Christmas dinner
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Christmas dinner is the primary meal traditionally eaten on Christmas Day. It is often seen as the main event of the day for which the family all gathers and eats together. In many ways the meal is similar to a standard Sunday dinner.
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[edit] Christmas dinner around the world
Christmas dinner around the world may differ and the traditions present here can reflect the culture of where this holiday is being celebrated. Turkey is featured in almost all of these meals.
[edit] Australia
Christmas dinner in Australia tends to be very similar to the traditional English version. However due to Christmas falling in the heat of the Southern Hemisphere's summer, meats such as ham, turkey and chicken are sometimes served cold. Barbecues are also a popular way of avoiding the heat of the oven. Seafood such as prawns (shrimp) is common, as are barbecued cuts of steak or chicken breasts, drumsticks and wings. Australia also has a sweet called White Christmas. Fruits of the season include mangoes and cherries.
[edit] Austria
Christmas cuisine in Austria is very similar to that of Germany as Austria was historically a part of the German nation until the formation of the German Reich in 1871. Christmas Eve is the celebration of the end of the pre-Christmas fast, in which fried carp, sacher torte and Christmas cookies (most notedly lebkuchen and sterne) are eaten. Christmas Eve is historically the day that the tree is decorated and lit with real candles, so that the Christkindl (or Saint Nicholas) may visit. Christmas Day is a national holiday in Austria and most Austrians spend the day feasting with their family, usually enjoying Gluhwein, Rumpunsch, Goose, Ham, Chocolate Mousse and many other chocolate delicacies including edible Christmas ornaments.
[edit] Canada
In English Canada, Christmas dinner is similar to that of its colonial ancestor, England, as well as to its neighbour the United States. Traditional Christmas dinner features turkey with stuffing (dressing), mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, vegetables and plum pudding for dessert. Eggnog, a milk-based punch that is often infused with alcohol, is also very popular around the holiday season. Other Christmas items include butter tarts and shortbread, which are traditionally baked before the holidays and served to visiting friends, at various Christmas and New Year parties, as well as on Christmas day.
In French Canada, traditions may be more like those of France. (See Réveillon)
Other ethnic communities may continue to use old world traditions as well. For example, a Ukrainian Canadian family may eat a traditional Christmas meal of 12 meatless dishes, or may simply add perogies to a westernized meal.
[edit] Denmark
In Denmark the traditional Christmas meal served on December 24th consists of either roasted pork, goose or duck. This is served along with potatoes, red cabbage and plenty of gravy. It is followed with a dessert of rice pudding, often with an almond hidden inside, the lucky finder of which is entitled to a present referred to as the almond gift. Traditional Christmas drinks are Gløgg and traditional Christmas beers, specially brewed for the season, these usually have a high alcohol percentage.
[edit] Eastern Europe
In the areas of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (e.g., Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania), an elaborate and ritualised meal of twelve meatless dishes is served. This is because the pre-Christmas season is a time of fasting, which will be broken on Christmas itself. As is typical of Slavic cultures, great pains are taken to honour the spirits of deceased relatives, including setting a place and dishing out food for them.
A traditional Christmas meal in The Czech Republic is fried carp and potato salad. This tradition started after excessive increase of fishpond cultivation in the Baroque era. Many households also prepare a great variety of special Christmas biscuits to offer to Christmas visitors. These preparations take place many days and weeks prior the feast.
[edit] Finland
Joulupöytä (translated "Christmas table") is the name of the traditional food board served at Christmas in Finland, similar to the Swedish smörgåsbord. It contains many different dishes, most of them typical for the season. The main dish is usually a large Christmas ham, which is eaten with mustard or bread along with the other dishes. Fish is also served (often lutefisk and gravlax), and with the ham there are also so-called laatikot, casseroles with liver and raisins or potatoes or rice and carrots. The traditional Christmas beverage is either alcoholic or non-alcoholic mulled wine (glögi in Finnish).
[edit] France
In France and some other French-speaking countries, a réveillon is a long dinner, and possibly party, held on the evenings preceding Christmas Day and New Year's Day. The name of this dinner is based on the word réveil (meaning "waking"), because participation involves staying awake until midnight and beyond.
[edit] Germany
In Germany common dishes are roast goose, macaroni salad, marzipan, porridge (reisbrei), spice bars (lebkuchen), stollen (several types of bread, including Christstollen, Dresden stollen, etc.), sucking pig, weisswurst.[1]
[edit] Mexico
In Mexico the Christmas dinner is significantly more organic with an emphasis on fruits and vegetables. Common dishes are various fruits (oranges, limes, tropical fruits), salad (composed of several ingredients including jícama, beets, bananas, and peanuts). There are, however; several states that make delicious stews, called pozole, made of pork or beef and hominy in red chile sauce, or menudo made made with beef tripe and hominy in chile sauce also. Possibly the most traditional Christmas dish is tamales. Tamales are served with sauce over them and maybe cream and a bit of crumbly fresh cheese. For dessert, atole with buñuelos. Atole is a thinned hot chocolate pudding and the buñuelos are fried flour tortillas sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon. Unless you prefer the buñuelos soaked in sugar (piloncillo) and cinnamon water. There are also sweet tamales: corn with raisins or sweet beans, or strawberry flavored.
