How does the homogeneous suburban community in which you live celebrate Christmas? Oh, they probably have a tree lighting or the arrival of Santa in a Chrysler convertible as a sea of menopausal women in red sweaters sings “Silver Bells.”

That's right, Bloomfield celebrates peace on earth and goodwill toward men by putting on a spectacular display of men beating the shit out of each other.

To make the event all the more exciting, the card pits a bunch of Italian guys against a bunch of Irish guys in a symbolic use of the Christmas colors of red and green. Based on stories my Sicilian grandfather shared with me when I was a child, I imagine this Italian vs Irish card captures the essence of what Christmas was like in Pittsburgh around 1912.

And no Christmas boxing event would be complete without a visit from good ol' Saint Nick.

So on December 22nd, pile the kids into the Chevy and head to Bloomfield, meet Santa, watch some Italian guys beat the shit out of some Irish guys (What? You think I'm going to go against my people?), and afterwards have a nice dinner at Del's or D'Amico's. Your children will cherish the memory of that special Christmas when mom and dad took them to see Marco Machi get it on with Joe "Bulldog" Natoli followed by the best dish of pasta in red squid sauce for the rest of their lives.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 6th, 2007 at 8:34 am and is filed under Pittsburgh, Bloomfield. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.