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guitarnan
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| Posted: Dec 21 2009 at 10:25pm | IP Logged
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My nieces are going to celebrate Christmas Eve at their great-grandma's house, and cabbage rolls are on the menu. Why? Does anyone know?
My family did not have a specific Christmas meal tradition when I was young. I was fascinated by Italian holiday meal traditions (in a creepy way...eels on Christmas Eve...!!!). We've gone back and forth between goose (our preference) and ham (our guests's preference!) for Christmas dinner, but there's no cultural significance for either dish in our families.
Do you celebrate in a traditional (ancestral or your own generation's) way? Please share! Maybe you'll inspire me to leave that ham behind in favor of...well, not eels...but something else?!
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Nancy in MD. Mom of ds (24) & dd (18); 31-year Navy wife, move coordinator and keeper of home fires. Writer and dance mom.
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stacykay
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| Posted: Dec 22 2009 at 2:18am | IP Logged
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My sil's family is Italian, and they have a large party on Christmas Eve and serve seven different types of fish. We have never been invited, so I don't know if eel is one of the ones they serve. (I am not a huge fish fan to start, so I agree. bleh.)
My dh is Polish, and pierogi are huge at Christmas. They also pass the oplatek to each other with wishes of blessings of health, etc. My friend is Polish, too, and she does even more than my mil, with her baking traditional cookies (my mil does not bake-dh cannot remember her ever baking a cookie or cake!), and such. My favorites are kolaczki. They have a fruit filling and melt in your mouth.
Since I don't have the foggiest idea about making pierogi, the only Polish traditions we do are
no meat on Christmas Eve (I usually make clam chowder) and oplatek.
My own family came from Germany (paternal Grandmother) and England (paternal Grandfather.) My mum's family always seemed to be here.  I have always made springerle (love them!) and Christmas pudding (with varied success, as I don't have my gf's recipe anymore  .)
For no particular reason, other than I grew up with it and my men love it, we always have turkey on Christmas, which is an English option, I guess.
Non-food traditions include learning the German for assorted carols in addition to the English. I grew up singing "Stille Nacht" and "O Tannenbaum." We just got a piano this year, and my 5yo is always telling me I need to go and play our Christmas songs. 
When I was young (about 4 all the way through high school) we always went out in a group (friends and neighbor children) to go caroling. I was talking about this with my ds, how it seems that you never hear carolers anymore, at least not going through a neighborhood like we used to.
I am interested in hearing how others keep their traditions, too!
God Bless,
Stacy in MI
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Paula in MN
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| Posted: Dec 22 2009 at 6:24am | IP Logged
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On the French side of the family we always have Tourtiere, essentially a pie with beef, pork, veal, and mashed potatoes.
We are also Polish and German, but I can't recall any traditions from that side of the family. I may have to come up with some next year!
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 Paula
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guitarnan
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| Posted: Dec 22 2009 at 6:53am | IP Logged
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Oooohh tourtiere! Yum!
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Nancy in MD. Mom of ds (24) & dd (18); 31-year Navy wife, move coordinator and keeper of home fires. Writer and dance mom.
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stellamaris
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| Posted: Dec 22 2009 at 7:15am | IP Logged
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Well, I was raised a true WASP. We always had plum pudding with soft sauce (a kind of pourable butter cream vanilla sauce) and hard sauce. Thinking of this, I need to ask my sister for my grandmother's recipe (which I am sure was her very Victorian mother's).
We had an ongoing family joke about the hard sauce, which is a very rich cold butter and sugar and brandy mixture with the consistency of ice cream, of which one should only take a tablespoon or so. Whenever someone would marry into the family, we always passed the hard sauce to them first. Since no one was familiar with this sauce, they invariably started scooping it onto their plates as if it were ice cream!  We had a hearty laugh at their expense...oh, we were so awful  ! It became a sort of family "entrance exam"!
hummmm....now that my children are starting to marry, should I revive the tradition?
Oh, and being of WASP descent, I also was served horribly overcooked peas for all of the holidays....Glad I'm Catholic now and can just steam those puppies lightly! The truth shall make you free! 
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Caroline
Wife to dh 30+ yrs,ds's 83,85,89,dd's 91,95,ds's 01,01,02,grammy to 4
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stellamaris
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| Posted: Dec 22 2009 at 7:19am | IP Logged
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Hey, I forgot another family tradition from my Swedish side: lutefisk and lefse. Lefse is a delicious potato flat bread that we spread with butter and brown sugar and rolled up and ate...yumm! Lutefisk, on the other hand, is salted cod soaked in brine until it is the consistency of jello. It is served with melted butter, fortunately, or I don't think I could have managed to eat it. We always had this during the Advent season (maybe it was originally an Advent fast dish?)
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Caroline
Wife to dh 30+ yrs,ds's 83,85,89,dd's 91,95,ds's 01,01,02,grammy to 4
Flowing Streams
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stacykay
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| Posted: Dec 22 2009 at 9:07am | IP Logged
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stellamaris wrote:
| Well, I was raised a true WASP. We always had plum pudding with soft sauce (a kind of pourable butter cream vanilla sauce) and hard sauce. Thinking of this, I need to ask my sister for my grandmother's recipe (which I am sure was her very Victorian mother's).... |
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Oooh, Caroline, if this isn't a closely guarded family recipe, would you mind sharing it when you get it? Maybe I will save my family from my "experiments"!
And from one former WASP to another  , I am so glad you are Catholic, too!
God Bless,
Stacy in MI
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stellamaris
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| Posted: Dec 22 2009 at 10:02am | IP Logged
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Sure, Stacy, it will be a good reason for me to remember to ask my sister for it. I'll email her right now!
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In Christ,
Caroline
Wife to dh 30+ yrs,ds's 83,85,89,dd's 91,95,ds's 01,01,02,grammy to 4
Flowing Streams
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4Real Forums : Across Time and Place
Topic: Christmas Food From Family Traditions?
