How Did Mobsters Celebrate Christmas?

➡ Michael Francis, a former mob member, shares his experiences of holiday celebrations throughout his life. He fondly recalls the food, family gatherings, and traditions of his childhood, including Thanksgiving feasts and Christmas festivities. However, he also mentions the difficult times he spent in prison during the holidays. Despite the ups and downs, he emphasizes the importance of family, unity, and gratitude during the holiday season.
➡ The narrator fondly recalls his family’s holiday traditions, from Christmas to New Year’s Eve, which were filled with joy, food, and togetherness. However, these celebrations changed when his father was imprisoned and his sisters passed away. Despite hardships, including his own time in prison, he continues to cherish these memories and uphold the tradition of family gatherings during the holidays. He emphasizes the importance of appreciating blessings, even in difficult times, and looks forward to future celebrations with his own children.
➡ The speaker shares his love for the holiday season, spending time with family, and maintaining traditions. He talks about his past experiences and how he now values simple pleasures like a good shower and a cup of tea at night. He encourages people to put aside political differences during the holidays and focus on unity and love. He also reminds everyone to appreciate their blessings and the true meaning of Christmas.
➡ The speaker encourages everyone to enjoy the holiday season, remembering that it’s a time to celebrate Jesus Christ, who not only saved humanity but also made Christmas a festive occasion. They wish everyone to be safe and healthy, and to enjoy food in moderation. They extend blessings to all – family, friends, neighbors, and the entire country, emphasizing the need for God’s blessing in America.

You know, a lot of people ask me all the time, michael, what did you do throughout your life, you know, for the holidays? What was it like when you were in the mob? You know, what was it like growing up with your father being the underboss of the family? What is it like now? What was it like when you were in prison? So I have kind of phases in my life for the holidays, and as long as you ask, I’m happy to comply and give you the answers and let you know what it’s all about. Hey, everyone.

Welcome to another sit down with Michael Francis. Hope everybody is doing well. All is very good, very blessed on this end. And as always, my friends, I give all the praise, honor, glory, and Thanksgiving to our God for that. Well, it’s holiday season. Thanksgiving has passed. We had a great time, and we’re looking forward to this holiday season coming up. It’s always a good time of the year. Well, most of the time. Few. Few years for me, it wasn’t that good, but I’ll get into that. But you know what, people? Regardless of anything, the holiday season is a time really for people to get together, families to get together, friends to get together.

I know we got a rough time with all the political, you know, landscape the way it is right now. People not talking to other people because they’re a different political party. It’s crazy. It’s nonsense. I wish we can all put it aside for the holidays and, you know, hopefully that’ll happen at some point. Starts from the top. Maybe our leadership will give us direction on that. If not, we should do it right here with our family, friends, neighbors, whatever. But let me go back, you know, to growing up. Thanksgiving, the holidays were always wonderful. Thanksgiving was normally my favorite time of the year, my favorite holiday.

Why? Because all we did was eat. You didn’t have to go out and buy a present. You didn’t have to do anything like that. You sat down at the table. An Italian household, like many others I know, Mexican and Jewish. And all of you out there, not leaving anybody out. I’m just not naming every different ethnic group. The holidays are normally a good time of the year. Food, Thanksgiving, food, it was terrific. I loved it. We ate all day. We had friends coming over. My father, because of who he was, obviously the family was there, but always people came over to visit afterwards.

Yes. Some of his soldiers, some of the guys, you know, that were associated with him in that life. And we just loved it. I mean, it was a great, great, great day. We ate from morning until night. Like, it didn’t end, you know, we usually would eat at around 3 o’ clock and then of course, leftovers later on, but we never left the table. Yes, we did watch some football games and so on and so forth, but really never left the table. Left the table. And it was just a time for everybody to, you know, love on one another, talk, you know, about everything.

We just spent great time together and I just loved it. And Thanksgiving now the same, you know, some of you went on my daughter’s live and you saw what we did for the holiday. We actually, they did a live from our living room and it was terrific. We had the whole family over, made all different things. I cook on Thanksgiving, you know, I cook Thanksgiving and I cook Christmas Eve. The only two times of the year. My wife, my daughter, they cover it every other year or we go every other time of the year or we go out, but I cook on Thanksgiving.

I made, obviously, the turkey. We made prime rib, we made ham. I made stuffing. Special stuffing for those of you who’ve been asking me about it. Yes. I’m going to do a show. You know, we did meatballs, we did pasta, we’re going to do stuffing. Mine is unique. It’s different again, grandmother’s recipe. You’re going to love it, I’m sure. So we’re going to do a show on that. But so what? I say stuffed peppers, terrific. My wife makes the rice, I make them. It’s really great. Maybe if you want, we can do that recipe also. You can eat at any time of the year.

