Every holiday season, sometime after New Year’s Day, I sit down with a mental ‘whew’ and feel like I haven’t sat down in weeks. This year it seems truer than ever, as we have a very boisterous, energetic, enormous 4-month old puppy, so I am on my feet all the time.

So thank heavens that our holiday season is absolutely celebrated through January 6, the Epiphany. All the holiday lights are lit, most people are still on holiday, including my husband, and there is a feeling that real life is still suspended in a holiday bubble. And since I always seem to be behind with one thing or another, I have time to catch up and still be within the holiday period. I made another batch of gingerbread cookies just yesterday.

In our Catholic Canton of Ticino, the Christmas season starts and ends with a religious holiday with all schools and offices are closed. A full Mass is celebrated at 5 pm on December 8, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of Mary. I have been part of our little church choir for the past 14 years and I still marvel at taking part in centuries old traditions here. After singing Agnus Dei in Latin and following Communion, the whole congregation files out with lit candles, following the statue of the Virgin Mary, in a procession through the village. Prayers are said and hymns are sung as we all walk, two by two, through the darkened streets, lit only by our flickering candles.

We also had an exhibition of nativity scenes made not only by the school children but also enthusiastically by some of the people in our village. I saw one acquaintance coming out of the woods with a big basket of branches and moss and she smiled as she saw me, lifting the basket and saying “preparations for my nativity set”. Her finished piece was amazing, a whole scenario with a running stream through her pastoral setting. The unveiling of all the nativity scenes, scattered through the village, was combined with a Christmas program carried out by the kindergarten and elementary school children and concluded with a shared meal of minestrone, bread, cheese and salami for everyone at the Casa Communale, our meeting house where we also vote.

Before Christmas I made a trip to Zurich, a city that I love and where I lived for two years. Zurich is particularly magical at Christmas. When I got off the train, I thought that there were more people at the train station than there are in Lugano. The Christmas market had been set up within the train station and it was jam-packed with cheerily decorated wooden stalls selling everything from pashminas to spices to carved wooden objects to an array of gingerbread houses and hearts. Walking out of the train station, you come right up to the famous Bahnhofstrasse, which was dazzling with its Christmas constellation of a million dots of light – they’ve dubbed it “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”. I always go to Schober’s at Christmas time, there is no other place that is like a movie set for a perfectly marvelous holiday scene.

Lugano looks beautiful too. The Christmas tree in the main Piazza is spectacular, and the respite from the constant rain of the past months has brought a steady flow of people to convivially fill the outdoor cafes which ring the piazza.

Then shortly before Christmas, my home and heart were complete by the arrival of both my sons, GL from America and A from Lucerne University. GL’s girlfriend, who we all love, arrived two days after Christmas and it has been wonderful to have them all here. They will return to the States today. But right now they are home and I am happy.