What to do from December 26th to January 31st? Never fear, Santo Stefano (and Lisa!) are here!

December 26th is Santo Stefano...read on for Lisa's suggestions for how to celebrate this holiday, what to cook, and how to make your Christmas last until New Year's Eve, Italian Style!

Buongiorno Sunday Dinner Lovers! I hope you had a very Merry Christmas and happy holidays.

Here I am last week, delivering my Christmas baskets for the holiday !

Of course…the holiday season isn’t over yet! But these days between Christmas and New Year’s are always ones that (if you are fortunate enough to be on vacation!) seem like they are in a universe without time, commitments, or even, frankly, existence. Who am I? What should I be doing? Do I have to be somewhere? (As one meme I recently saw on social media asks!) Thankfully in Italy and in Italian culture we have a reason to keep the holiday going after Christmas. Today, December 26th, is known as Santo Stefano. Saint Stephen was the first Catholic martyr and, while there is a long tradition of celebrating this saint and this day in the Catholic tradition, Italy officially made Santo Stefano a holiday in 1949. Consider it part of the ponte tradition - all those holidays in Italy that you tack on to weekends to make longer vacations! There are even websites that help Italians strategize as to how to best plan their vacation days to take maximum advantage of vacations a year in advance! Here’s an example (with feste (other than festivi like Christmas, etc listed below) in red with suggested vacation days in yellow!)

There are also Italian giorni festivi (festivo means civil or religious feast day while festa refers to a civil or religious holiday - technically they are the same thing, but Italy classifies these holidays differently - so, for example, June 2nd, which celebrates the Italian Republic is a festa nazionale, while Christmas is a giorno festivo)

• Martedì 4 marzo – Carnevale 2025

• Domenica 20 aprile – Pasqua 2025

• Lunedì 21 aprile – Pasquetta 2025

• Venerdì 25 aprile – Festa della Liberazione

• Giovedì 1 maggio – Festa dei lavoratori

• Lunedì 2 giugno – Festa della Repubblica

• Venerdì 15 agosto – Ferragosto

• Sabato 1 novembre – Tutti i Santi

• Lunedì 8 dicembre – Immacolata

• Giovedì 25 dicembre – Natale 2025

• Venerdì 26 dicembre – Santo Stefano

• Mercoledì 31 dicembre - Capodanno 2025

• Giovedì 1 gennaio 2026 - Capodanno

So…what am I doing on Santo Stefano (a part from getting ready to plan my own 2025 calendar?). Well, of course, there’s things to make!