You don’t have to wait until Thanksgiving, but it’s really great. And what else? We made sweet potatoes, but this year we made the little tiny ones because we eaten out and we had them with some. I forget what they call it on top of it. Creme fraiche. Creme fraiche. It’s called delicious. It was really great. And what else do we have? I think that was it. Nailed it all. And then we had our desserts. Everybody thinks desserts. We had a salad. My favorite salad. For those of you who know, and a lot of the mob guys like this, that’s how I learned about it growing up.

The world doesn’t need another wine. It really needs a reason to raise a glass again. A reason that’s real. A reason that means something. Because most people, they drink to forget. We drink to remember where we came from, what we stand for, and who we still fight to become. We don’t follow trends. We break them. Our bottles don’t look like anyone else’s because our story, it isn’t like anyone else’s. It’s about freedom, about redemption, about family. That’s what’s inside every bottle. So to the ones who think different, who live different, who drink different, salud. Is tomato and onions.

Tomato, onions, cucumbers. Maybe you can throw some string beans in there. Really delicious. And we had that salad. So it was really, really a festive, wonderful, great time. Everybody was happy, we laughed, we drank Franzi’s wine, of course, and it was just a great time, you know, so that’s never ended. The only time I didn’t have a good Thanksgiving or different holidays was when I was in prison. I spent eight years away on the holidays. Eight, eight years of holiday misses. We’ll get into that. So from Thanksgiving as a kid, let’s move to Christmas again. My father, my mother, they brought everybody together.

Grandparents, my aunts and uncles, all the kids. I used to spend the night before Christmas, Christmas Eve. And by the way, we used to put our Christmas tree up on Christmas Eve. Growing up as a kid, it was Christmas Eve. It was never done in advance. Now we already have our Christmas tree. Some of you, you’re going to see it. We’re going to show you a clip of it. It’s 16 foot tall. My daughter and her fiance went up to Lake Tahoe and they cut the tree down. And I said, what, are you people kidding me? You’re going to bring that tree to my house? You got to put it on a truck.

But then they told me, hey, dad, it’s only 10 bucks. I said, hey, load it up, bring it home. And fortunately we have 20 foot ceilings, so it fits. But it’s, it’s a beautiful tree, I have to say that. So. But we used to put it up on Christmas Eve and then as I got a little bit older, we picked, you know, we did a little bit in advance of that, probably around the 10th of December, if I remember. And then we leave it up until after New Year’s. Obviously, I think everybody does that. But you know, my dad, he was a major figure, you know, in the household.

He never did anything. He never helped putting the toys together or any of that. I had my younger brothers and sisters and it was always a big time. I mean, they got a lot of presents. We were not neglected as kids growing up on Christmas or the holidays. I have to say that my mother and father took very good care of us. But I would put all the toys together and I had my three, you know, younger brothers and sisters and man, it was on Christmas morning, you didn’t even have any room under the tree to see.

I couldn’t walk around in the living room, it was so stuffed with toys and everything else. So it was a great time. And then, of course, Christmas Eve, we had the seven fishes. That’s Italian tradition. You eat seven fishes, scungili, bacala, shrimps, some crab, you know, mussels, clams, the whole bit. It’s the evening of the seven fishes. Now, we don’t do that now because I moved out here to California. My wife is Mexican American. They really weren’t into all the seafood, although they like it more now. But we don’t do that tradition now anymore. It’s. I’ll tell you what we make on Christmas Eve as we get to that.

But. And we would always open up our presents at midnight. We didn’t open up, we left the morning for the kids. But, but as I became, you know, older, we would open up all the adult presents at midnight on Christmas Eve, just as the, you know, the Christmas Day came in. And it was great. We didn’t go to bed till 2, 3, 4 o’ clock in the morning. Everybody had a great time. It was just wonderful. No matter what we were going through. I have to hand it to my mom and dad and my grandparents. They just made the holidays beautiful.

Christmas Day, you know, again, got up early, the kids under the tree, it was terrific. You know, for a couple hours they did all the presents by my brother John, my sister Gia, my other little sister Tina. Miss them all. John is here, but he’s not right here with me now. But, you know, at least we’ve reunited. But my two sisters have passed away, unfortunately. My whole family, it’s just me and my brother left really. But it was just a great day, you know, again, eating all day long, watching some movies on, on television. Family would come over.

