Tomie dePaola was a genius. But not the kind of "sunshine and rainbows" genius people assume when they see his soft, rounded illustrations. If you actually sit down and read Merry Christmas Strega Nona, you realize it’s kind of a stressful book. It’s a book about burnout, social expectations, and the literal magic of communal labor.
Most children’s authors play it safe during the holidays. They give us a sleigh, some snow, and a vague moral about being nice. DePaola gave us a protagonist who is honestly just exhausted.
Strega Nona—"Grandma Witch"—is the backbone of Calabria. She heals the headaches. She gets rid of the warts. She’s the person everyone goes to when life falls apart. And in this 1986 classic, we see what happens when the village healer realizes she’s too tired to throw the party everyone expects. It’s surprisingly relatable for anyone who has ever stared at a half-decorated tree and thought about canceling everything.
The Plot That Almost Didn't Happen
Here is the thing about Merry Christmas Strega Nona: the stakes are weirdly high. Strega Nona has a rule. No magic at Christmas.
Think about that. Her entire life is built on using her "pot" and her spells to make things easier. But for the Christmas feast, she insists on doing everything by hand. It’s a self-imposed limitation that feels deeply human. She wants the authenticity of the holiday, even if it kills her.
Big Anthony, her bumbling assistant, is his usual self. He's well-meaning but basically a walking disaster. While Strega Nona is prepping the pasta and the vegetables, Anthony is supposed to be helping. Instead, he’s mostly just being Anthony.
As the days count down to the Feast of San Nicola and eventually Christmas Eve, the workload piles up. DePaola’s art captures this beautifully—the kitchen is crowded, the lists are long, and Strega Nona looks genuinely taxed. She eventually realizes she can't do it. She cancels the feast.
She tells the town there will be no party at her house this year.
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It’s a shocker. In the world of children’s literature, the "Big Event" almost never gets canceled. When she shuts her doors, you feel that heavy, cold reality of a holiday gone wrong. She goes to Midnight Mass alone, expecting to return to a dark, quiet house.
Why the Italian Setting Matters More Than You Think
DePaola didn't just pick Italy because it looked pretty. He was deeply connected to his Italian-Irish heritage, and Merry Christmas Strega Nona is a love letter to the specific traditions of Southern Italy.
You see the influence of "La Vigilia"—the Christmas Eve tradition. While the book doesn't explicitly focus on the "Seven Fishes" (which is more of an Italian-American evolution anyway), the emphasis on the meatless Christmas Eve feast is historically spot-on.
The village of Calabria in the book isn't some fantasy land. It’s modeled after the rugged, hilly landscapes of the south. The architecture, the way the town square functions, and the hierarchy of the village priest versus the "village witch" reflect a very real tension in old-world Italian culture.
Strega Nona is a "folk healer." In many real Italian villages, these women existed. They weren't "witches" in the occult sense we think of today; they were practitioners of segnature, using prayers and oils to cure physical and spiritual ailments. By having Strega Nona put away her "magic" for Christmas, dePaola is subtly acknowledging the intersection of folk tradition and orthodox Catholicism.
The Big Anthony Problem
Let’s be honest: Big Anthony is a liability. In Strega Nona, he nearly drowns the town in pasta. In Strega Nona’s Magic Lessons, he fails upwards again.
In Merry Christmas Strega Nona, he actually finds redemption. Sort of.
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When Strega Nona cancels the feast, Anthony doesn't just sit there. He organizes the town. This is the "Aha!" moment of the book. While Strega Nona is at church, Anthony leads the villagers to her house. They all bring food. They bring the party to her.
It flips the script. Usually, she is the provider. She is the one with the answers. For once, the community provides for the provider. It’s a powerful lesson on mutual aid that gets overshadowed by the cute drawings of goats and pasta.
What Collectors and Parents Get Wrong
If you’re looking for a first edition of this book, you’re going to be looking for the 1986 Harcourt Brace Jovanovich release. Collectors obsess over the dust jacket price and the "A" letter line, but they often miss the subtle changes in dePaola's style over the years.
Early Strega Nona books have a specific, almost parchment-like quality to the color palette. By the time he got to the Christmas installment, the colors were slightly more saturated, though he kept his signature folk-art borders.
People often confuse this book with Strega Nona’s Gift, which came out much later (around 2011). Gift is great, but it’s a different vibe. It covers the whole span of the holidays from San Nicola to Epiphany (the arrival of La Befana). If you want the raw, "I'm too tired to cook" energy, you need the 1986 original.
The Subversive Magic of No Magic
The most "expert" takeaway from this story is dePaola's commentary on technology and ease.
Magic, in this universe, is basically a shortcut. It’s an appliance. By having Strega Nona swear off magic for the holiday, dePaola is making a point about "slow living" decades before it became a trendy hashtag.
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He’s saying that some things lose their meaning if you just snap your fingers and make them happen. The struggle of chopping the vegetables and kneading the dough is the holiday. But he’s also smart enough to show that the struggle has a breaking point.
The "magic" that eventually saves Christmas isn't a spell. It’s just people showing up with Tupperware (or the 19th-century Italian equivalent).
Technical Details for the Deeply Interested
For the book nerds out there, here are some specifics you won't find on the back cover:
- Medium: DePaola used transparent acrylics and waterproof ink. This gives the book that luminous, stained-glass look.
- The Soundtrack: There was actually an animated version produced by Weston Woods. It’s much slower-paced than modern cartoons, which fits the "slow Italy" vibe perfectly.
- Geography: While "Calabria" is a real region, the specific town is fictional, though it draws heavily from the town of Tropea.
How to Bring Strega Nona Into Your Own Christmas
If you want to actually live out the themes of the book, stop trying to do everything yourself. Seriously.
The lesson of Merry Christmas Strega Nona is that the "Grandma" figure—the person who does everything for everyone—needs a break. If you’re that person, cancel the feast. See who shows up with the pasta.
- Focus on the "Meatless" Tradition: Try a simplified version of the Feast of the Seven Fishes. Maybe just two fishes. Or a very good pasta al tonno.
- Read the Book on the 24th: It hits different when you’re actually feeling the holiday crunch.
- Look for the Befana: While she isn't the star of this specific book (she gets her own dePaola book later), keep an eye out for Italian folk symbols in the backgrounds of the illustrations. DePaola hid them everywhere.
Moving Forward With Calabria's Finest
Don’t just treat this as a "cute kid's book." Treat it as a manual for avoiding a holiday nervous breakdown.
The next time you’re stressed about hosting, remember that even a woman with a literal magic pasta pot decided to call it quits when things got too heavy. There is no shame in a potluck. There is no shame in letting Big Anthony (or your equivalent family member) take the lead for once.
Actionable Steps for Your Library:
- Check your copy for the 1986 copyright date to ensure you have the original narrative version.
- Compare the "No Magic" rule in this book to the "Magic Gone Wrong" theme in the original Strega Nona to see how dePaola evolved his stance on power and responsibility.
- Use the book as a starting point to research La Befana, the Italian Christmas witch who arrives on January 6th, as she is the spiritual successor to many of the themes dePaola explores here.
The real "magic" wasn't in the pot; it was in the townspeople finally paying back the woman who spent her whole life curing their headaches. That’s a 2026 lesson we can all probably use.