December Holidays Around the World: What Do You Celebrate, and What Do You Eat?

[Mjx]

For many, December involves something other than Christmas at home.

 

So, for those of you who fall into this camp, where and what are you celebrating, and with what food?

Are you celebrating as a local or an expat?

Celebrating multiple traditions, or a single, long-cherished and carefully preserved tradition?

 

I've spent most of my life as a foreigner in a variety of different countries, but have usually been hauled into the centre of things, so I've never really been an outsider, even when my suggestions for holiday festivities involve boiling something for 8 hours, then setting it on fire. At this time, I'm in Denmark, celebrating, well, December, generally: I've made a plum pudding (which, as usual when I make it, has no plums), am looking forward to making latkes and, if I'm feeling ambitious, sufganiot/Berliner/whatever you feel like calling fried, filled donuts, and enjoying an Advent calendar (think I got the name right, not exactly part of my upbringing) that might, in the US, be greeted with horror/a phone call to child protection services for its disturbing content: liquorice, every day (if you like liquorice, it's amazing; also, crazy popular: it's sold out).

 

What will you be up to, through the end of the year? Post pictures (and don't apologize for bad ones)!

[Deryn]

Canada isn't that 'exotic' but I am a mishmash of cultures, all of them quite dear to me - so here is my eclectic list of 'best intentions' - to be prepared over the next few weeks:

Tourtiere - traditional meat pie from Quebec, sometimes made with mashed potatoes, sometimes with cut up potatoes, sometimes no potatoes, subtly aromatic with nutmeg and cinnamon, served with a sharp chutney. It is usually served at Reveillon - the quebecois Christmas eve/midnight celebration. I may also make some ragout as well but think I will skip the cretons this year.

Lobster stew/bisque - lobster is in season on the northeast coast, and if no one is around to help me eat it, I will be trying to freeze-dry what remains

Cape Breton 'pork pies' - no pork in them, they are sweet tarts made with a shortbread crust and dates, topped with a maple icing

Christmas cake - boozy and dark, and really too late for the 25th this year but I have the fruits soaking so I will make them anyway

Rosettes - light and delicious, and I will have to give most of them away or I will eat them all

Butter tarts - Mom would also have made mince tarts but I really am not that much of a fan of those, and Christmas pudding with brandy butter was also a must in my house for years but without someone to share with, I won't bother with that this year either

Welsh cakes - not traditional for Christmas especially but whenever I make them they bring my father and his culture closer to me again - and they are delicious. If my neighbour's grandkids are about, I may also make some Welsh taffy to give away.

Rosemary shortbread - just because I LOVE it

Of course, also turkey, dressing, gravy, cranberry sauce, several kinds of vegetables and mashed potatoes, etc. - the 'normal' North American seasonal fare

Will post pictures when I can/have made them.

Edited December 5, 2014 by Deryn (log)

[FauxPas]

I love tourtière also. It's so good with different kinds of chutney. Deryn, what kind of meat do you like to use for yours? 

[Anna N]

If you're going to skip the cretons then please share your recipe and I'll make them instead! But I couldn't possibly reserve them for Christmas. I once had a great recipe from a Quebecois friend but it is MIA.

[Mjx]

Deryn, that sounds delicious, and the sense of a long tradition is something that's always fascinated me; I'm looking forward to your pictures!

 

Planning at my end is still at the 'Erm...food...?' stage. I boiled the pudding a couple of weeks back (nothing much to see, since the only workable basin was a stainless steel bowl):

 

 

However, today, prising open the little chamber in the Advent calendar yielded this:

 

 

Raw liquorice powder! There's a recipe suggestion, too, but much as I like liquorice, this is not going to happen:

 

[liuzhou]

Christmas here in China is just another working day. New Year (Jan 1) is a one day holiday. Basically it is a total non event, although the shops try to promote it by sticking up weird Christmas trees and statues of Santa who invariably is playing a saxophone for unknown reasons.

 

There are a couple of turkey farms on the outskirts of town, but I never particularly enjoyed turkey, and few people seem to know it. Really, I just give the whole "festive season" a miss here. 