My father’s friends, you know, being my dad was the underboss of the Colombo family, guys would come over and visit him on Christmas Day, give him presents, they’d sit down, we’d have a glass of wine. It was just a wonderful, wonderful time. And that happened right up until 1970. My father was gone once or twice when he was locked up on different trials during that time. But then it was 1970 when everything changed. That’s when my dad went away on that 50 year prison sentence. And even though Christmases, you know, I was 19 at that point, Christmas, my mom still tried to hold it together.

We held it together, but it was different. It wasn’t the same with dad not being there, quite honestly. And then I got married, you know, my first wife, in 1975. Then we had our three children and we kept that tradition alive. Always together on holidays. Thanksgiving, Christmas, of course, New Year’s Eve. Oh, I forgot to mention New Year’s Eve. You know, up until the time my dad went away, my grandmother, my mom’s mother and grandfather always believed in the tradition that we all had to be together to ring the New Year in at midnight, we had to be together.

She wanted that tradition. My father and mother respected that. So New Year’s Eve, we were all together all the time, always. And then at 12 o’, clock, boom. The bells ring and all the ball drops from Times Square in the city and. And what we did, we all said, you know, had our drink and you know, happy Thanksgiving, wished everybody the best for the coming year. And then like one o’ clock in the morning, we left. We went into Manhattan, usually to the Copacabana. My dad, you know, was royalty at the Copa. We went there and we partied until, you know, six, seven, eight o’ clock in the morning.

And that’s when we came home. It was always terrific. We slept most all day on New Year’s. That New Year’s Day was not, you know, the biggest deal. It was really all about New Year’s Eve. New Year’s Day was recovery. Actually. We still had a big dinner probably around 4,35 o’, clock, but it was kind of recovering from the night before. But you know what, the memories are just wonderful. I have to say it. They’re wonderful. I miss them. Even though I have it, you know. Well, right now you miss, listen, you miss your, your family.

I mean, look, look, my dad and I had our differences, no doubt about it, you know, later on, but we loved each other, there’s no question. And I love my dad. I missed him. I love my mom. She was tough. We had our differences there too. But I loved and I love the fact that they did their best on Sundays and the holidays to keep the family together. And I’ve continued that tradition with my family. Now let’s switch to the mob stuff before I get into later on years. What do we do? When I was a made guy, we would.

I was already get together with my crew always. Every Thanksgiving we’d have dinner before. And then on Christmas, we’d have dinner before Christmas. New Year’s Eve, we all went out together. Yeah, me and all my guys, we went out together. Most of us, we had a great time. You know, I kept that tradition Going into the city sometimes. I might have been a place on Long island, but we always had a great time together. New Year’s was. Was a lot of fun New Year’s Eve, so, yeah, I spent time with my guys, my dad, you know, and I.

Whenever he was home on parole, he couldn’t meet with anybody, obviously, because everybody was a violation to him because they had a record, you know, so it was kind of tough. But I would still take him out on New Year’s Eve and we’d go some places where he couldn’t get in trouble. So those were the holidays back then. But again, best part, everybody together all the time. So let’s move on, you know. Then I did my time in prison for eight years and listened to. What do you got in the holidays? Yeah, they give you a little better meal.

If I wasn’t in solitary. I spent, I think, three years in solitary out of the eight years that I was there. So you get a little special meal, but nothing you can even remember or brag about, that’s for sure. And it was tough. It was really tough. You know, being away on the holidays was very tough because, you know, your family misses you. You obviously miss them very much, but you’re just hoping that they’re okay. You know, I got to say something, people. I’m going to bring it up. Some of you are going to say, come on, Mike, don’t be that sentimental.

But there was one night I’ll never forget. I was having a tough Christmas Eve. It was tough. And I had just spoken to my wife, and she was there with her whole family, thank God. She would entertain. We hosted her entire family every Christmas Eve, and every Christmas Eve for 25 years, really. So when I was away, she was there with her family, and she hosted, and it was great. So I was happy that, you know, her family was around there with her. But there was one Christmas Eve. It was really a tough one for me.

I don’t know why, more than anything. And I was laying in my bunk, you know, and a beautiful song came on. You know, I was listening to Christmas carols, and it was a Christian song that came on. It was Mary’s boy child, Jesus Christ. And it just had a powerful impact on me. It made me realize, you know what, Michael? No matter what, you’re still blessed. You are getting out of here at some point in time. You lived a bad life for a while, you know, you were who you were. You did some bad things in your life, whether you felt comfortable doing them or not, you did them so you’re taking responsibility for them.

