading your neighbors with a Christmas tune. Make your list unique by including inside jokes, and get ready to make some memories.
Italian Christmas traditions to match your Italian Portofino luxury home
An Italian luxury home deserves a luxury Italian lifestyle.
No meat on Christmas
On Christmas Eve or la Vigilia, the Italians follow a long-standing practice of not eating meat. Instead, they consume a wide range of fish meals, sometimes as many as seven! This is common on the day and night before every religious festival; you’re expected to ‘eat lean’ and cleanse your body before the festivities! Popular fish meals differ depending on where you are in the country. In Rome, Pezzetti is a traditional meal of fried artichokes, zucchini, and broccoli, but in Naples, shellfish and broccoli are sautéed. Of course, pasta meals are served on Christmas Eve in Italy, in addition to fish. The specific pasta meals differ based on where you are in the country. People in northern regions like as Piedmont and Lombardy consume anchovy lasagna, whilst in Naples, vermicelli with mussels or clams is more common.
Bagpipes on the piazzas
Men playing bagpipes may be found in the squares all around Italy, notably in Rome, the Eternal City. They are known as ‘zampognari,’ and they dress up as shepherds. This is because shepherds used to make the trek from their mountain homes into the piazzas to earn additional money by playing the bagpipes for anybody who would listen.
The shepherds who came to see Jesus on the night of his birth and played the bagpipes for him inspired this. Maybe you can start this tradition for the neighborhood to enjoy, maybe even during a tree lighting ceremony under the twinkling lights.
Displaying a ceppo or belen on Christmas
The Philippine tradition of creating a Belen is a lot like the Italian tradition! | Image from Philippine Star
This is actually a Filipino tradition as well. Our version is the the belén—a creche or tableau depicting the Birth of Christ in the manger, surrounded by the Virgin Mary. During the holiday season, most Italian houses will have a ceppo on display. A ceppo is a pyramid-shaped wooden frame that may be anywhere up to a few feet high and is thought to have originated in Tuscany. Elevate the display with holiday lights near your own Christmas tree.
Gifts from the good witch
Bring out the stocking for those gifts!
Christmas presents aren’t just delivered by Santa. La Befana pays a visit to all of Italy on January 6th, which marks the conclusion of the holiday season. This literally translates to “the good witch,” and tradition has it that on this occasion, she would fill stockings with sugar for the good children and coal for the bad. What a great idea tp have two gift giving.
Sweet treats
Sweets are the perfect slice of happiness for any holiday.
Italians are particularly fond of sugary foods around Christmas. Of course, it differs from place to city across the country, but they all have a collective sweet craving over the holidays! No, we dont mean the holiday staples like candy canes, gingerbread house and Christmas cookies. We mean Sweetbreads such as panettone and pandoro are popular across the country and appreciated by many. However, cavallucci, sweets adorned with the picture of a home, are available in Siena, and you’re certain to see someone enjoying spicy nut pastries known as mostaccioli on a tour of Rome city.
New family tradition is always something to look forward to with friends and family. However, because this is the one time of year when you can truly bond with your family — especially if you have relatives returning from work overseas — you may make this celebration unique by instituting new holiday activities.
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