[edit] Netherlands
Christmas dinner in The Netherlands is a bit different from customs in neighbouring countries. One typical Dutch tradition is that of 'gourmet'. This is an evening long event where small groups of people sit together around a gourmet-set and use their own little frying pan to cook and season their own food in very small portions. The host has prepared finely chopped vegetables and different types of meats, fish and prawns/shrimps. Everything is accompanied by different salads, fruits and sauces. The origin of gourmet lies most likely in the former Dutch colony Indonesia.
Also the Dutch enjoy more traditional Christmas-dinners like a roast beef, duck, rabbit, pheasant or a roasted or glazed ham. This is in general served with different types of vegetables, potatoes and salads. In recent years, also traditions from Anglo-Saxon countries are becoming increasingly popular, most notably the UK-style turkey.
[edit] New Zealand
The Christmas customs of New Zealand are largely identical to the United Kingdom due to its status as a former British colony, the ethnic Caucasian population being almost exclusively British or Irish in descent, and the still pervasive British cultural influence on the country courtesy of constant movements of people between New Zealand and the UK. Christmas dinner consists of roast turkey, roast vegetables, stuffing (or dressing, as it is known in North America), cranberry sauce, and alternatively roast ham is also offered as a main course. One important exception from British dinner is the non-use of goose as it is not raised in New Zealand and the MAF prohibition on importing foreign meat products. Desserts are almost without exceptions Christmas mince pies or Christmas pudding (or plum pudding) and brandy butter, inherited from British practices. Enjoyment of non-British Christmas foods, such as stollen from Germany, Bûche de Noël from France, panettone from Italy, was virtually unheard of in New Zealand until the late 1990s and is still extremely rare today. Due to New Zealanders celebrating Christmas in the summer, it is also common to bar-be-que, and eat seasonal fruit such as cherries, and strawberries.
[edit] United Kingdom and Ireland
Christmas dinner in the United Kingdom and in Ireland usually consists of roast turkey (although duck and goose are common alternatives depending on the number of diners), ham, roast vegetables particularly brussels sprouts, stuffing (or dressing as it is sometimes known in North America), pigs in blankets, cranberry sauce, bread sauce, Christmas pudding (or plum pudding), and brandy butter.[2]
In England, the evolution of the main course into turkey did not take place for years, or even centuries. At first, in Medieval England, the main course was either a peacock or a boar, the boar usually the mainstay. After the French Jesuits imported the turkey into Great Britain, it became the main course in the 1700s.[2]
A common tradition in the United Kingdom is to use the turkey's wishbone to make a wish. Two people pull opposite ends of the wishbone until it breaks, with the person holding the larger fragment of the bone making a wish.[2]
The dessert of a British Christmas Dinner is almost always either a Christmas Pudding, mince pies, flan or a trifle, alternatively a Christmas cake is eaten.
[edit] United States
Many Christmas customs in the United States have been adopted from those in the United Kingdom, although customs from other European countries are also found.[3] As such, the mainstays of the English table are also found in the United States: cranberry sauce, turkey, stuffing or dressing, corn, squash, and green beans are common. Dessert often reflects the ethnic background of the participants, but include pumpkin pie, marzipan, pfeffernusse, sugar cookies, panettone, fruitcake, or mince pie. Ham or roast beef is often served instead of turkey, particularly since turkey is the mainstay at dinner for the American holiday of Thanksgiving in November. Regional meals vary from one to another, Hawaii has Turkey teriyaki, Virginia has oysters and ham pie, the Upper Midwest includes dishes from the predominately Scandinavian backgrounds such as lutefisk and mashed rutabaga or turnip, and so on.[4] In the Southwest especially New Mexico, a traditional Christmas dinner might include posole, tamales, empanaditas (mincemeat turnovers) and biscochitos.
[edit] References
Australian White Christmas Recipe
"Are you implying he's eating Christmas Dinner?" -Radio Reference
- ^ Holiday Traditions — Germany. Retrieved 1 July 2006.
- ^ a b c Christmas dinner in England. Retrieved 1 July 2006.
- ^ Holiday Traditions — England. Retrieved 1 July 2006.
- ^ Holiday Traditions — United StatesRetrieved 1 July 2006.
