Holiday traditions draw crowds to Italian markets, restaurants on Christmas Eve

CRANSTON, R.I. (WJAR) — For many families, the holidays are a time of traditions, and there’s nothing like the comfort and nostalgia of a recipe passed down through generations.

Christmas Eve brought plenty of customers to local Italian markets and restaurants, including Macera’s Italian Restaurant in Cranston, where owner David Macera reflected on some of his favorite dishes from his youth that have carried on to the modern day.

“Baccala soup, baccala salad, big stuffed shrimp, stuffed squid, all kinds of seven fishes,” Macera said.

NBC 10’s Devin Bates reports. (WJAR)

While some prefer to let the professionals cook on Christmas Eve, others make a tradition out of scouting out their own ingredients on Federal Hill in Providence, where shops like Costantino’s Venda Ravioli had doors swinging all day long with the hustle and bustle of customers.

“This is probably one of the best times that we have throughout the year, the Christmas season, said employee Flavio Sousa. “Thanksgiving is popular, but as far as attracting customers and so forth, we’ve already had almost 500 reservations.”

While for some, these Italian dishes are a holiday tradition going back as far as they can remember, others like Jocelyn Oberg married into it. She and her husband Alex Oberg were at Tony’s Colonial Food Store Wednesday afternoon picking up some last-minute supplies.

“I’ve definitely learned everything I need to know about this guy through his Christmas food traditions, so that’s been fun to learn about his history and his childhood,” Jocelyn said.

“My favorite dish is called braciola, it’s from Napoli in Italy where our family is from,” Alex said. “My grandmother was Italian, she owned an Italian restaurant back in Miami, so obviously this always reminds me of her.”

Constantino’s Venda Ravioli. (WJAR)

The two were joined by Alex’s father, Phil Oberg, who passed down his passion for a hot meal during the holidays to his son.

“We had these traditions every single Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and that was how I grew up, making pasta with my mom, that was passed down to Alex, and now we’re passing that to Jocelyn,” Phil said. “She’s making a braciola and learning how to pound the meat.”