Christmas Traditions

[ludja]

Oh, and you also offer oplatek to your pets to commemorate the kindness of animals at the nativity.

What a nice custom...

reading the last part about the animals reminded me that my mom was always told that the animals all could speak at midnight on Christmas Eve. She and my aunt would creep out to the stable where the cows were to try and catch them at it. My sister and I would try to stay up to midnight to see if our Siamese cats were conversing... (we always missed it when they spoke... )

[Squeat Mungry]

Those tube things....usually made out of heavy paper or cardboard...covered with shiny or colorful decorative paper.  They look about the same size as if you took a toilet paper tube and covered it with something.  And they have strings hanging out of each end.  You pull the strings and you get a loud "pop" or "crack."  They have something in them -- candy, or small toys, or hats, or silly jokes like in fortune cookies.

They're traditional in the UK for Christmas.  So when you show up, there will likely be one in the center of your plate at the Christmas table, or in a basket or something that gets passed around.

You can buy them here in the States as well, and I often do.  They're very pretty and festive, and kids love them.

Thanks, Jaymes! Don't know how I've missed out on these. I'll have to keep an eye out for them. So, they make a loud popping sound, but don't actually explode, I guess? Sounds like fun!

Our own traditions included egg nog on Christmas eve, drunk out of Santa Claus mugs. We kids were also allowed to choose one present from under the tree to open Christmas eve. We left out cookies and milk for Santa, and a bowl of oatmeal for Rudolph. (It never occurred to us as being unfair that none of the other reindeer got anything.)

On Christmas morning, stockings always contained tangerines or mandarin oranges and pecans, walnuts and other nuts, along with other stuffers. Then we always made "Santa Claus pies" to go with breakfast, which were basicly crescent rolls filled with butter and sugar. Breakfast was always fried ham and scrambled eggs with grits and red-eye gravy. Christmas dinner was either goose or ham.

Cheers,

Squeat

[Jeffy Boy]

I grew up in a family of seven, and every Christmas morning for years my brother would make everyone a great bacon and egg breakfast.

He never cooked a damn thing all year long, so I don't know where he learned how. I mean, it was a good breakfast! It was a divine gift that I just attributed it to the magic of Christmas....

[maggiethecat]

He never cooked a damn thing all year long, so I don't know where he learned how. I mean, it was a good breakfast! It was a divine gift that I just attributed it to the magic of Christmas....

I love this Jeffy Boy. I also love bacon and eggs. Welcome to eGullet.

[Jaymes]

We left out cookies and milk for Santa...

This reminds me of how I figured out, so long ago, that there was likely no Santa Claus.

My father was quite the gourmet. And after chatting up the other little kiddos on the street, I began to notice that everyone else left out cookies and milk for Santa. But at our house, we left out a selection of cheeses and a very nice port.

I began to get suspicious and asked my dad about this. He said, "Well, Santa gets sick of all that sweet stuff."

Which I bought for a year or two. But then.... hummmm...

[jat]

When eggnog hits the stores I make eggnog french toast. It

carmelizes. Maybe I'll make some this weekend. (I celebrate every day so

have no traditions, I go by mood.)

[Marmish]

I am of Ukrainian descent so we always celebrate Christmas on the 7th of January with the huge traditional twelve dish meatless dinner on the 6th. You can only begin the meal once the first star in the sky has been seen and each course is usually followed in the same manner.

This is more of a custom than a tradition, but I cannot think of a Christmas any other way.

Please elaborate on the 12 dish dinner.

Thanks.

[bloviatrix]

We gather together and air family grievances. We call it "Festivus."

[Larry]

I am of Ukrainian descent so we always celebrate Christmas on the 7th of January with the huge traditional twelve dish meatless dinner on the 6th.  You can only begin the meal once the first star in the sky has been seen and each course is usually followed in the same manner.

This is more of a custom than a tradition, but I cannot think of a Christmas any other way.

Please elaborate on the 12 dish dinner.

Thanks.

This is how the traditional Ukrainian Christmas proceeds, all the dishes are not served at once, more like a tasting menu:

1. A wheat berry, honey, and ground poppyseed pudding (this is one of my favourites!!!) We make huge batches of it just so that I can enjoy it for the following week .