 

We get our turn in February with the Spring Festival (starting on Chinese New Year's Day (Feb 19th this time round) and ending with the Lantern Festival, 15 days later). 

 

No turkey then either. I seem to remember last year I ate a fish hotpot for Christmas dinner.

[SylviaLovegren]

Canada isn't that 'exotic' but I am a mishmash of cultures, all of them quite dear to me - so here is my eclectic list of 'best intentions' - to be prepared over the next few weeks:

Tourtiere - traditional meat pie from Quebec, sometimes made with mashed potatoes, sometimes with cut up potatoes, sometimes no potatoes, subtly aromatic with nutmeg and cinnamon, served with a sharp chutney. It is usually served at Reveillon - the quebecois Christmas eve/midnight celebration. I may also make some ragout as well but think I will skip the cretons this year.

Lobster stew/bisque - lobster is in season on the northeast coast, and if no one is around to help me eat it, I will be trying to freeze-dry what remains

Cape Breton 'pork pies' - no pork in them, they are sweet tarts made with a shortbread crust and dates, topped with a maple icing

Christmas cake - boozy and dark, and really too late for the 25th this year but I have the fruits soaking so I will make them anyway

Rosettes - light and delicious, and I will have to give most of them away or I will eat them all

Butter tarts - Mom would also have made mince tarts but I really am not that much of a fan of those, and Christmas pudding with brandy butter was also a must in my house for years but without someone to share with, I won't bother with that this year either

Welsh cakes - not traditional for Christmas especially but whenever I make them they bring my father and his culture closer to me again - and they are delicious. If my neighbour's grandkids are about, I may also make some Welsh taffy to give away.

Rosemary shortbread - just because I LOVE it

Of course, also turkey, dressing, gravy, cranberry sauce, several kinds of vegetables and mashed potatoes, etc. - the 'normal' North American seasonal fare

Will post pictures when I can/have made them.

[Deryn]

Faux Pas - I didn't have a French grandmere to give me a particular recipe for tourtiere (or cretons) so I go by taste memory (from many Christmas seasons spent in Quebec City with my husband's family) for both. I have tried mixtures of pork and veal (and one year I threw in a bit of ground lamb) but most years the tourtiere now contains only pork (since having a bit of veal lying around to throw in is less and less likely these days). Some recipes leave out the savoury herbs (sage and thyme) but I like both savoury and sweet smells (from cinnamon, nutmeg, and a touch of allspice) emanating from my tourtiere so I use both.

Anna - See above for how/why I kind of 'wing it' with cretons as well - though a couple of years ago I discovered a Thermomix recipe for cretons that is fast and easy so I start from there and adjust timing, etc. for texture, and for taste when it comes to seasonings. http://www.superkitchenmachine.com/2010/6065/cretons-recipe-thermomix-tm31.html Again, I tend to use mostly, if not all, pork. I like it a bit less fatty than some may (when I ate cretons in Quebec, made by my husband's aunt, it had quite a covering of fat which I would dig down below) and I like the texture a bit rough, not like a smooth pate. I am not huge on cloves so I use only a 1/4 teaspoon usually. I have tried both fresh and powdered ginger - and, as one might expect, the taste can be quite different - I preferred powdered in this particular dish though.

Sylvia - try this one - http://www.pieofthemonthclub.org/thismonth/2009/01/21/october-pie-cape-breton-pork-pie/ (Note: I make my own shortbread tart crusts - just butter, flour and a bit of sugar, whizzed in the food processor or thermomix). I warn you, they are sweet (but I figure the dates are healthy!). What got me to make them the first time was the fact there is definitely no pork in them at all - but I guess one could pack on the 'pork' if one ate too many.

Cape Breton Pork Pie

2¼ C chopped dates

¾ C packed brown sugar

¾ C boiling water

¼ tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

Icing: 2/3 C icing sugar, 2 tbsp maple syrup, 1 tbsp butter, softened

TWO Pre-baked 9” tart shell, or 4 doz 1 1/2 inch tartlet shells.

Filling: In a small pan, bring dates, sugar, water and salt to boil over medium heat. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring often, for 4 minutes or until thickened and smooth. Let cool, stir in vanilla. Spoon into shells. Icing: Blend together icing sugar, maple syrup and butter until smooth; pour or spoon over tarts. (Tarts can be stored at room temperature for up to 4 days or frozen for up to 2 weeks.).

