As we have written and published many times on this site, the person bringing presents to the children this time of year was not the overweight bearded man in a red suit on the night of the 24th December but in fact was an old and ugly woman on a broomstick who perform the same task on the night of the 5th January.
The traditional culture difference between the Father Christmas figure
and the Befana.
Italy’s traditional celebration includes the tale of a witch known as La Befana who arrives on her broomstick during the night of January 5 and fills the stockings with toys and sweets for the good children and lumps of coal for the bad ones.
La Befana The Feast of the Epiphany, celebrated January 6 with a national holiday in Italy, and the tradition of La Befana are a big part of Italian Christmas celebrations. … more article on the BEFANA here
As someone pointed out this evening, if after 30 years the same event is happening then it becomes tradition.
Father Christmas -- Babbo Natale, has now entered into the local tradition and over the last three decades has now taken his place as one of the icons of the Christmas period.
It would now be difficult to think of the Christmas with out the appearance of that figure.