You have to. And I do. But you’re still pretty blessed. You got beautiful children, you know, my children from my first marriage. Beautiful children. You know, my. My son John, my daughter Tina, my daughter Maria. Great kids. You know, I have my four kids with Cammie. I said, well, at that time, I only had three. Julia wasn’t born yet, but I said, you know, you’re very blessed. You could have been dead. You could be in prison for the rest of your life. You could have met a horrible fate in that life. And yet you’re still alive.

And one day you’ll be free. So perk up, you know, stop being down. And it really helped me. And listening to that song, I don’t know. And I love that song. Until today. Mary’s boy child, Jesus Christ. It was just a beautiful song. So I don’t know why I brought that up, but, you know, what do you do in prison during the holidays? It’s. It’s just another day. Another day with a little better meal. And sometimes you can’t even. Your family doesn’t come on a holiday, so you’re missing them even more. I didn’t want my. My wife to come out on a holiday.

Stay with your family. Stay with the kids. And so we move on to now. You know, when I got out of prison. We make a big deal out of the holidays. We really do. Thanksgiving always wonderful. I do all the cooking at home. Like I said, Christmas Eve. Christmas, great. We were at one time Christmas Eve. We were opening our presents. We don’t do that anymore. We do everything Christmas Day. My kids are older now, you know, so they come over Christmas Day, we exchange gifts, and it’s just wonderful, you know? Wonderful. We have a great meal Christmas Eve.

We don’t do the fish anymore. I make pasta. I make my meatballs. There’s times I had to make over 100 meatballs because my wife’s whole family was there and they could eat, you know, now they don’t come. They have their own families. And it’s a little bit difficult because we. Their families are huge. You know, my wife’s brothers and sisters have a lot of kids also. We have a lot of nieces and nephews, and they gotta. They gotta entertain them in their own place, so. But my family, they’re always there. You know, my kids come over and we just have a great time.

We’re looking forward to it this year. Leading up to the holidays, you know, we try to do some festive things. Today, my wife and I went to a place called Rogers Gardens and we looked at all the Christmas stuff that they have available. You know, the trees and the ornament and everything else. It’s a huge, huge place. But we do that, you know, again, Christmas Eve, it’s, I’ll make my meatballs, we’ll make pasta. And we usually make a meat, you know, sometimes we’ll make some artichokes. Really great. And then Christmas Day, the same thing. It’s more relaxed.

A lot of times we used to go to a movie on Christmas Day. I saw the Godfather on Christmas Day. You know, we saw, we would go to a movie because you’re kind of settling down for everything else. And then the middle of the week, you know, you’re getting ready for New Year’s Eve and New Year’s. For a lot of years we went away. We would go to Vegas with my family, you know, kind of keeping up the tradition of, like I said in my earlier years with my dad and mom. Don’t want to do that anymore.

I’m not a fan of all those crowds anymore. So we normally stay home if we don’t go away. There were times when we would just went away and spent, you know, a couple of days throughout the new Year, New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day. But then we’re doing it at home, you know, we got a DJ coming into the house. My partner Tony was a DJ one year. And we just listen to music, bring in the New Year. I still believe in that tradition. At 12 o’, clock, let’s all be together. I don’t know why, some traditions that are good, they just stick with you.

My kids fought that for a while. Come on, dad, we want to go out. No, no, no. Now they appreciate it. Now they love it. You know, look, you can have a lot of friends, people, but at the end of the day, it’s all about family. It really is. It’s all about your family. And I think my kids, that’s been instilled in them and they understand that now. And we just have a great time, you know, I mean, I love it. I love the holiday season. I really do. You know, people have to tell you something.

I used to be, when I was on the street, I was in a club every night, six nights a week. Not Saturday night, let me say five. Not always on Sunday, but sometimes on Sunday, but Saturday night, you know, no, we were family Saturday night, but I was in a club every night. Now I can’t even bear the thought of being in a club. I can’t wait to get home at night and just relax and get in my bed and watch television. And my wife, we have a thing. She brings a. We have a. A cup of tea every night before we go to bed.

And she makes the tea and brings it up. Usually I have a little cookie. I still had that sweet tooth. She only give me one or sometimes a half because she worries about my, you know, my cholesterol and my blood sugar and all that stuff. And in the morning I get her coffee, you know, so we kind of switch. I bring the coffee in the morning, she brings the tea at night. But I just love getting into my bed. Can’t tell you, because people, look, I work. I still work pretty hard, you know. I know you don’t think this is work, but it’s kind of work doing this too.

