May the most beautiful holiday of the year bring peace, love and serenity to your hearts. Merry Christmas! But if you’ve got some free time and love the end of year holidays… Keep me company! As a certified Christmas fan and Italian, let me tell you about Christmas in the Boot. Nowadays, the tradition has faded among the younger generations. However, you will always find groups of nonne (“grandmas”) going to church for the midnight mass. L’Albero di Natale – “The Christmas Tree” If you’ve gone a little too hard on the turkey, our smaller puds and treats are the answer. Mix and match to create your own version of a restaurant-style small dessert plate, or pile up a platter with a variety and let everyone dig in. Choose from Collection chocolate pine cones – a chocolate mousse confection filled with chocolate sauce, dipped in dark chocolate and finished with a dusting of sugar, or serve mini melt in the middle puddings:velvety chocolate puddings, with a hidden melted chocolate centre.

I’ll tell you more about how important this holiday is in Italian culture later in the post. La Messa della Notte di Natale – “The Midnight Christmas Mass”Gesù bambino is often placed in his manger on the night between the 24th and 25th of December. The Re Magi are brought closer to the Infant during the Epiphany.

Natale, the Italian word for Christmas, comes from the Latin word natalis (“birth”). It refers to the birth of Jesus Christ. Each jumper is knitted with 100% sustainable cotton from the Better Cotton Initiative – a group that promotes better global standards in cotton farming and practice. The Boot has a long history of kingdom division, invasion from outsiders, and multiculturality. Even after 1861, the year of the Italian unification, each Italian region has maintained a somewhat unique culture. Mix the butter, sugar, sifted flour, and baking powder in a bowl, possibly with an automatic mixer.

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New to the Foodhall is our stunning passionfruit and white chocolate yule log,perfect for serving a crowd and hand-decorated with white chocolate and shimmering biscuit balls. Try white chocolate and raspberry panna cotta,a creamy combination of white chocolate and Madagascan vanilla, topped with raspberry compote, or take a trip to the darker side with a chocolate melt in the middle pudding– cut open to reveal the ‘ta-da’ of the Belgian chocolate sauce.