Sylvia - What an interesting and wonderful Advent 'calendar'. I love licorice but apparently it is not as good for some of us as was once thought so I would not be able to use that powder either - but what fun anyway to open it up!

Edited December 6, 2014 by Deryn (log)

[Anna N]

Thank You! Not just a recipe for cretons but one which is easily done. Next shopping trip I will be getting some ground pork don't think I have sufficient in the freezer. Love it on toast for breakfast.

[SylviaLovegren]

These sound like the middle eastern shortbread style cookies stuffed with dates (plus maple icing!) -- incredibly sweet and right up my alley.  Love dates and love "too sweet".  Thanks, will give them a try. 

[Mjx]

Christmas here in China is just another working day. New Year (Jan 1) is a one day holiday. Basically it is a total non event, although the shops try to promote it by sticking up weird Christmas trees and statues of Santa who invariably is playing a saxophone for unknown reasons.

 

There are a couple of turkey farms on the outskirts of town, but I never particularly enjoyed turkey, and few people seem to know it. Really, I just give the whole "festive season" a miss here. 

 

We get our turn in February with the Spring Festival (starting on Chinese New Year's Day (Feb 19th this time round) and ending with the Lantern Festival, 15 days later). 

 

No turkey then either. I seem to remember last year I ate a fish hotpot for Christmas dinner.

Are there any traditional Chinese holidays that fall in December?

 

On the Danish front, my boyfriend and I actually do have a tradition, which involves paying a visit to Den Gamle By at this time of year, primarily to eat a sausage:

 

 

and a fiskedelle:

 

 

Naturally, we bagan devouring the food before I thought to take pictures, hence the slightly mauled appearance.

 

 

[liuzhou]

 

Are there any traditional Chinese holidays that fall in December?

 

No. At least not typically. There may be some unheard of ethnic group which does something, but I doubt it.

Everything now is about the build up to the Spring Festival starting on Chinese New Year. A bit like Christmas decorations turning up in your local store in September.

[Kerry Beal]

Canada isn't that 'exotic' but I am a mishmash of cultures, all of them quite dear to me - so here is my eclectic list of 'best intentions' - to be prepared over the next few weeks:

Tourtiere - traditional meat pie from Quebec, sometimes made with mashed potatoes, sometimes with cut up potatoes, sometimes no potatoes, subtly aromatic with nutmeg and cinnamon, served with a sharp chutney. It is usually served at Reveillon - the quebecois Christmas eve/midnight celebration. I may also make some ragout as well but think I will skip the cretons this year.

Lobster stew/bisque - lobster is in season on the northeast coast, and if no one is around to help me eat it, I will be trying to freeze-dry what remains

Cape Breton 'pork pies' - no pork in them, they are sweet tarts made with a shortbread crust and dates, topped with a maple icing

Christmas cake - boozy and dark, and really too late for the 25th this year but I have the fruits soaking so I will make them anyway

Rosettes - light and delicious, and I will have to give most of them away or I will eat them all

Butter tarts - Mom would also have made mince tarts but I really am not that much of a fan of those, and Christmas pudding with brandy butter was also a must in my house for years but without someone to share with, I won't bother with that this year either

Welsh cakes - not traditional for Christmas especially but whenever I make them they bring my father and his culture closer to me again - and they are delicious. If my neighbour's grandkids are about, I may also make some Welsh taffy to give away.

Rosemary shortbread - just because I LOVE it

Of course, also turkey, dressing, gravy, cranberry sauce, several kinds of vegetables and mashed potatoes, etc. - the 'normal' North American seasonal fare

Will post pictures when I can/have made them.

Cape Breton pork pies - did you ever just drag some memories from deep in the memory banks!  I'm trying to remember if I ever did them while I was on one of my Manitoulin trips?

[Kerry Beal]

Deryn, that sounds delicious, and the sense of a long tradition is something that's always fascinated me; I'm looking forward to your pictures!

