Christmas in Venice is surprisingly understated.
There are decorations, of course, but not nearly as many as you might expect from one of the most spectacular cities in the world.
It feels like Venice is saying, with a self-confident, opinionated face:
“Do you really think I need ornaments? I mean, have you seen me?”
And, frankly, she has a point.
There are many reasons to visit Venice in December, and some of them are quite unexpected.
Christmas Decorations in Venice
Christmas decorations aren’t many.
But the red-striped poles, the red-ribboned Gondolieri hats, and some red flowers on the balconies compensate wonderfully.
Plus, the tree in San Marco, so huge and elegantly dressed, is, truly, all you need to feel the seasonal vibes.
But really, you go to Venice in December if you want to see Christmas tree sellers occupying the space around a bridge crossing a canal and the entrance of a church.
And then a couple walking away with their tree on a trailer.
I guess it’s a must-have if you live in a city with no cars.
This is perhaps one of the things I love most about Christmas in Venice: even the most ordinary seasonal rituals have to adapt to the city.
A Christmas tree still has to get home.
Just not in a car.
Venice in December Means Fog, Rain, and Acqua Alta
You visit Venice in winter if you love foggy aesthetics.
If you wish to experience acqua alta, high water, and, for the occasion, bring your rainboots and an umbrella matching the gondolas’ colors.
If you want to show off your boldness by wearing those same rainboots at the theatre, paired with a blue organza skirt…
…not changing them for much more appropriate footwear, like locals do.
And certainly not nailing it like they did.
Winter Venice isn’t necessarily comfortable.
You might be wet. You might be cold. You might spend a significant part of your day carefully skirting canals and wondering whether your shoes were a terrible choice.
But the fog, reflections, damp stones, and winter light belong extraordinarily well to the city.
What You Find at the Rialto Market in Winter
You go to Venice in winter if you want to see the Rialto market full of seasonal produce.
Artichokes.
Pumpkin.
Radicchio.
Pomegranates.
Seafood.
Flowers and winter branches.
This is another reason I like traveling through food: markets tell you what season you’re really in much more effectively than shop windows ever will.
And Venetian food changes with the calendar.
Some ingredients and recipes belong to extraordinarily specific moments of the year, which is why knowing a little about the local food culture can completely change the way you experience the city.
December Is Also a Good Time to Go Inside
You go to Venice in December if you want to finally visit the Peggy Guggenheim Museum and find your new favorite painting.
Mine, on that trip, was René Magritte’s The Dominion of Light.
If you want to discover your new favorite place.
Mine was the Scuola Grande di San Rocco.
If you want to see the Mocenigo Palace you missed last time you were there.
Winter gives you an excellent excuse to alternate streets and canals with churches, museums, palazzi, theatres, and cafés.
Which, in Venice, isn’t exactly a sacrifice.
And Then There Is Christmas Food
You go to Venice in December if you want to admire chocolate trees and a chocolate Doge’s Palace.
If you want to try Veneto’s Pandoro alternative: the Fugassa.
Less buttery, incredibly fluffy.
But the real thing, from a bakery with the lab visible and the cakes hung upside down to avoid flattening.
And if you want to take back to your B&B two brioches filled with chocolate and believe the promise of the lady at the bakery that, by just heating them over the radiator the next morning, they’ll be just as good as today.
They weren’t bad, by the way.
Christmas and winter food in Venice are part of a much larger cultural calendar: recipes aren’t simply things to eat, but often belong to festivities, seasons, religious traditions, and very local habits.
That is one of the reasons Venetian cuisine becomes much more interesting once you start knowing the stories behind it.
Venice After Dark in December
You also go to December-Venice if you want to try the restaurant a friend from Treviso recommended, devour everything, get tipsy over a fabulous wine, and have to skirt the canal carefully.
You never know.
If you want to follow your mom’s advice and go for a drink at the Dandolo Bar inside the Hotel Danieli—
“So you can see the hotel, it’s a dream!”
—and be snubbed because they’re fully reserved, hosting a company event, and probably because you’re dressed like a wet, Santa-hatted, comfy-shoes tourist.
And if, by simply letting your husband tinker with Google, you’re happy to find a great, unexpected alternative.
A jazz & cocktails bar where you can sip your favorite Vermouth comfortably seated on an ancient, decadent armchair—bought at the “yard” sale of a historic Venetian hotel, we later learned.
Sometimes the unplanned Venice is the better one.
Why I Like Christmas in Venice
Christmas in Venice isn’t particularly loud.
The city doesn’t seem interested in transforming itself into a giant Christmas display.
And perhaps that’s exactly why December suits it.
The seasonal details are there—the tree, the red ribbons, the bakeries, the Christmas-tree vendors, the winter produce—but they don’t conceal Venice.
They become another layer.
You walk through fog.
You go inside places you’ve postponed visiting for years.
You eat things that belong to this precise moment of the calendar.
You observe how Venetians manage something as mundane as getting a Christmas tree home in a city without cars.
And when the day is over, you’re exhausted, still a bit wet, but happy.
Ideally, with the perfect book to read every night before falling asleep.
If you want to go deeper into Venetian culture, food, traditions and seasonal rituals, this story is part of the world behind Venice Simposio, my cultural and culinary portrait of the city.
Claudia
