Per Capodanno Anna indossa una giacca elegante, e a Natale ceniamo tutti insieme a casa della nonna.

Italian often uses different prepositions with holidays depending on the idea being expressed.

• per Capodanno = for New Year’s / for New Year’s Eve/New Year

  • per often suggests for the occasion of or for that event.
  • Here it introduces the context in which Anna wears the elegant jacket.

• a Natale = at Christmas / on Christmas

  • a is very commonly used with major holidays and festive occasions.

So the sentence is not using the same pattern twice because the two time expressions are idiomatic:

• per Capodanno
• a Natale

Both are very natural.

Capodanno literally means head of the year, and in normal use it means New Year’s Day/New Year’s. In many contexts, especially in everyday speech, it can also refer more broadly to the New Year holiday period.

So Per Capodanno Anna indossa una giacca elegante means that for the New Year occasion, Anna wears an elegant jacket.

With many holidays in Italian, you normally do not use an article when speaking generally.

For example:

• a Natale
• a Pasqua
• a Capodanno or per Capodanno

This is similar to how English often says at Christmas rather than at the Christmas.

You would only use an article in more specific or special contexts.

Indossare means to wear / to put on clothing. It is a very common and natural verb for clothes.

• Anna indossa una giacca elegante = Anna wears an elegant jacket / Anna is wearing an elegant jacket

You may also hear mettersi for to put on:

• Anna si mette una giacca elegante

But there is a difference in focus:

• indossare focuses on the clothing being worn
• mettersi focuses more on the action of putting it on

So indossa is a very good choice here.

Yes, indossa is the third person singular present tense of indossare.

Depending on context, the Italian present can correspond to:

• wears
• is wearing
• sometimes even a habitual or event-based present

Here, because the sentence is about holiday occasions, it can sound like:

• a habitual action: Anna wears an elegant jacket for New Year’s
• or a vivid present describing the occasion

Italian uses the present tense more flexibly than English sometimes does.

In Italian, adjectives often come after the noun, especially when they are descriptive and neutral.

So:

• una giacca elegante = the normal, straightforward order

You can sometimes put the adjective before the noun:

• un’elegante giacca

But that usually sounds more literary, stylistic, or emphatic. For everyday Italian, una giacca elegante is the most natural choice.

Elegante is an adjective that has the same form in the masculine and feminine singular.

So you get:

• un uomo elegante
• una donna elegante
• una giacca elegante

Its plural forms are:

• eleganti for both masculine and feminine plural

So it does agree with the noun, but in the singular the masculine and feminine forms happen to look the same.

Cenare specifically means to have dinner / to dine.

So:

• ceniamo = we have dinner

This is more specific than mangiamo, which just means we eat.

Since Christmas is often associated with a special family meal in the evening, ceniamo is a very natural verb here.

Italian often uses the present tense for:

• habitual actions
• scheduled events
• near-future events
• vivid descriptions of traditions

So a Natale ceniamo tutti insieme can mean:

• At Christmas we have dinner together (habit/tradition)
• At Christmas we’re having dinner together (planned event)

The present tense is perfectly normal here.

Tutti insieme means all together.

The two words contribute slightly different ideas:

• tutti = all
• insieme = together

Using both gives the natural expression all together.

You could say just insieme in some contexts, but tutti insieme strongly emphasizes that everyone is participating in the meal together.

A casa di qualcuno is a fixed and very common Italian expression meaning at someone’s house/home.

So:

• a casa della nonna = at Grandma’s house / at Grandma’s

This is more idiomatic than:

• nella casa della nonna, which means in Grandma’s house and focuses more literally on the building
• alla casa della nonna, which is generally not the natural way to say it here

So if you mean visiting or being at someone’s home, a casa di... is usually the right pattern.

Della is a contraction of:

• di + la = della

Here it means of the grandmother, but in English we usually translate it more naturally as:

• Grandma’s

So:

• a casa della nonna literally = at the house of the grandmother
• natural English = at Grandma’s house / at Grandma’s

This is a very common structure in Italian:

• il libro della ragazza = the girl’s book
• la macchina del papà = dad’s car

Italian often places time expressions at the beginning of the sentence to set the scene or topic.

So:

• Per Capodanno Anna indossa...
• a Natale ceniamo...

This is very natural and helps organize the sentence around the two holiday occasions.

You could change the word order, but the original sounds smooth and idiomatic.

The comma separates two complete clauses:

• Per Capodanno Anna indossa una giacca elegante
• a Natale ceniamo tutti insieme a casa della nonna

In Italian, a comma before e is possible when it helps separate longer clauses or improves readability. It is not always required, but here it is acceptable and natural.

Yes, you will often see holidays like Natale and Capodanno capitalized, especially in modern writing.

That said, Italian capitalization rules are generally less rigid than English ones in some areas, and you may also encounter lowercase in certain contexts or styles.

For a learner, capitalizing major holidays like Natale and Capodanno is a safe and common choice.

Not with the same meaning.

• a casa della nonna tells you where the dinner happens: at Grandma’s house
• con la nonna tells you with whom: with Grandma

They express different ideas.

You could combine them:

• A Natale ceniamo tutti insieme con la nonna a casa sua
• A Natale ceniamo tutti insieme a casa della nonna con tutta la famiglia

But in the original sentence, the focus is clearly on the location: Grandma’s home.