[Sca-cooks] OT: Christmas decorations in period Venice

[Stefan li Rous]

I got an inquiry today from a Lady looking to decorate their shire float in a mundane Christmas parade with decorations that would fit in, in period Venice. I sent her some general info from my Yule-msg file, but even there, most of what I have is on Germanic traditions. 

Has anyone written an article on period Italian Yule celebrations?

=====
I have looked and looked and I cant seem to com up with anything that can tell me what types of decorations would have been used to decorate in and around the homes in Renaissance Italy.
 Some people have said that there would have been pine boughs but I don't think there were pine trees there. Others have said that there were trees like the modern Christmas tree but it had apples on it. I am so confused. The reason why I am asking is this,
this up coming Saturday my shire is participating in a lighted Christmas parade and the theme of our float is "A Holiday in Venice" as our main back drop we are going to have the Rialto bridge from Venice but much smaller lol. For decorations along the rails of the float we had thought of maybe garland with apples on it but I cant find anything that would prove that there was such a thing back then. I would love to make our float look as period as possible since we are representing the SCA and our shire. Can you help me ?
Many thanks,
Lady Angela - Shire of Sudrholt , Kingdom of Trimaris
MissBehavinLuv8 at aol.com
=====

The main info I had for her was from Mistress Nicolaa who said:
<<< evergreens have a very long association with
the holiday season, dating to the pre-Christian era.  Many of these
plants were treated symbolically in some of the nativity parts of
th cycle plays and pageants.  Holly, mistletoe (which was eventually
banned in churches because of its pagan associations) and roses (Jesus=
the christmas rose) are all good choices, too.
        If you want to add a fun touch, put up gold balls.  They're
a symbol of St. Nicholas (whose feast day is nigh, by the way).
        Candles would not be out of place.  They rarely were in the Middle
Ages...:-) >>>

I would appreciate being copied on any info that you can send to Lady Angela.

I was thinking that plastic strings of fruit might work. Venice would have access to many fruits and plastic replicas are available already strung this time of year. Sweet oranges and sour oranges don't look that different. :-)

To bring this back to food, does anyone have any research or recipes on period Yule food in Venice?

Thanks,
   Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
   Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas          StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/marksharris
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****