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Now let the city of be doing hello, My name is Claudia. I was born and raised in Sardinia and I still call it home. I am the mastermind behind the Streetly Sardinia Travel Blog and now the Streetly Sardinia Podcast where each week I will bring you the best Sardinia has to offer and share my most insightful tips to to help you plan a memorable trip to my wonderful island. In the last episode I talked to you about Boza, the small village in the west of Sardinia that everyone loves to visit. This week I will share with you everything you need to know in case you're thinking of spending Christmas in Sardinia. Let me stress that you will find a more detailed version of today's episode on my blog, strictlysardinia.com you will find the link to the blog post in the episode description, so do not forget to read that. Now let's talk about Christmas in Sardinia. Christmas is one of the most heartfelt festivities in Italy and Sardinia is no exception. Due to the heavy Catholic influence and strong link that Sardinians have with their folklore and pagan traditions, Christmas in Sardinia has always been quite unique and interesting. There are many rites in which religion and superstitions, Christianity and paganism have always been interlinked. I was born and raised in Calgary, as you know, the beautiful capital of Sardinia, and while I have spent 10 years living overseas, this is where I currently live and where I've spent most of my Christmases in my life. And of course I will share everything you need to know all the secrets about the Sardinian Christmas celebration If you're thinking of spending Christmas in Sardinia, you'll be happy to know that it's quite a big affair. Though the island is a million miles away from the more famous Christmas holiday destinations and other places like that in northern Italy and Europe. Now. Traditional Christmas in Sardinia before the rapid industrialization that took place in the last two centuries, Sardinians were a population of simple, hard working people whose economy was based on farming and sheep herding. There wasn't much time for resting and having fun, especially for men, and even more so for the ones that practice the transhumans. This activity, excellent for providing for the family, would force men to spend months away from home, leaving off bread and dairy products in narrow and sometimes cold shelters. So of course Sardinia at Christmas time was the occasion to meet the family, spend some time together, eating warm food, playing while sitting next to the fire. And the fire itself has always been one of the main features of Sardinia Christmas celebrations. The fireplace in any tradition has been a symbol of warmth, being home and of Course, it is also the warmest place in the house. Sitting next to the fireplace and eating a Christmas dinner is still a very important tradition in Sardinia, especially in colder mountain towns. Locals often prepare a special log called Sudruncu e Jenna, the dinner's log. Traditionally it is lit up on Christmas Eve and is kept burning until January 6, which is for us the end of the Christmas period. According to tradition, for Christmas Eve, people who families would meet and eat a frugal dinner. This is not quite the case anymore, at least compared to the lunch that awaits them on Christmas Day. They would then spend the evening talking, eating nuts and tangerines in the richest families, playing various games and telling stories. This varied from the most recent gossip to horror stories to scare the kids who for this occasion were allowed to stay up late. The eldest members of the family were the ones who shared the Sardinian legends, often including a lesson for the kids. For example, there's the one story of Maria Puntaoru Mary with a hook. It's a simple scary story to convince kids to finish everything on their plate. To prevent food waste, it says that there is a witch called Maria who owns a hooked pointy sticks and checks everyone's bed after they have fallen asleep. If she finds a stomach empty, meaning you didn't finish your Christmas dinner, she will dig a hole in it with her stick. This hole will never heal and you will never be able to have food in your belly again. And your friends will make fun of you. It's scary, right? It is for kids and it was definitely back in the day. Lets talk about traditional Sardinian Christmas games. Scary stories aside, adults and children both played and still do play several games on Christmas Eve. Older people would play card or bingo. Kids would play a betting game with a special four face spinning top called sub barralico. Each face had a letter on it and each letter was the action for the player. Children would bet their tangerines and hazelnuts, sometimes candies if they received any, and follow the spinning toys landing phase instructions. T meant totto. O you get the whole jackpot. M means mitari. Half, you get half the jackpot. N means nudda. Nothing, you don't win anything. And P means pony Put you have to put something on the jackpot stack. Christmas mass and superstition. Let's talk about them now. All of the talking and games served as a double means to finally relax and have fun. After months of working out. The whole family after dinner would then go to church at midnight to celebrate the mis sevudu, the Rooster's Mass. This probably got its name because of the early hour of the celebration, close to the rooster's first cry. Like many other aspects of folklore, going to mass was both as religious as a religious duty and the good luck charm, especially for some groups of people. The most common example is the fact that pregnant women were