No one does a holiday party better than Italian-Americans. I may be a little biased, but I’ve never gone to a party as fun as my family’s yearly Seven Fishes.

The Feast of the Seven Fishes, “Seven Fishes” or just “Fishes” for short, is a traditional Italian-American Christmas Eve celebration built around the idea of eating seven seafood dishes. It sounds pretty straightforward, but like any family ritual, the rules depend on who you ask.

Some families insist on seven specific dishes. Others say seven separate seafood preparations, even if they use the same fish, totally counts. Others throw the number out entirely and follow what many Southern Italian families have long done: just make an odd number of fish dishes. In reality, no one is going to put the malocchio on you if you mess with

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