For most of us Americans, Christmas is a time for family gatherings. It's a time for coming together, for forgiveness, for sharing memories and for enjoying the company of family who may live far away, but who try so hard to be home for Christmas. Whether your family history in America goes back to the Mayflower or to a more recent date in the not-so-distant past, all of us have family traditions which we cherish and enjoy rekindling this time of year. Have you ever visited the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago during the Christmas season to see their collection of Christmas trees, each decorated in the tradition of a unique country? It makes for a wonderful family outing and it is something my family has enjoyed since I was a toddler.
Much of every family’s Christmas tradition centers around the foods we prepare for this most joyous celebration. Here are a few traditional foods from different corners of our world. How many have you enjoyed?
Australia: Christmas cake or Christmas pudding - traditionally with a small treat baked inside, often a silver coin such as a Threepence or Sixpence. Christmas damper - in wreath or star shape, served with butter, jam, honey, or golden syrup. Made in the Australian bush in the 19th century.
Belgium: Cougnou - sweet bread in the form of the infant Jesus.
Chile: Cola de mono - meaning "Monkey's Tail", is a Chilean Christmas beverage with aguardiente, milk and coffee, and flavored with vanilla and cloves. Pan de Pascua - Chilean Christmas sponge cake flavored with cloves, with bits of candied fruits, raisins, walnuts and almonds. Ponche a la romana - eggnog-style beverage made of champagne and pineapple-flavored ice cream.
Cuba: Crema De Vie - Cuban eggnog made with condensed milk, rum, sugar syrup, lemon rind, cinnamon, and egg yolk. Majarete - corn pudding made with coconut milk, fresh corn, cornstarch, milk, water, vanilla, cinnamon and sugar.
Czech Republic: The traditional meal (served as dinner on Christmas Eve) consists of either fish soup or pea soup and fried fish (traditionally carp) served with potato salad. The main ingredients are: potato cooked with jacket (skin), canned peas, onions, cooked carrots, parsley and celery, pickled gherkins, cooked eggs and mayonnaise.
Denmark: Ableskiver - traditional Danish spherical pancakes sprinkled with powdered sugar and served
with raspberry or strawberry jam. Brun brunede kartofler - caramelized potatoes. Julebryg - Christmas beer. Gløgg - mulled red wine combined with spices, sugar and chopped chestnuts. Typically served warm. Risalamande (rice pudding) - a dish made from rice, whipped cream, and almonds. Served cold with cherry sauce. For meat the Danes serve Flæskesteg - roast pork with cracklings, or Andesteg - roast duck with apple and prune stuffing.
Finland: Christmas smorgasbord from Finland, "Joulupöytä" (translated "Yule table") - a traditional display of Christmas food, often including: Christmas ham with mustard; Gravlax (freshly salted salmon);
pickled herring in various forms (tomato, mustard, matjes or onion sauces);
Lutefisk and
Béchamel sauce; and a whitefish, pike-perch and liver
casserole.
France: Foie gras en cocotte, Oysters, Crêpes, Dinde aux marrons (chestnut-stuffed turkey), and
Fougasse (Provencal bread).
Germany: Christstollen - A fruitcake with bits of candied fruits, raisins, walnuts and almonds, and spices such as cardamom and cinnamon; sprinkled with icing sugar. Often there's also a plate of marzipan.
Pfefferkuchenhaus - a gingerbread house decorated with candies, sweets, and sugar icing.
Weisswurst - sausages
with veal and bacon, usually flavored with parsley, lemon, mace, onions, ginger and cardamom.
Kartoffelsalat (potato salad) with
Wiener sausages and
Schäufele (a corned, smoked ham) - usually served with potato salad in southern Germany for dinner on Christmas Eve.
Greece: Preparing a "holiday table" means a soup, two or three main dishes covering the major meats and cooked in different ways, several salads, a couple of side dishes, lots of bread, cheeses, and, of course, olives. Pork is a traditional meat at the Christmas meal. If a turkey or chicken is served, it’s stuffed - generally with a stuffing that includes ground meat. Christmas dinner is followed up with a selection of traditional sweets such as Greek coffee and spirits and
Christopsomo ("Christ's Bread"), a sweet bread decorated with walnuts.
Italy: Typical Italian Christmas dishes include baccalà (salted dried cod fish), vermicelli, baked pasta, capon, and turkey. Traditional Christmas Eve Dinner, which includes seven types of fish (or nine, eleven, or thirteen, depending on the town of origin), is known as La Vigilia Napoletana in southern towns and includes drowned broccoli rabe (also known as "Christmas Broccoli"), roasted or fried eel, and caponata di pesce (fish salad) to complete the main course. Desserts include struffoli (Neapolitan honey pastry), cenci (fried pastry ribbons sprinkled with powdered sugar), dried figs, candied almonds and chestnuts, marzipan, and panettone, a traditional Milanese Christmas bread.
Lithuania: Twelve-dish Christmas Eve supper - twelve dishes representing the twelve Apostles or twelve months of the year. Plays the main role in Lithuanian Christmas tradition. Other traditional dishes served on December 24th include Aguonų pienas ("poppy milk"); Slizikai - slightly sweet small pastries made from leavened dough and poppy seed; Auselės (deep fried dumplings); silkė su morkomis - herring with carrots, or silkė su grybais - herring with mushrooms; and spanguolių kisielius - cranberry and milk sauce dessert.
Mexico: Christmas Roast and Ensalada de Noche Buena - Christmas Eve Salad. Romeritos - small green leaves of a particular type, generally mixed with mole and potatoes. Some Mexican families, particularly in the northern part of Mexico and southern American states, have tamales only at Christmas Eve instead of the typical Bacalao, Romeritos, and/or turkey.
Poland: For starters, Poles serve barszcz (beetroot soup) with uszka (ravioli). Carp provides a main component of the Christmas Eve meal across Poland. Examples include carp fillet with potato salad, carp in aspic, etc. Other Polish favorites include pickled herring; pierogi with sauerkraut and forest mushrooms (usually filled with white cheese and potatoes); fish soup; kiełbasa; makowiec (poppy seed cakes); bigos - a savory stew of cabbage and meat; fruit compote; and kutia - a sweet grain pudding.
United Kingdom & Ireland: In the United Kingdom, what is now regarded as the traditional meal consists of roast turkey, served with roast potatoes and parsnips and other vegetables, followed by Christmas pudding, a heavy steamed pudding made with dried fruit, suet, and very little flour.
We are sorry if we missed your family’s traditions or some of your favorite foods. Perhaps you would like to share special dishes that are always a part of your family’s Christmas tradition? Just go to the COMMENTS section at the end of this article…we’d love to hear from you!
We at Brookhaven would like to wish you and your families a very Merry Christmas in whatever tradition you celebrate. And for those of you who don’t celebrate Christmas, we would like to extend our sincere wishes for peace and happiness for you and all your family in whatever holiday celebrations that are dear to you.