 

Planning at my end is still at the 'Erm...food...?' stage. I boiled the pudding a couple of weeks back (nothing much to see, since the only workable basin was a stainless steel bowl):

 

IMG_2561.jpg

 

However, today, prising open the little chamber in the Advent calendar yielded this:

IMG_2555.jpg

 

 

Raw liquorice powder! There's a recipe suggestion, too, but much as I like liquorice, this is not going to happen:

 

IMG_2560.jpg

Put it in a nice chewy caramel - then don't take your blood pressure for a few days!

[Mjx]

Put it in a nice chewy caramel - then don't take your blood pressure for a few days!

 

I was thinking of piped or moulded marshmallows (I'm in luck, I have the blood pressure of a hibernating tortoise), since I noticed that I have a lot of eggwhite sitting about. I'm wondering whether there's any way to really work that dingy brown you get, though.

[Kerry Beal]

I was thinking of piped or moulded marshmallows (I'm in luck, I have the blood pressure of a hibernating tortoise), since I noticed that I have a lot of eggwhite sitting about. I'm wondering whether there's any way to really work that dingy brown you get, though.

Indeed - the dingy brown does need some disguising.  Do you have any water based food colour that you could produce a grey to hide it?

[Darienne]

DH Ed makes his own traditional tortiere each year.  He favors allspice.  Half lean ground and half lean pork ground.  He used to make the pie crust...using 7up but now settles for premade frozen stuff. 

 

My specialty is short bread cookies...the best I've ever eaten.  The recipe was given to me by a friend who no longer wants to make them and she got it from her Mother and so on and so on.  Contains brown sugar. 

 

Otherwise we are just plain North American types.

[Mjx]

In the spirit of upholding the apparently transcultural, overarching, winter holiday tradition of making more sweets than anyone can reasonably eat, I made a bunch of marshmallows.

 

Indeed - the dingy brown does need some disguising.  Do you have any water based food colour that you could produce a grey to hide it?

 

No food colour, BUT it turned out to be semi-irrelevant, because I didn't use that 'powder'. At least, not as I'd intended.

 

I pulled up a recipe that I'd tried previously and liked, and set to work. I'd decided to not use the liquorice powder in the marshmallows, but on them, and flavoured the marshmallow itself with some anise extract and a tiny bit of vanilla powder. Mixing went smoothly, if stickily, and after covering half the bottom of the pan with half powdered sugar/rice starch, I reached for the liquorice powder, to cover the other half.

 

At this point, I discovered that the liquorice powder is not powder, but...granules..? Black (which I like), and sort of crunchy, coarser than powder. Can't possibly use that, texture is just wrong, damndamndamn. Right. I have some other liquorice powder, which I know to BE powder (from shaking the still unopened can). This takes about ten minutes to find. A surreptitious swipe at the marshmallow indicates that it's setting up surprisingly fast. In the bowl.

 

So. The liquorice powder is YELLOW. Ochre, if we're being precise. Whatever. I dust it over the unpowdered half the pan, and begin to scoop the surprisingly firm proto-marshmallow into the pan.

 

At this point, the spatula breaks.

 

Of course I have no other spatula, I have a laughably over-curated selection of kitchen utensils, and this single, simple, elegant double-ended spatula is all I ever deemed necessary (I'm fairly certain I hear kitchen gods giggling at my hubris, and calling their friends over to watch). Undaunted, I grab the nearest flat-surfaced tool, and scoop the now semi-solidified glop into the pan in chunky blobs. I didn't want to not use the liquorice granules, so I sprinkled them over half the marshmallows. It looks kind of like dirt.

 

 

Because I'm a complete idiot To satisfy my 'scientitific curiosity' (the same curiosity that prompted me to investigate a 220V electrical outlet with a hairpin when I was about 2), I scrape a few blobs of marshmallow directly into some naked (i.e. no powdered sugar/cornstarch/liquorice powder, no cooking spray, nothing) silicone moulds, just to see what will happen (I'm predicting that they'll need to be scraped out of the wells with an espresso spoon).

 

 

Setbacks notwithstanding, this stuff tastes amazingly good, and is extremely worth making.

