Four bowls, four different scenes from Babbo Natale's December, and the assortment is the point, so a breakfast table ends up with nobody holding the same picture. Alessandro Taddei hand paints each of the Old St. Nick Assorted Cereal Bowls in Tuscany, working from the stories his mother read him about Italy's Santa Claus and in the hand painting tradition the region is known for. At 24 ounces they take oatmeal and cereal in the morning and soup, chili or ice cream later, which is more than most seasonal dinnerware can say. Terra Bianca earthenware goes in the dishwasher and the microwave, so the set survives a houseful of guests and a month of ordinary mornings. It is the kind of hand painted Italian dinnerware set that children claim as theirs and ask for again every December.