2. Borscht, a beet and vegetable broth soup with lots of dill and pepper served with mushroom dumpligs (my grandfather uses a wild mushroom mix and forms them into almost the size of tortellinis, so each bowl gets about 4)

3. Pierogies

With a variety of fillings, including traditional potato, cabbage, mushroom. We like to add in caramelized onion ones, and blueberry and sour cherry ones for dessert.

4. Wild Mushroom Sauce

To be served with all the main dishes

5. A white fish dish

We like to either use turbot, sole or snapper, do a basic egg wash, dipped in herbed breadcrumbs, drizzled with garlic oil and then baked or pan fried.

6. Cabbage Rolls

We make these with a both a buckwheat and plain rice filling. Of course both with lots of onion and dill.

7. White Beans

This is more of a side dish that can go into either the soup or with the fish.

8. Rye Bread

It must be rye, I like the one sprinkled with poppy seeds and with with caraway seeds in it.

9. Cloves or garlic

Everyone must consume one clove of garlic through the dinner, either minced into the soup or just whole. I rub it into my pieces if bread throughout the night.

10. Dried Fruit Compote

We make ours with dried cherries, apricots, plums, raisins, currants, peaches, pears, apples sweetened with a bit of honey and fresh orange.

11. Poppy seed roll

Light white batter rolled around a thick poppyseed filling.

12. Prune filled fritters and cookies.

Of course, this is what my family does, but every family has a slight variation on the dishes that they serve and additions.

Overall, it is a gorgeous evening surrounded with family and friends.

[Marmish]

I am of Ukrainian descent so we always celebrate Christmas on the 7th of January with the huge traditional twelve dish meatless dinner on the 6th.  You can only begin the meal once the first star in the sky has been seen and each course is usually followed in the same manner.

This is more of a custom than a tradition, but I cannot think of a Christmas any other way.

Please elaborate on the 12 dish dinner.

Thanks.

This is how the traditional Ukrainian Christmas proceeds, all the dishes are not served at once, more like a tasting menu:

1. A wheat berry, honey, and ground poppyseed pudding (this is one of my favourites!!!) We make huge batches of it just so that I can enjoy it for the following week .

2. Borscht, a beet and vegetable broth soup with lots of dill and pepper served with mushroom dumpligs (my grandfather uses a wild mushroom mix and forms them into almost the size of tortellinis, so each bowl gets about 4)

3. Pierogies

With a variety of fillings, including traditional potato, cabbage, mushroom. We like to add in caramelized onion ones, and blueberry and sour cherry ones for dessert.

4. Wild Mushroom Sauce

To be served with all the main dishes

5. A white fish dish

We like to either use turbot, sole or snapper, do a basic egg wash, dipped in herbed breadcrumbs, drizzled with garlic oil and then baked or pan fried.

6. Cabbage Rolls

We make these with a both a buckwheat and plain rice filling. Of course both with lots of onion and dill.

7. White Beans

This is more of a side dish that can go into either the soup or with the fish.

8. Rye Bread

It must be rye, I like the one sprinkled with poppy seeds and with with caraway seeds in it.

9. Cloves or garlic

Everyone must consume one clove of garlic through the dinner, either minced into the soup or just whole. I rub it into my pieces if bread throughout the night.

10. Dried Fruit Compote

We make ours with dried cherries, apricots, plums, raisins, currants, peaches, pears, apples sweetened with a bit of honey and fresh orange.

11. Poppy seed roll

Light white batter rolled around a thick poppyseed filling.

12. Prune filled fritters and cookies.

Of course, this is what my family does, but every family has a slight variation on the dishes that they serve and additions.

Overall, it is a gorgeous evening surrounded with family and friends.

Thanks, Larry. That sounds wonderful! I am curious about the cabbage rolls. Do you use green or pickled cabbage, and what else goes into the filling? I am used to Serbian style cabbage rolls (sarma).

Thanks.

[Larry]

Thanks, Larry. That sounds wonderful! I am curious about the cabbage rolls. Do you use green or pickled cabbage, and what else goes into the filling? I am used to Serbian style cabbage rolls (sarma).

Thanks.

