There is one way to measure how ingrained an object really is in a country’s popular culture: waiting for someone to pick it out without you knowing. In December 2022, the Hate Christmas crew set up the protagonist’s family nativity scene with Landi Moranduzzo figurines. No commercial agreement, no request. Just the natural choice of those who wanted that nativity scene to look real.

The series: I Hate Christmas on Netflix

Landi Moranduzzo figurines-the same ones that appear in Gianna’s family nativity scene in I Hate Christmas (Netflix, 2022-2023).

Odio il Natale (I Hate Christmas) is an Italian original series produced by Lux Vide for Netflix, distributed starting Dec. 7, 2022. It is an adaptation of the Norwegian series Hjem til jul and tells the story of Gianna (Pilar Fogliati), a young nurse from Chioggia who promises her family she will bring a boyfriend to Christmas dinner-and has to find one quickly. The second season is released on December 7, 2023.

The series has reached an international audience in more than 190 countries with dubbing in multiple languages. It has become one of the most watched Italian Christmas series ever on Netflix – and one of the reasons for its success is its visual authenticity: real Chioggia, real lagoon, real Italian families. Including the real nativity scene.

The family nativity scene: central narrative element

The family nativity scene is one of the most recurring narrative elements in the series. The protagonist’s father is obsessed with building the most beautiful nativity scene in the neighborhood-the figurines return to the scene several times as a symbol of family identity and Italian tradition. They are visible in multiple shots in both seasons, in the background of domestic scenes, by the fireplace, on the sideboard.

The statuettes are Landi Moranduzzo. They can be recognized by the marble resin, the hand-painting, the characteristic expressiveness of the faces that Martino Landi has developed over forty years of sculpture. They are not generic plastic figurines-they are the figurines that Italians really have at home, bought in religious stores, garden centers, handed down from generation to generation.

Production: Lux Vide and Netflix

Hand-painted Landi figurine-the same craftsmanship that convinced Lux Vide’s set designers to choose them for I Hate Christmas.

Lux Vide is the Italian production company behind some of Italy’s most successful television series-Don Matteo, DOC, Un Passo dal Cielo. It knows how to construct the visual authenticity of Italy-not the glossy one of the commercials, but the real, domestic, family one. When they set up Gianna’s family home, they chose real objects, not generic props.

The presence of Landi figurines in this production is not an isolated case. Moranduzzo has provided Christmas decorations for several Italian film productions – including two films distributed by Notourius Pictures. But the presence in I Hate Christmas is different: it is not a concerted supply, it is a spontaneous choice. Which makes it much more significant.

Why this matters

The unconventional presence of a product in a Netflix production of this magnitude proves one specific thing: Landi Moranduzzo figurines are not a niche product for connoisseurs. They are an integral part of Italian Christmas. They can be found in their parents’ homes, in childhood memories, in the windows of religious stores in every Italian city. When set designers look for the authentic nativity scene, they find Landi.

Moranduzzo has been in existence since 1946. It has spanned eighty years of Italian Christmases-from postwar reconstruction to the economic boom, from the 1980s with RAI campaigns to its presence on Netflix. The continuity is not just corporate: it is cultural. Landi figurines are the thread that connects grandparents’ nativity scene with the one we see on TV.