For me and my family, Christmas is a serious matter... I don't want to exaggerate, but it really would never occur to us to take it lightly and not celebrate it! Christmas for us is anything but the party of children only. We all look forward to it with trepidation and pleasure every year and we reserve a lot of attention to the preparation of Christmas.

I am of French origins, while Giuliano, my husband is a genuine Italian, so for many years we have mixed our traditions and passed on to our daughters the customs that we grew up with.

Our daughters were lucky enough to benefit from both traditions and to always celebrate Christmas with 1000 small delights and surprises.

So on the evening before, which is particularly important for paternal grandparents, we always had the traditional fish dinner cooked by Giuliano's mother with subsequent unpacking of the gifts under the tree after an anxious wait at midnight.

Back home then, there was the ritual to which I am so attached to the preparation of comfort items for Papa Noel: under the big tree lit with a thousand lights, each of us placed a shoe, and on the mantelpiece we would have some biscuits for Santa Claus, with a glass of milk... (why then the milk? Boh) some carrots for the magical reindeer and a letter where the premises due to good intentions, the children made a quick point on their behavior during the year to justify the right to receive the gifts requested with the letter duly posted with the North Pole address (I wonder how many letters to the North Pole collect every year postmen!).

Then all to bed and running! Early the next morning... not to mention at the first light of dawn, the earliest of the children sneaked out to peek under the shadow of the big tree and then explode with joy, waking all the others at the sight of the first shiny wrappers!

How nice to get off everyone in pajamas and slippers to unpack! And the funny thing is that none of the girls has ever wondered why the gifts at their grandparents' house came one way and to us in another! This is the magic of the Natal, and it is made for those who want to believe in it first! adults and children... For this reason, even today for us celebrating Christmas is an important thing, it is the feast of wishes to be fulfilled and of the most magical night of the year; and for this reason we still prepare it today with all the care, decorating the large tree next to the fireplace, designing a beautiful table set to gather the whole family complete with grandparents, cousins ​​and uncles, and preparing traditional dishes that remind us even those who don't there's more.

And this magic of Christmas is repeated again thanks to everyone's commitment. For you too, this meticulous and careful preparation must be a pleasant and important task! Can you imagine the sadness of a winter without Christmas?!

So have fun like me looking for details every year to add to your festive table, and if like us every year the family grows a bit, it means that it's time to extend the table and get a new tablecloth, but that this time is stain resistant! So after Christmas it will no longer be a nightmare of impossible washing machines and ironing...