A Holiday Celebration of Italian Food, Family & Tradition!

Monday, December 7, 2026 | 6–9 PM

VIP Admission Begins at 5 PM

IATSE Ballroom | South Philadelphia

Come Hungry. Celebrate the Season. Make a Difference!

Get ready for a festive evening of delicious food, holiday shopping, entertainment and Italian-American traditions as Dom and Roe Giordano host Taste of the Feast of the Seven Fishes!

We're putting an exciting new twist on the beloved Italian Christmas Eve tradition! Instead of a traditional sit-down dinner, guests will enjoy a lively tasting experience featuring a delicious variety of seafood, meat dishes and Italian specialties prepared by participating restaurants, caterers and food vendors.

Stroll, sample, socialize and discover new favorites while enjoying an evening filled with holiday spirit!

And there's much more than food!

• Meet celebrated authors, including Philadelphia sportswriter and broadcaster Ray Didinger and Lorraine Ranalli, author of Gravy Wars.
• Celebrate outstanding individuals and businesses as we recognize special honorees for their contributions to our communities.
• Shop for the holidays! Meet specialty vendors, browse artists' displays, purchase original artwork, books, gifts and specialty food products.
• Enter our Gift Basket Raffle and Silent Auction, featuring opportunities to win wonderful prizes while supporting two important causes.
• Enjoy entertainment, surprises and the opportunity to reconnect with friends and make new ones!

Celebrate for a Cause

Proceeds from the Gift Basket Raffle and Silent Auction will benefit the Delaware County Press Club Scholarship Fund, supporting the next generation of communications professionals, and the family of a fallen Philadelphia police officer.

It's an opportunity to enjoy a memorable holiday celebration while giving back to our community.

Join Us!

Monday, December 7, 2026

6:00–9:00 PM | VIP Entry at 5:00 PM

IATSE Ballroom by Anthony's Caterers

2401 South Swanson Street, Philadelphia, PA 19148

Conveniently located near I-95 and the Walt Whitman Bridge, just minutes from New Jersey and Delaware.

Bring your appetite, bring your friends and come celebrate the season with us!

Tickets are available now — reserve yours today!

About the Event

The Feast of the Seven Fishes is best understood as an Italian-American Christmas Eve tradition with roots in Southern Italian Catholic customs—rather than as one single, standardized feast brought intact from Italy.

The foundation is La Vigilia, the Christmas Eve vigil. Traditionally, Catholics abstained from meat before major feast days, including Christmas. In Southern Italy, particularly in coastal areas where seafood was plentiful, families prepared fish and seafood for the Christmas Eve meal. Foods such as baccalà (salt cod), calamari, eel, anchovies, clams, smelts, shrimp and other seafood became associated with the evening. 

Where the “Seven Fishes” part came from

This is where the history gets particularly interesting for your event. There is no established historical explanation for why the number is seven. Michael Di Giovine, an anthropology professor at West Chester University who has researched the Feast specifically, says the historical origins of the seven-fish count are unknown. Suggested explanations include the Seven Sacraments, seven days of creation, or other religious symbolism—but none has been established as the origin. 

And Italian families didn't necessarily serve seven. Some served seven, nine, thirteen or simply a large assortment of seafood. Thirteen is sometimes associated with Jesus and the twelve Apostles. 

It became distinctly Italian-American

During the great waves of Italian immigration in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, large numbers of Southern Italians settled in American cities. They brought their Christmas Eve seafood traditions with them. In America, those family customs evolved into the much more recognizable celebration eventually called the “Feast of the Seven Fishes.” National Geographic describes the modern feast as something that evolved over the last century into a uniquely Italian-American tradition and a way of maintaining family and ancestral connections. 

That distinction is important: an Italian may certainly recognize a Christmas Eve seafood dinner or La Vigilia, particularly in Southern Italy, without recognizing the American name “Feast of the Seven Fishes.” Even an Abruzzo-born writer quoted her mother as saying she had never heard the meal called that in Italy. 

Meet & Greet w/ Gianni Russo Hollywood Godfather

Actor and author Gianni Russo, best known for his unforgettable portrayal of Carlo Rizzi in the classic film The Godfather, will be a special celebrity guest at the Taste of the Feast of the Seven Fishes, Monday, December 7, at the IATSE Ballroom in South Philadelphia. Guests will have the opportunity to meet Gianni, purchase personally autographed copies of his books, including Hollywood Godfather and Mafia Secrets: Untold Tales from the Hollywood Godfather, and explore his exclusive Godfather movie memorabilia and collectibles, including a unique, personally signed replica of the famous trash-can lid from the film's unforgettable street-fight scene. Don't miss this opportunity to meet a Hollywood legend, hear his stories and take home a special piece of movie history!

About the Producer

Barbara Ann Zippi is an award-winning communications professional, publisher, journalist, event producer, and lifelong advocate for Italian-American heritage. She currently serves as Associate Publisher of the Delaware Valley Italian American Herald and is the founder of Ciao Bella Living Italian Style, celebrating Italian and Italian-American culture, traditions, food, heritage, and travel through print, television, social media, special events, and cultural experiences.

With more than four decades of experience in public relations, media, marketing, and special-event production, Barbara has created and produced major community celebrations, cultural festivals, tourism initiatives, fundraising events, and promotional campaigns throughout the Delaware Valley. Her background in entertainment began with Al Alberts Showcase, where she worked in television production, public relations, promotions, talent, sponsors, and special events. She later founded the Italian American Heritage Festival at Rose Tree Park, which grew from approximately 3,000 attendees in its first year to more than 12,000.

Barbara's passion for Italian heritage is deeply personal. Her family roots trace to Loreto Aprutino in Abruzzo, Italy, and today she divides her cultural work between the Italian-American community here at home and her continuing relationships in Italy. Through Ciao Bella Living Italian Style and Adventures in Abruzzo & Beyond, she works to preserve traditions, reconnect families with their heritage, and introduce others to the Italy she has known and loved throughout her life.

As producer of Taste of the Feast of the Seven Fishes, Barbara is bringing together those worlds—food, family, heritage, entertainment, community, and tradition—while giving a beloved Italian-American Christmas Eve custom a fresh new presentation. More than an event, the Feast is designed as a celebration of the traditions handed down from one generation to the next and an opportunity to make new memories while ensuring those traditions continue.

Preserving the past. Celebrating the present. Creating traditions for the next generation.