“Defender” Michael Cristalli Brings Childhood Holiday Traditions Home to His Family

That doesn’t stop his family from keeping many of the holiday traditions from back then alive now with his own family.

Cristalli is one of the two real Las Vegas defense attorneys portrayed in the CBS new hit series “The Defenders.” Cristalli and his business partner and fellow Utica native Marc Saggese are played by Jim Belushi and Jerry O’Connell. “The Defenders” airs Wednesday nights at 10:00 Eastern.

Cristalli and Saggese grew up very close to each other in New York but never knew one another. They were both practicing law in Las Vegas and got introduced by another Utica native at a party and eventually joined forces in their own law practice.

Turns out, their mothers knew each other from Utica and their grandparents came to this country together on a boat from Italy in the late 1920s/early 1930s. Cristalli says there is even a photo of these ancestors together on that boat. This photo appears in the show on Belushi’s desk so look for that the next time you watch the show!

Cristalli’s grandparents were the hosts of the Christmas Eve gatherings when he was a kid. Along with them being “staunch Catholics” as Cristalli tells Family First, there were also two aunts who were Franciscan nuns. That means the house was always full of priests and nuns for Christmas Eve dinner.

His family upheld the Italian tradition of an all-seafood Christmas Eve dinner with Christmas Day dinner then being pasta. After church, everyone would gather at his grandparents’ house for the celebration.

Today, Cristalli and his brother, who lives nearby, continue many of these traditions (less the priests and nuns).  His parents and his wife’s parents arrive from New York to celebrate with his family which includes two sons, ages 12 and 8 and his brother’s family which includes his sister-in-law and two nephews.

During the year, he and his brother take turns every Sunday hosting dinner so they get to see each other all year long for a casual meal. During the holidays, everyone wears their best dress-up clothes for dinner at their house for when the whole family is in town.

Cristalli’s favorite dish he and his wife prepare for the holidays is lobster, which he says he rarely eats during the rest of the year. Christmas allows him to indulge in this delicious dish. Together, they prepare the seafood feast for the rest of the family.

He misses watching his grandparents prepare the meals. As a kid, he spent many hours at his grandparents’ home after school and watched as his grandmother cooked and cleaned.

He remembers there was a pool his whole family contributed to all year long to help his grandparents pay for all the fixings for Christmas dinner. He misses how the family pitched in to help make the dinner happen.

He also remembers how long it seemed for Christmas to arrive – “It seems like an eternity for a young person. When you are small like that, even the week between Christmas and New Year’s seemed like a long time,” he says.

The most unique character from his childhood was his cousin, Harold, whom Cristalli says “was a crack up, a comedian.” He remembers each year, Harold did something funny that made the kids laugh.

One year, Cristalli remembers, Harold got a track suit as a gift. He went into the bathroom and put it on and proceeded to run around the neighborhood – maybe to test it out!

He also remembers Harold’s wife, who was of Polish heritage, had a tradition of everyone breaking off a small bit of some unleavened bread. Then, everyone made a wish and ate the bread. Even today, Cristalli’s wife makes sure to hand out something for everyone to wish upon as a little gift.

Family is the most important part of the holidays for Cristalli. He says he is so thankful his parents, both cancer survivors, can see their grandkids at the holidays. He loves carrying on the traditions from his childhood so his kids have traditions to pass on to the next generation when they grow up.

To find out more about Cristalli and Saggese’s law practice in Las Vegas and more about “The Defenders,” please check out their website at Cristalli-Saggese.com.

Photos courtesy: Cristalli & Saggese, Ltd.