ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The holiday season can be measured in a myriad of ways in Florida.

What You Need To Know

  • Mazzaro's Italian Market celebrated the holiday season by cutting a giant 916-pound wheel of cheese Friday 

  • The cheese is a provolone cheese that was shipped from Italy to St. Petersburg for the market to sell to customers

  • This is an annual tradition at market, which they estimate has been going on for the last 15-20 years

For some, it’s the cooler weather, for others it’s Christmas lights.

At Mazzaro’s Italian Market in St. Pete, the crowd of people there measure it by one thing.

“It’s a big ol’ piece of cheese,” said Mazzaro's manager Ben Radich.

Radich spent Friday morning cutting a wheel of provolone cheese that weighs more than 916 pounds.

“You don’t see a lot of those,” Radich said. “It’s just really fun.”

This is an annual thing Mazzaro’s do for the hundreds of customers that come to see and taste.

“You don't get to cut these things every day,” Radich said. “There's not a lot of these in the world. They don't make cheese this big every day.”

The giant wheel is shipped in a giant crate across the ocean from Italy to St. Pete.

It has been aged about three years and weighs about half a ton, which is why many people call off work just to watch this moment.

This daring dairy delight then gets cut up even further inside the market, wrapped up and then put out for people to buy — and boy do they buy.

“We go all out on everything, and Christmas is no different for us,” said Robert Smith, general manager at Mazzaro’s.

According to Smith, just the smell of the cheese transports him back to his childhood in Brooklyn.

“I just remember one day, actually in the store as a customer saying, 'I'm going to work here some day,' and now I've been here for 15 years,” he said.

This time of year can be busy with people always on the move looking for presents, setting up decorations or making travel plans to visit loved ones.

For the people here, amidst the hustle and bustle inside the market, taking a moment to stand and watch something like this makes this time of the season as special as 900-plus pounds of provolone.

According to Radich, they order the cheese about seven months to year before the holiday season.

It arrived in October and was hanging inside the market until Friday morning’s cutting.