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Hi, and welcome to these "Don Camillo" Christmas pages, a holiday gift for friends and fans of the fictional priest and his very real creator, Giovannino Guareschi!Guareschi called the holiday-themed self-caricature above "Baffo Natale"--a play on words, since in Italian "Babbo Natale" is "Father Christmas," while "baffi" are mustaches (and GG was famously proud of his). The author drew the original B&W version of this picture in 1952 in honor of his first Christmas in Roncole Verdi, where he had moved his family from the big city of Milan: note that the "pen" he's writing with is actually a spade, suggesting a dual career for the new homeowner. [Thanks to Alberto and Carlotta Guareschi for the jpg and the explanation.]Next, because I'm told that Guareschi was a fan of the song, the midi-enabled among you are listening to "White Christmas" as you read. Alas, I can't even begin to guess whether this jazz rendering would have been to GG's taste ... but I like it!But we're really here for the stories, right? Among the 130-odd Don Camillo tales that exist in English translation, three have Christmas themes. An additional two are set at the New Year, so I've included them here as well. To read any of them, click on the poinsettia next to its title in the story list at the bottom of this page.Finally, I'll add that it's been a long-standing ambition of mine to make an English translation of Guareschi's "Favola di Natale" ("Christmas Story"), the extraordinary holiday piece he wrote while a prisoner in a German concentration camp in 1944 (complete with music by fellow prisoner Arturo Coppola). But I didn't manage it (again!) this year, so back it goes to the resolutions list. Maybe in 2004?
For online versions of lots
of Don Camillo stories in English, visit
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