[Mjx]

I've concluded that 'Some of these look kind of dingy, but that's liquorice powder, seriously, they're tasty, and the black things are liquorice granules, not dirt' is way too long and unpretentious sounding, so in honour of the city that spawned me, I present 'Homage to NYC Snows' <cough>:

 

 

 

Incidentally, pictures (and a few patches of sticky residue on the kitchen counters) are all that remain of these, since they were consumed at a speed that was astonishing. This is one damn good, super-reliable recipe (i.e. thank you, David Lebowitz).

[Anna N]

Love the name. Spring snow would work equally well if you were spawned in Ontario!

[ElsieD]

I've concluded that 'some of these look kind of dingy, but that's liquorice powder, seriously, they're tasty, and the black things are liquorice granules, not dirt' is way too long and unpretentious sounding, so in honour of the city that spawned me, I present 'Homage to NYC Snows' <cough>:
 
NYC_Homage1.JPG
 
NYC_Homage2.png
 
Incidentally, pictures (and a few patches of sticky residue on the kitchen counters) are all that remain of these, since they were consumed at a speed that was astonishing. This is one damn good, super-reliable recipe (i.e. thank you, David Lebowitz).

I just made some the other day also following David Lebowitz's recipe. I wasn't able to get the icing sugar/ cornstarch mixture down as evenly as I wanted to and so had some hard bits stuck to the bottoms. Next time I will spray a pan with cooking oil, coat it with the mix and tap the excess out. Should make for tidier bottoms.

[Mjx]

I just made some the other day also following David Lebowitz's recipe. I wasn't able to get the icing sugar/ cornstarch mixture down as evenly as I wanted to and so had some hard bits stuck to the bottoms. Next time I will spray a pan with cooking oil, coat it with the mix and tap the excess out. Should make for tidier bottoms.

You might have better luck just doing a really thick layer of the powder mix, since I suspect oil might make things a little pasty.

 

Love the name. Spring snow would work equally well if you were spawned in Ontario!

 

In the meantime, here, there is no snow at all. Things are looking a bit dingy, as you'll see.

Today, I went on a hunt for salt. Special salt, to be precise, a smoked salt so amazing that I'd scraped out the last remaining grains the other day, and was grieving. The man who makes and sells it shows up at the Ingerslevs Boulevard greenmarket, on Saturdays, sometimes: today seemed a bit iffy, since it's been bloody cold, and he is not a young man.

 

I hopped on the bus, and headed into the centre.

 

 

The greenmarket looked more or less the same as it did when I last posted images of it (so, I won't duplicate them), except for the plants for sale were skewed more towards holiday greenery and poinsettias for people to kill over the holidays, and everyone was freezing their nads off.

 

 

Sadly, the salt man was not there.

 

I wandered off, and while festively gnawing on a chicken-skewer-thingie from 7-11, I noticed some holiday platters waiting for pickup in a the window of a delicatessen.

 

 

At this point, it occurred to me that the salt man might well be at the Christmas Market, so I headed over there.

 

Immediately inside the entrance to the Christmas Market (housed in the old cavalry training building) are some tables, and some food service; it was crowded, but this doesn't begin to suggest how packed the place was:

 

 

I ploughed my way around the place twice, and had just concluded that the salt man wasn't here, either, when I saw my goal.

But, would he have the salt I sought?!

 

 

 

He did

 

 

Then I headed home, and we prised this from today's window of the Advent calendar:

 

[Shelby]

Merry Christmas Eve!

 

It's just my husband and I so I'm still debating about what to make for dinner tonight.....I'm also debating about making home made eggnog and some cookies.  Or, maybe I just want to lay around in my jammies, drink champagne and watch Christmas movies.....

[Anna N]

Shelby I can so relate. It's just me and I would've stayed in my pajamas but for the return of one of my foster babies (kitten) who had neutering surgery yesterday. Once she is safely home I think I'll slip into something more comfortable, pour myself something alcoholic, and bury my head in some books. No champagne and I'm not a movie fan but I suspect you and I will be in a similar place at least in our heads. I know what I'm having for dinner. It will be a pickled herring sandwich topped with some crispy fried onions and washed down with an ice cold akvavit with a beer chaser. Lunch however is still a bit up in the air. So happy holiday eve to all.

[rotuts]

""  drink champagne ""

 

always worth serious consideration.