It’s that time of year again, but this year is without a doubt different for all of us. The Pandemic has left many of us stranded without holiday travel plans and forced us to organize more intimate holiday gatherings. Tell a Southern Italian that they can only invite their close family members, and you’re bound to have a long table of 30 of their “closest relatives.” Jokes aside, while many of us won’t be able to visit our loved ones for the holidays, or some of us just aren’t in the holiday mood, we hope that these 5 Fun Activities to Get Ready for the Holidays at Home (Apulian style) will bring a little light to your days cooped up inside.

Deck the halls with boughs of Apulian holly

We all know the famous Christmas song “Deck the Halls’ so our recommendation to get into the holiday spirit is to blast the song while you make holiday wreaths. If you’re house is anything like At the AIa, your backyard is covered in rosemary. Throughout the year, we love to use rosemary to make our own breakfast preserves and in our home restaurant’s dishes, but why not use it for a holiday wreath as well? Get together a big bunch of rosemary and if you don’t have holly at your fingertips, don’t worry, you can substitute with myrtle berries. Myrtle berries are normally harvested in December to make mirto liquor like we do At the Aia, but can also be a great substitution for holly. Then check out this DIY Rosemary Wreath video for ideas about how to put the holiday wreath together. Once you’ve finished, hang it on the door, it’s a great way to welcome people to your house for a social distancing get-together.

Make Apulian Christmas Cookies

Nothing says Apulian Christmas quite like ‘le paste di mandorla’. Almonds are a staple of the Apulian diet, and these almond cookies, similar to marzipan, are without a doubt, a Christmas staple in Southern Italy.

Ingredients

• 200 grams almond flour

• 200 grams white sugar

• 2 egg whites

• Zest of 1 lemon

• 1 tsp bitter almond extract

• Powdered sugar for dusting

Method

Mix all the ingredients, and then make small balls with a cookie scoop, sprinkle with powdered sugar and then bake for 15-20 mins at 170 Celsius (340 Fahrenheit) until cookies are light brown.

Make your own candle holders or table decorations

Take advantage of the crisp air and go on a long walk to collect olive branches or whatever local aromatic plants you have at home, together with some peperoncini. Candles and fancy table decorations are essential during the holidays. Tie the leaves together you collected on your walk with the peperoncini, which will look like little Christmas ornaments when mixed with the olive tree leaves, and then surround and tighten the leaves around the candle. You can also take a mason jar and decorate the inside of the jar with leaves, branches and festive berries or peperoncini and place a candle on top. These will be perfect for decorating your holiday table – whether for 2 people or 6 people – a festive table is a must.

Make your own limoncello to gift or to share post-Holiday meals

There’s nothing more quintessentially Italian than a shot of limoncello after a big meal. When gearing up for the holidays, since time is no longer of the essence, why not make it yourself? You can either bottle it up and give as holiday gifts or keep for you and your family to enjoy after a big holiday feast.

Ingredients

• 1/2 liter (500 ml) alcohol 96%

• 1 liter of milk

• 1 kilo of white sugar

• Peel from 5 organic lemons

Method

• Infuse 5 organic lemon peels in half a liter of alcohol for 48-72 hours

• Boil 1 liter of milk with 1 kilo of sugar and let it cool really well

• Strain the alcohol and mix with sugar and milk mixture

• Bottle the limoncello and store in freezer for at least 24 hours before serving – Enjoy!

Fruit Preserves as homemade gifts

If you’re on a budget as many of us are, nothing is more thoughtful and more budget-conscious than making your own fruit preserves. There are millions of recipes out there, but the essential art of preserves is equal parts sugar to fruit. Then you cook on a low flame until it coats the back of a spoon (a few hours approximately depending on the fruit). There are some variations to this recipe, like our own At the Aia recipe where we add beer to the preserves, it’s a little secret from our goat herdsman friend.

For those of you not on a budget, if you want to try our fresh preserves and other local delicacies, while relaxing amongst the olive trees, then gift one of our holiday packages to your loved ones. We’re offering 10% off our packages for two! Don’t we all need something to look forward to in 2021?