A Neapolitan Christmas Tradition

My dad and his younger sister Tina admiring a Presepio in the late 1950s.

Today's family stories post comes from my Aunt Tina. She tells the story of the tradition of the Neapolitan Presepio, one she and my dad enjoyed as children. Today she shares that great tradition with tourists through her company Discover Napoli Destinations.

The Neapolitan “Presepio” or Nativity scene is the most cherished Christmas tradition in southern Italy. During the XVIII century, the royal family introduced the custom of having a space set up to honor the birth of Christ, and in the weeks preceding Christmas, a sumptuous nativity scene was set up and admired by all those who had access to the monarchs. Soon the Nativity scene expanded more and more outside the mere representation of the Holy Family, and it started to include the shepherds, the merchants, the animals and a careful analysis of the food of that period. The figurines were sculpted by the major artists of the time, such as Giuseppe Sammartino, creator of the famous statue of the “Veiled Christ.” The backdrop of the scenes featured typical aspects of Neapolitan life, such as taverns, fishmongers and butchers hanging their wares outside of their shops.

For this reason, it is possible to find a particular significance for each member of the scene, each particular location represented and even for the single elements that compose the entire scene! The whole Nativity and the figures it contains become a way of describing, identifying and unifying the community from which it stems.  The Neapolitan Nativity scene was and still is an element of identification of the “gens napoletana,” a collective common personality and the forerunner of the realism that characterizes Neapolitan theatrical and movie productions.

It quickly became fashionable for all aristocratic families, soon followed by those of the bourgeoisie, to display a “Presepio” in each home, obviously on a much simpler scale than the royal one, and in the following years, even the poorer classes honored the coming of Christ by setting up a small Nativity in their homes. The demand for the figurines became incredible, and a new work force emerged, specializing in the figurines as well as the simple or incredibly ornate backdrops for the setting. These artisans were all concentrated in the area around the Church of San Gregorio Armeno, and thus “Christmas Alley” was born!

Today Via San Gregorio Armeno, also known as “Christmas Alley," has become a major tourist attraction. Some of the cheaper figurines are molded in plastic, but Neapolitan families still visit every year to add a “piece” to their Presepio! Usually the children of the family choose the new elements to add each year, expanding their scene with a pizza oven or a waterfall, or replacing the figures which inevitably break when they are wrapped up and put away after the Epiphany. It is a moment of major bonding for the families, and each member participates in the composition of the Presepio. Christmas Alley is one of the major traditions that has survived in Naples and is an important part of Neapolitan cultural heritage.

A strong link to the Presepio is also found in the tradition of placing the Holy Child in the Nativity scene at midnight, or upon returning home from the midnight mass where the little figures of baby Jesus are blessed.  The family forms a procession, singing an ancient carol about the birth of Christ and the youngest member is usually the one who has the honor of placing the figurine in the Nativity scene. The Christmas festivities can then officially begin!

A big thank you to my Aunt Tina for sharing this great tradition with us!

Family Stories: At Christmas

Today I wanted to share some photos of my parents, grandparents and great-grandparents at Christmas. My dad grew up in Naples, Italy, where he enjoyed American and Italian Christmas traditions. Here he is with his mother, Lucy, his sister Tina and their grandmother Tina. This would have been around 1960.

Here's my dad and Tina checking out the elaborate nativity scene, which is called a presepio in Italy. I love the look on his face. He could totally be one of the characters from the movie A Christmas Story.

Here they are a few years later in front of the Christmas tree. I love Tina's hat. She still makes this face, by the way!

If you look closely, you'll notice that they always put the Christmas tree in the exact same spot! Here's a later photo in color of my dad and grandmother standing beside the tree. My 90-year-old grandmother still lives in that same apartment, and I bet she still has many of these ornaments on her tree. :)

On the other side of the world in Palos Verdes, California, the family tree looked like this:

All of those ornaments hang on my mom's tree today. Here she is with her grandmother on Christmas morning. The stereo, end table and coffee table are all still in our family.

And here she is opening presents with Joan and her future stepdad Sid. They were very '60s!

It's easy to get away from taking photos when our holidays are so hectic, but it's so fun to revisit these memories. We hope they inspire you to pull out your own family pictures and add to the new photographic treasures this holiday season.

Christmas Collection Sneak Peek

Gerald and Joan is excited to announce that our first collection of Christmas cards and postcards will debut later this week! While some of us are nostalgic all year long, most of us feel nostalgic at Christmastime. Whether we're baking cookie recipes that have been in our families for generations, singing carols and hymns that have been enjoyed for centuries or trimming our trees with ornaments that belonged to our parents and grandparents, Christmas is a time for treasuring memories, carrying on traditions and enjoying every moment of the season surrounded by our family and friends.

As nostalgia, tradition and heritage are all integral to our design process, it probably doesn't come as a surprise that our Christmas collection evokes those feelings. The collection features five snowy images from Gerald and Joan's personal archives. They are 1940s slides of Joan's childhood home in Gates Mills, Ohio, that I scanned and edited myself. The cards are printed on 110# bright white cover stock to highlight the breathtaking scenes, and they are accented with a dusting of extra fine white glitter and crystal "snow." To continue the sparkling theme, they are accompanied by metallic silver envelopes.

Like Gerald and Joan itself, this collection was a labor of love for us. It takes a little bit of our history and shares it with the world. Though simple, it accomplishes the founding principle of Gerald and Joan -- it preserves a little piece of history through our design work. It also makes us very proud.

Family and friends, look for your very own card from the collection in the mail this holiday season, as we plan to send out a Santa-sized sack of them! If you would like to support our work and send some of your very own, both the cards and postcards will be available for purchase through the blog on Friday. While we're partial for handwritten Christmas messages, they can also be personalized for easy mailing. :)

We would love to help you send out some vintage-inspired Christmas cheer this December!

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Family Stories: The Childhood of Lucy de Forcade Cannon

My paternal grandmother, Lucy de Forcade Cannon, was born in Arona, Italy on Lago Maggiore in 1923.

She attended a private school throughout her childhood, where she was required to wear a uniform -- it was a black and white checked pinafore with blouse. She was accompanied to and from school by her German governess. All of her teachers were Marcelline Sisters. She liked those who taught French and Italian (she speaks Italian, English, French and German). She disliked her math teacher (I shared this dislike of math). My grandmother was an external student in a boarding school. To discourage vanity, the internal students did not have mirrors in their rooms.

Lucy on Capri. 

At home, her father was strict, and her mother was lenient. Her favorite toy was her doll, Rosalda, who she loved to place in her baby bed. She often entertained friends on Saturdays. She loved playing store with friends.

Her favorite colors have always been green and turquoise, because they remind her of Capri. Her favorite flowers are freesia and bougainvillea, and she loves music of all kinds, especially jazz.

In 1945, she met my American grandfather on the tennis court on the Isle of Capri. They played doubles and won. They were married a short time later.

After the war, she was reunited with her father. He was an officer and had gone into hiding from the Germans.

In 1949, my grandparents welcomed my father. They named him Ernest Fred to honor her grandmother's wishes. On Halloween 1955, my aunt, Tina Jennie, was born. They named for her after her mother and my grandfather's late mother respectively.

My grandmother with my father in the 1950s.

My grandmother and father at Christmastime, 1966.