I love it because my. My viewers love it. But then I have my wine company, I have my pizza company, you know, I do my social media stuff. So I’m very, very busy. I keep myself busy. So it’s great to get home at night and just relax, you know, you’re so blessed when you love your house and love where you live. And I’m blessed. People, look, I know some people get in, so. Oh, Michael, don’t. Don’t say that. Because there are other people that are less fortunate. And I get it. I understand it, you know, but listen, what could I say, people? I still feel very, very blessed.

You know, there’s times my wife will say, what does it matter with you? I get out of a shower and I say, God, thank you for that shower. Because being in prison and having to go through at times what I had to go through to get a shower when I was in the hole for all that time, you know, and then I think about, you know, people that don’t have running water. You know, we are very blessed in this country. Very, very blessed. Even the ones that don’t have it that good, we’re still blessed because we have a government that, you know, subsidizes things and tries to take care of things so other nations don’t have that.

We have it better than a lot of people have it here, people. And I know I have it better than most. I admit it. I agreed to it. I work hard for it. But yes, I’ve been blessed and I appreciate it very, very much. I thank God for that on a daily basis. And one of my opening here, when I say, you know, thank God, and. And I give all the credit and all the thanksgiving to God I mean it, because I’ve been on the other side. And when you’re somebody like me who left a bad life, who looks back and she’s there, all my friends, all of them, they’re gone, either dead or in prison for the rest of their life.

So, yeah, do I consider myself blessed? I’m 74 years old. Yes. Very, very blessed. So, you know, listen, it is what it is, but those are the holidays for me, and they’re a great time of the year, and I just hope that people can get into it this year and enjoy it. I heard that there’s more traveling this year. I mean, the biggest traveling crowds are expected this year. The travelers, not so many air, most of them by automobile, by car. But people are traveling and they’re enjoying their holidays, hopefully getting with family. I hear that.

Like I said, some people. We’re not going to sit down with people of opposing parties. So ridiculous. Really. Why can’t you put that aside? You know, people accuse me of being. Trump could never do that to me, no matter what. He can never do that to me. He can never make me dislike one of my family members that don’t agree with him. No, no, we’re family first. Our political party comes second. Family first. So please, don’t let. Don’t let that stuff divide you. Really. You know, whatever your political persuasion is, for whatever reason, don’t let it divide you with people that you love.

You know what? I’m hearing so much about that, that, you know, we don’t want to have Thanksgiving with people because they don’t agree with us. You know, some Pink. Pink that brain. You know, she’s real brainy. She says MAGA people are a disgrace to humanity. And if you’re a MAGA person, don’t listen to my music. Really? Really? You’re one of those people that want to turn off your audiences and all that stuff, turn off your viewers. Why? Why? Because we believe something different than you. That’s what politics has been about. That’s what it’s been about since the beginning of time, practically, when the politics first came into existence.

Disagreement. Okay, but that means you go against your loved ones. I mean, come on, really, Enough of that. Enough of it. It’s insanity. This is a time when people should be brought together. We need unity. We need unity, not disagreements that divide us. We can disagree, but not to a point where it divides us. We don’t want to sit down with one another. Look, so listen, I’m looking forward to my holiday season, and I hope all of you Are too. And we will keep you up to date. I’m going to do a couple of lives. I know that people get into that.

We’ll do a couple of lives around the, the dining room table, I would say. And that’s it. So listen, all I can say, people, enjoy it. We’re into December. Enjoy it. You got a month. Go out and have a great time. Go do your Christmas shopping. Even if it’s minimal, it doesn’t matter. You don’t have to have all these big, huge presents, you know, minimal. Enjoy your dinners together. Enjoy your time together. If you got to go to a party, enjoy it. Go have a great time. We need it in this country. Let these holidays mean something.

And I have to say this, people, for all of us believers out there, and even for you non believers, Christmas is the birth of our Lord. And we should never forget that. And we should celebrate that. Hey, whose birthday, other than Jesus Christ, gives everybody the opportunity to celebrate? All the presents don’t go to Jesus. They go to everybody else. That’s our Lord and Savior. That’s what he’s done for all of us. You know, aside from saving humanity, he’s giving presents on Christmas. He made it a festive occasion for all of us. So listen, enjoy the season, you know, and remember the reason for the season, Jesus, but enjoy it.

And my friends, how do I always leave you the same way? Never going to change. Be safe, be healthy. And I really mean that. Eat, but pace yourself. And God bless each and every one of you. Family, friends, neighbors, community, neighborhoods, and God bless America. We need God’s blessing in this country. I’ll see you next time. Take care. Of saint.
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