Christmas on Lake Como: Como’s Christmas town, the lights and a winter by the lake

Como’s Christmas town

Each Advent, Como’s walled town becomes its Christmas town. The Consorzio Como Turistica runs a market of wooden huts with gifts, crafts, food and drink; a great fir stands on the Piazza Duomo; and light projections play across the Porta Torre, the Piazza San Fedele, the Pinacoteca Civica, the Broletto, the cathedral and the Palazzo Terragni. The dates and hours are published on cittadeibalocchi.it.

A winter by the lake

Many of the lake’s grand hotels close between late autumn and spring, so check each one’s season. Passalacqua, at Moltrasio, is an exception: in its own words, a winter wonderland with an ice rink and fireside lounges, and fireworks over the lake for the New Year.

The winter boats

Navigazione Laghi’s winter timetable runs from 2 November 2026 to 14 March 2027, with fewer sailings than in summer; the car ferry between Bellagio, Cadenabbia, Varenna and Menaggio keeps running. Check the timetable on navigazionelaghi.it before you plan a day on the water.

Music for the season

The Teatro Sociale di Como, the opera house of 1813, publishes its winter season on teatrosocialecomo.it; it is the place for a festive evening at the opera.

La Vigilia: Christmas Eve, by the sea

In much of Italy, and above all in the south, the great meal is la Vigilia, the dinner of Christmas Eve, and by tradition it has no meat. The antipasti come from the sea: marinated anchovies, octopus salad, smoked salmon and baccalà fritto, fried salt cod.

Then a pasta: spaghetti alle vongole, with clams, garlic, olive oil and parsley, or pasta with tuna, eel or a seafood ragù. Then a whole roast fish, a sea bream or a sea bass. In the south the dish of the night is capitone, a large eel, fried or roasted.

Il pranzo di Natale: Christmas Day lunch

On Christmas Day, in the north above all, families sit down to a long lunch. In Emilia-Romagna it begins with tortellini in brodo, little hand-folded pasta filled with pork loin, prosciutto and Parmigiano, floating in a capon broth. Liguria serves its natalini in brodo; the south bakes lasagne, or in Sicily anelletti al forno, a baked timbale of ring-shaped pasta.

Then comes the bollito misto, boiled capon, beef, veal and cotechino sausage with salsa verde or mostarda, or a roast of veal, rabbit or lamb with rosemary and garlic.

Panettone, pandoro, torrone and struffoli

And then the dolci. Panettone, from Milan, is a tall domed bread, light and buttery, with raisins and candied citrus; pandoro, from Verona, is its golden, star-shaped cousin, without fruit and dusted with icing sugar. Torrone, almond and honey nougat, is the sweet of Cremona and of the south, and in Naples no Christmas passes without struffoli, little balls of fried dough glazed in honey and scattered with sprinkles and candied fruit.

Our advice: buy your panettone from a pasticceria that bakes its own; the difference is worth every euro.

Many restaurants around the lake close for the winter or on 25 December, so check and book early; the hotels that stay open publish their festive menus on their own websites.

Questions and answers