expected to go to church on Christmas, and people believe that otherwise they would deliver a sick baby or a monster. This is not the only superstition about pregnancy and Christmas. Many locals still think that a baby born on December 25th will have a long, healthy life. What is then modern Christmas like in Sardinia? Well, many cities and even smaller towns in Sardinia host Nativity scenes, exhibits and competitions during the Christmas period. Every church will have a Nativity, a Nativity scene, and you should visit a few to get the idea of what it's like. Kayari is probably the best choice as it hosts several exhibits as well. The most popular Nativity scenes are the one at the Botanical Garden, one of the prettiest parks in the city, and the Nativity at Sant Ignacio Church, close to the Roman Amphitheater and one of the prettiest churches in Cagliari. There's also Nativity scenes performed by real actors. The most famous one is a solo's Sula Via della Cometa, where more than 150 people act in it and they act in the Sardinian language. There's also a nice Nativity scene in Olmedo, the Olmedo bread Nativity held in a small town near Sasseri Olmedo at Nostra Signora d' Italia church, where the entire statues are made of bread. Christmas markets In Sardinia we do have Christmas markets. They are a great occasion to go for a walk in town, see the streets beautifully lit with fairy lights, Christmas trees and other decorations. The the biggest cities offer the best markets. There's more than one Christmas market in Cagliari. My favorite is the one in the Lazzaretto, which is outside the center of town, close to Santillia's beach. It's a craft market. Other Christmas markets take place in Piazza del Carmina and Piazza Yenne, two of the most famous squares in the city. And there's one in the Corso Vittoria Manuele Secondo, the main street in the Sampache historic district specifically. But there also are Christmas markets in smaller towns in Sardinia, for example, Iglesias and Golf Aranci, celebrating Christmas at home. Although Christmas is still one of the most celebrated festivities in Sardina, there have been some changes compared to the past Local traditions have often been replaced by something that is more mainstream popular. The influence of TV has played a role in this. Many families still have a get together on Christmas Eve, eat an abundant dinner and then spend the night spending, playing and chatting. The most religious ones go to church for the midnight mass, while others prefer just exchanging presents and letting the kids play with the toy. Some other family that would include mine will have a simple dinner on the 24th and a more abundant lunch on the 25th, followed by the exchanging of presents. Another feature that has stayed consistent is the games played while you wait for midnight. Midnight families once again gather for Christmas lunch. They have a traditional meal. Most families stay at home, but there are some that actually go to restaurants and that would include mine. After celebrating Christmas at home for many, many years, my family has decided that Christmas is a good time for all of us to relax. So nobody has to cook Sardinian Christmas food. Oh, this varies depending on the family. Traditionally at my place we would have roasted lamb. And don't think of it as roasted lamb. Piece of lamb roasted in the oven. It's a literally, literally a small animal that is roasted on the fire. We would have lasagna. Don't ask me why. They're not traditionally Christmas food in Sardinia, but we would still have it definitely some places. Some families prefer having fish and seafood. That is particularly the case in Calgary. And we always have wine, typically Sardinian wines, canonao, vermentino, stuff like that. In terms of sweets, Sardinian traditional Christmas sweet is panezaba. Each village has its own recipe and variations. It's a sweet bread made with wine. Must quite difficult to make actually. But now most families opt for traditional Italian panettone or pandoro. What's the weather like during Christmas in Sardin? Ha, Good question. If you're coming here expecting a white Christmas, perhaps it's better you go somewhere else. The weather is usually very mild along the coast on Christmas. There have been days at Christmas that we had temperatures that soared up to 25 degrees and we went for a walk to the beach here in Cagliari at Poeto. It certainly snows in Sardinia. A white Christmas is most definitely impossible on the coast. It may happen in the mountainous interior of Sardinia. Now, a few final considerations. Sardinia at Christmas is beautiful and atmospheric. If you are looking to rent your own apartment for Christmas in Sardinia, you will find everything, all the markets open and you can stock on the food you need to cook Christmas dinner. Otherwise, if you're thinking that you need to go out for a meal, staying in a bigger place such as Calgary or Alghero or Obia is probably a good idea because more restaurants will be open now. This brings me to the end of my episode. Before I share the topic of next episode, let me remind you that if you ever need help to plan your trip to Sardinia, you can book a one hour travel consultation with me. The link for that is is in the episode description. Once again, don't forget to read that. And of course you have all the posts on my blog strictlysardinia.com that will help you plan your trip. Next week I will be talking about the best museums in Sardinia for those of you to travel here in the winter. Finally, if you like my podcast, share it with your friends who are coming to Sardinia. Give it a five star rating and a good review. And until next week, goodbye.