Traditional Christmas Food

Feasting during the Christmas holiday has long been a tradition. In the Middle Ages, King Henry III of England raised the level of feasting and revelry to great heights. He was also attributed to have started the custom of giving food to the needy during the holiday season of 1248.

One of the earliest traditional Christmas foods is the mince pie, which originated in the Middle Ages. Originally, it contained a mixture of chopped poultry, rabbit, pheasant and partridge. Later, sugar, apples, raisins, oranges and lemons were added. Eventually, the meats were omitted, leaving only the sweet ingredients. Closely related is the English Christmas plum pudding, a concoction of fruits and sweets, sprinkled with brandy and flamed when served. The fruitcake was derived from the Christmas plum pudding, which traditionally includes raisins, dates and candied fruit.

The greatness and variety of the traditional English Christmas feast was described by Charles Dickens in A Christmas Carol, when Scrooge met the Ghost of Christmas Present in a room surrounded by all kinds of food:

“Heaped up on the floor, to form a kind of throne, were turkeys, geese, game, poultry, brawn, great joints of meat, sucking-pigs, long wreaths of sausages, mince-pies, plum-puddings, barrels of oysters, red-hot chestnuts, cherry-cheeked apples, juicy oranges, luscious pears, immense twelfth-cakes, and seething bowls of punch, that made the chamber dim with their delicious steam.”

Many main dishes have adorned the Christmas table, but throughout Europe and America it has usually been a roasted turkey, goose, beef or ham. Each country has it’s own Christmas dinner specialties unique to the historic culture of the people. In some places, fish is a main dish, such as lutfisk (cod) in Scandinavian countries and baked carp in Austria. In America, a land which has been a melting pot of many cultures, many kinds of foods are served at the Christmas dinner. For many, the Christmas dinner menu is similar to that of the Thanksgiving feast.

And he…He HIMSELF…!
The Grinch carved the roast beast!!
- From Dr.Suess’
How the Grinch Stole Christmas

Holiday desserts are many and varied. From France comes the buche de Noel, or yule-log, a cake rolled and filled with chestnut cream and coated with either marzipan or flavored icing, and decorated with sugared holly leaves and roses (see Tradition of the Yule Log). In Italy, the meal is topped off with torrone, a candy made of egg whites, honey, and nuts. Fruit-filled breads called stollen are favorites in Germany. In Mexico and other Latin-American countries, thin, round pastries called bunuelos are usually eaten with cinnamon and sugar. Various kinds of Christmas cookies, including frosting-covered sugar cookies, have long been a popular part of the holiday goodies prepared in the kitchens of America and Europe.

Traditional holiday drinks are popular in some areas. In Sweden, glogg, a hot punch made with spices, liquors, raisins, and nuts, and julmust, a soft-drink similar to root-beer, are favorite for the holidays. Eggnog is a dairy holiday drink popular in England and America, which is a descendant of the Old English drink syllabub, a spiced mixture of wine and creamed milk. But perhaps the most celebrated English holiday drink is wassail (see Tradition of Wassail).

It is unlikely that most of our “traditional” Christmas foods would have been eaten in Jerusalem when Christ was born. So what types of food would have been customary to that place and time? The Bible makes mention of several foods which would have been common in a Holy Land meal. Mentioned at least 230 times, bread, usually made from wheat, was indeed the staff of life. Meats, usually from cows and sheep, were reserved for special occasions. Common food items included fish, olives, grapes, figs, lentils, nuts, salt, honey and cakes. Cakes? Yes, they even had a dessert, usually made from flattened dough that was fried or baked. Sometimes dried fruit was added to the dough, establishing, perhaps, a forerunner to the fruitcake.