Christmas dinner fruits, chocolate, raisins, and/or pine nuts, known as panettone, followed by "torrone" (enriched with cherries, chocolate, sweets and more), nougat and nuts. In Southern Italy instead of one cake they serve many kinds of marzipan, biscuits, zeppole, cannoli, candied fruits, and fresh fruits. In the last few decades, panettone has become popular as a Christmas sweet all over Italy. Pandoro is also a very popular cake at Christmas and New Year, accompanied by a good Champagne. One typical Dutch tradition is that of 'gourmet,' an evening-long event where small groups of people sit together around a gourmet-set and use their
Christmas traditions and dance around them to the playing of bagpipes. Bannock cakes made of oatmeal are traditionally eaten at Christmas. Christmas in Ireland is the largest celebration on the calendar in Ireland and lasts from December 24 to January 6, although many view December 8 as being the start of the season; and schools used to close on this day, making it a traditional Christmas shopping time, this is no longer compulsory and many stay open. Almost the entire workforce is finished by lunchtime on Christmas Eve, or often a few days beforehand. Christmas Day and St. Stephen's Day are public