We use green cabbage for the cabbage rolls, and the filling consists or either rice or buckwheat with onion, garlic and dill. They can also include ground veal or pork if you are not going meatless.

[BobL]

My wife & I have been making Hoppin John on New Years day for about 17 years. We are starting to serve Pasole on Christmas Day. We've done this for 4 years and plan to continue.

[fifi]

Great thread, jscarbor.

When I was small, one tradition was going to my Aunt Audrey's house on Christmas Eve. We were not all that close to my father's side of the family but we always did that to play "catch-up" with those cousins. Aunt Audrey always served "Pickled Shrimp" and that was my favorite thing in the world. (I found out years later that my sister had gotten the recipe from her before she died. I make it now.)

We would have our Christmas gift giving at home on Christmas morning and dad would always make pancakes. He was a pancake wizard.

As time passed and my sister and I had our own families the Christmas traditions started to change. My sister became a real expert with quiche so that became a Christmas morning breakfast tradition. It still is.

Christmas dinner is not as tradition bound as Thanksgiving. It has almost become a tradition that it is time to experiment. Dad started that many years ago when he started to really get into cooking. We have had the big six inch thick chunk of sirloin, sugar coated and shoved into a screaming oven. We have had that huge red snapper caught on a fishing trip encrusted in salt and baked. All sorts of things have been done to hunks of the noble pig. Venison figures into the equation if one of the hunters has been successful. We have some venison this year but we are also thinking about ducks and geese.

[HollyB]

Somehow, cornmeal-fried oysters became our Christmas breakfast tradition.

[jscarbor]

I really appreciate the response fom everyone. My wife and I had are first child 7 months ago and we are trying to come up with some special holiday traditions. My family, while close, did not have many "family traditions" and my wifes family did. Of course we will keep some of her traditions but I also want to participate and start new ones.

My wife makes a whole slew of really tasty cookies for the holidays that we will keep doing. She will only make them during the holidays so its something i know I will look forward to and my guess is Jett (my son) will as well. Midnight mass is another little tradition we do, besides the obvious it keeps alot of us from getting too sauced on christmas eve.

I really like the idea about the stockings appearing in the a.m. on the kids bedpost. And I may add the giving of 1 certain themed gift ( the same theme each year) on xmas eve.

As far as food goes i would like to start soething but with so many family members around its hard to do something every year. Maybe I can make something a tradition for when we are at home? I'm thinking either s special breakfast or dinner.

Happy holidays and keep the traditions comming.

[cakewalk]

... everyone else left out cookies and milk for Santa. But at our house, we left out a selection of cheeses and a very nice port.

Wonderful.

[Al_Dente]

We gather together and air family grievances. We call it "Festivus."

I was wondering when someone would bring this up. Doesn't every family have the "airing of grievances" at some point during the holidays?

[cakewalk]

We gather together and air family grievances.  We call it "Festivus."

   

I was wondering when someone would bring this up. Doesn't every family have the "airing of grievances" at some point during the holidays?

In our family we just call it "getting together." It doesn't demand a holiday.

[Al_Dente]

We would leave carrots out for Santa's reindeer. My dad would take a bite out of them and leave some good toothmarks to give the impression Santa gave ol' Donner and Blitzen a snack. Looking back, it really was kinda magical-- thinking Santa was right there in the living room, flying reindeer were on your roof, and little elves made you toys.

But, as eventually happens to all children, when I was about 27 I realized how many billions of people there are in the world and how it would be impossible for one old fat guy to deliver toys all in one night.

[BJL]

On the 23rd my father and I drink way too much wine, and make all the fried dough balls for the Italian deserts (don't know how to spell but they are little balls of dough coated in honey with almonds) and also the ones we will use for Christmas Day soup. Then we head out to the mall to buy my mom's gift - usually some alcohol induced over spending in the jewelery dept.

On Christmas Eve it is the traditional Italian seafood feast. The first staple is fried baccala fritters that are cooked downstairs by the eldest members of the family (only the males) and one female is allowed to bring the dish up and down and re-fill. The other tradition is that the newest male guest (usually a boyfriend) has to serve the wine all night and every year until someone else takes his place. Being the youngest girl of my generation, my boyfriend of 8 years is getting pretty tired of this.

