Why Italian Children Get Their Gifts From a Witch, Not Santa Claus

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On the night of 5 January, children across Italy don’t dream of reindeer. They hang stockings by the fireplace and wait for something far older and stranger: a kind old witch on a broomstick.

Her name is La Befana, and in many Italian homes, she matters more than Santa.

Who Is La Befana?

La Befana is a friendly old woman who flies through the night sky on the 5th of January. She slips down chimneys and fills children’s stockings with sweets, tangerines, and small toys.

Her name comes from Epifania, the Italian word for Epiphany. On 6 January — a national holiday across Italy — families gather, schools close, and children rush to see what she left.

For many Italian families, 6 January is the bigger celebration. Christmas is wonderful. But La Befana is theirs.

The Legend That Started It All

The story goes back over a thousand years. According to tradition, the Three Wise Men were passing through on their way to Bethlehem. They stopped at an old woman’s door and invited her to join them and bring a gift for the newborn king.

She was busy sweeping. She said she would come along later.

Later never arrived. She has been searching ever since, leaving gifts for every child she meets — just in case one of them is the one she missed.

It is a story about regret, kindness, and the quiet magic of second chances. No wonder it has stayed in the Italian imagination for a thousand years.

The Stocking, the Coal, and the Sweet Deception

Every Italian child knows the rules. Be good, and La Befana fills your stocking with sweets, chocolates, and small toys. Misbehave, and you get carbone — coal.

Except modern Italian parents found a gentler solution: sugar coal. It is dyed black and shaped to look exactly like lumps of real coal. Children who weren’t perfectly behaved still get their stocking. They just get something that looks alarming at first glance.

It says something warm about Italians. Even pretend punishment is edible.

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Rome’s Piazza Navona at Epiphany

In Rome, the days leading up to 6 January transform Piazza Navona into one of Italy’s most beloved seasonal markets. Stalls fill the square from December through to the night of 5 January, selling sweets, candy coal, toys, and figurines of La Befana herself.

The fair has been held in Piazza Navona since the 17th century. On the evening of 5 January, the square fills with families, the smell of fried dough in the air, coloured lights strung between the stalls.

Even if you arrive in Rome in early January, you’ll catch the tail end of it. It is worth seeking out.

Regional Traditions Across Italy

La Befana is celebrated differently depending on where you are. In Venice, she arrives by gondola on the Grand Canal — a figure in a black shawl, waving from the water. In some northern towns, she is burned in effigy at midnight on 5 January, a bonfire tradition meant to bring good luck for the year ahead.

In Umbria and parts of central Italy, local men dress as La Befana and walk through villages singing traditional songs in exchange for wine and sweets. In the south, you’ll find zeppole — fried dough pastries dusted with sugar — sold at every street corner around Epiphany.

The witch may be the same across Italy. But every town insists its version is the real one.

What the Old Saying Really Means

There is an Italian proverb: La Befana tutte le feste porta via. Loosely, it means: the Befana takes all the holidays away.

After 6 January, the Italian festive season is officially over. Decorations come down. Trees are dismantled. Life returns to its normal rhythms.

La Befana is the full stop at the end of the festive calendar. She sweeps the old year away with her broom — and Italy moves on.

It is the kind of tradition that tells you something real about a culture. In Italy, endings are not ignored or slipped past quietly. They are marked, celebrated, and shared around a table.

How to Experience La Befana for Yourself

If you are visiting Italy in early January, lean into the tradition. Visit Piazza Navona in Rome or the main piazza in whatever town you are passing through. Most Italian towns hold some kind of local celebration on or around 6 January.

Try zeppole from a street stall. Pick up a paper cone of candy coal from a pasticceria. Buy a small Befana figure from a market as a souvenir.

And ask any Italian about their memories of La Befana as a child. They will have one. Always. The way their face changes when they answer will tell you everything about why this tradition has survived a thousand years intact.

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