Then we all head out to midnight mass and after mass we can break the fast - my father and brother-in-law cook Italian sausage out on the grill. (Usually in a snowstorm as we live in upstate NY) and all the neighbors and friends come over for celebration #2, which was started years ago when all the men would help put together the toys for the children. Several years and much wine caused me to get a lot of things that were quite askew - like backwards handlebars.

In addition, my family's other fabulous tradition is Carnevale. It is celebrated the Sunday before Ash Wednesday. Everyone gathers around the pot starting with the eldest male stirring the huge pot of polenta with my Grandmother's broom handle. You must always turn in one direction. As the polenta thickens it moves down to the newest member (again, my poor boyfriend) who by the end needs 3 or for other guys to hold down the stove. The polenta is then turned out onto a huge wooden board with a pile of meat from the sauce in the middle. Everyone congregates around the board to eat their way to the meat as a reminder of the days when we struggled. Back then you were forced to fill up on polenta and eat only a small piece of meat because we couldn't afford more. It is great fun, and even more so to watch younger members of the family embrace the tradition.

[Varmint]

We would leave carrots out for Santa's reindeer. My dad would take a bite out of them and leave some good toothmarks to give the impression Santa gave ol' Donner and Blitzen a snack.

I still do that. Plus, I leave one of the cookies half-eaten. I eat the other 11, though.

[Marmish]

One of my favorite parts of Christmas is Christmas day breakfast. We travel now, and are with my husband's family for Christmas Eve, so we return to my parents late at night. The next morning we get up and have breakfast together. The menu is always the same, sausage, bacon, apple pancakes and cider sauce, juice, coffee, potica and poppy seed roll. Then we clear the dishes and open presents.

[Marlene]

Another nonfood one.

I had three kids. I also bought small artificial trees for each child that they put in their rooms. They decorated them according to their personal taste. One year, my daughter had a "Barbie" tree wherein she tied all her Barbie stuff to it, including Ken. And furniture from the playhouse, clothes, little plastic Barbie shoes. She also did a "Pony" tree one year, and a Troll tree the year after that.

From the boys, we got Star Wars, Matchbox cars, and various sports teams.

Each of the trees also had colored lights, so it made a gentle glow in their rooms.

They tell me now that they loved their "personal trees" most of all.

Jaymes, I just love this idea. How wonderful.

[Varmint]

My in-laws have a Christmas Eve party for about 50 people. I end up cooking prime rib, shrimp, and German sausages. I'll be smoking some pork shoulder this year, if I can. Please join us if you'd like. Seriously!

On Christmas morning, we melt some ultra-sharp aged Canadian cheddar in the oven until it develops a bit of crust. I make a couple of pounds of bacon, 3 dozen biscuits, and serve it all with fig preserves and freshly squeezed OJ.

Christmas dinner this year has yet to be decided, but it needs to be easy. My parents will be with us, so there will be complaints regardless of what I make.

[Marlene]

Christmas Eve is a neighbourhood event. All houses on our street are "open" and people pop in and out of each others' houses most of the evening. We usually go to Church at 8:00 to hear the children's choir.

We buy one new family ornament each year for the tree.

We hang the stockings by the fireplace, and in the morning, they are usually under the tree.

The fancy neighbourhood across the street (the rich area of town), all get their house professionally decorated. On Christmas Eve, they line the streets with candles in wax paper bags and sand. The traffic that goes through that neighbourhood is unbelievable to see the displays, so a few years ago, they allowed the Salvation Army to station themselves at the gate to ask for donations as you left the court.

We always open one present each on Christmas Eve just before going to bed. Carrots, cookies and milk were essential for Santa and Rudolph, now it's carrots, cookies, and a nice scotch .

Christmas Day is of course started by opening presents, (not until my coffee is made though!).

Breakfast then consists of French Toast, bacon and croissants - more coffee, usually with Bailey's thrown in.

Christmas Dinner is always always always Prime Rib, roasted potatoes and Yorkshire pudding, dessert is a Chocolate Torte normally although I'm going to try a Yule Log this year. I made a Turkey one year and just about had a mutiny on my hands. Christmas dinner could be Christmas Day or Boxing Day depending on everone's schedules. This year it will be Boxing Day.