What do you eat at Christmas?

[Asso]

Yeah!
What do you eat at Christmas?
For example:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panettone

[Kevin Thomas Riley]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panettone

I tried that once. It was a gift from Silvio Berlusconi. No really, in my profession as an editor on a newspaper I attended an EU summit during the Italian presidency some years ago, and the Italian government gave a big gift box to all accredited journalists and it had that "panettone".

To be honest I didn't like it that much. Too "paper-y" and it didn't taste that much.

In Sweden we usually eat a Christmas variant of our world famous "smörgåsbord". Ham, meatballs, sausages...

[Asso]

I was several times in Sweden and know and appreciate yours "smörgåsbord".
BTW: I love Sweden.
Very, very beautiful!
And Stoccolm is the best!

[blacknblue]

Eat at Christmas? You mean for snacks or at meal times? For snacks:

Ham, Turkey, homemade cookies (sugar cookies, oatmeal raisin, peanut butter), homemade blackberry cobbler, various nuts and fruits, chocolate covered cherries, homemade spice cake, tortilla chips with homemade chili dip, homemade peanut butter candy, popcorn-lotsa popcorn.

Can't remember all of it really. We eat a lot.

[Kevin Thomas Riley]

Oh, I forgot, we all eat copious amounts of ginger snaps and what we call "lussekatter" (saffron buns). There's also the Christmas toffee we call knäck.

[Asso]

Can't remember all of it really. We eat a lot.

Oh well!
As far as this,we too!

[vero3110]

Around here it's a variation of the panettone called "Pan de Pascua"


and a beverage called "Cola de Mono", that's made with milk, coffee, aguardiente and other ingredients etc.


Vero

[Emberchyld]

Well, we're Portuguese, so we eat:

On Christmas eve: A codfish dish-- usually we make both boiled codfish and potatoes (And greens) that we eat drizzled with olive oil, and another codfish dish (usually made for "the children" and essentially the only codfish dish I could get my american friends to not only eat but ask for more!) composed of shredded codfish, shredded potatoes, egg, all in fried goodness. Late at night (it's supposed to be after midnight mass, but we now go to an earlier mass), we set the table with some fried goodies (fiozes, similar to beingets but made both plain and with carrot or pumpkin), dried fruits, chocolate, sugar cookies, and Bolo Rei (fyi, this cake is in the same family as the Spanish and French king cakes... and our much loved New Orleans King Cake!)

On Christmas Day: We usually stick to the same things most people in the US eat. Turkey, ham, a shrimp dish of some sort, lots and lots of cakes, and those same fried goodies/cookies/dried fruits. We also have a traditional cookie called a broa, which we sometimes decorate with pine nuts. Port is usually served with dessert. Then we roll over and bemoan the excessive eating that we subjected ourselves to...

And, Asso, we love pannetone! It usually doesn't get eaten on Christmas because we have sooooo much food, but it will usually get devoured later. It also makes a great base for French toast (yum)

[TPoptarts]

I just eat whatever I can... which is usually nothing because like I can't even make any food with the kitchen being used by zoo management like the whole day for making the big Christmas dinner and like the thing is on Thanksgiving the manager makes like a big (FREE) Thanksgiving dinner for all the zoo occupants, but like Christmas and New Year is the time the manager's on vacation, so management and along with it the chore of making the big Christmas dinner goes to Darth Vader. And unlike the manager Vader makes everyone pay her if they wanna eat anything. Like what the frell dude I mean it's not like she even pays for all the ingredients or whatever with her own money, it's all business expenses not hers, and besides I work here too (and unlike her I don't even get paid for a normal shift) so like unless someone smuggles me some Christmas leftovers I just don't eat anything.

[blacknblue]

I forgot to mention the cocoa. That snow storm tomorrow is going to be the perfect time to settle down in front of a window with a tall mug of cocoa and something shamefully carbohydrated.

[CoffeeCat]

Christmas Wassail Punch!

get a small cheese cloth and put some whole cloves, 3 cinnamon sticks (cut in half), and a few ginger crystals and wrap them up.

Then boil four cups of water and 1 cup of sugar and your new spice bag. After boiling, stick it in the fridge over night. Next day, mix four cups of orange juice, on cup on lemon juice, & 8 cups of apple cider, & last nights sugar water (with the space bag) into your biggest sauce pan, heat it on low and just let it warm up until it's ready to serve.

[JadziaKathryn]

I love spiced apple cide. MMM. And I make these soft cookies - pumpkin chocolate chip. My aunt makes nut bars. Mmm. I'm getting hungry now...

[CoffeeCat]

Spiced hot cider is good, but once I tried the Wassail Punch I found it was definitely worth all the effort.

[Asso]

Well!

I certainly don't want to talk about Christmas foods that we eat in Italy.
You must understand: ours is a nation made with a lot of small (very small) regions, each with its own traditions (sometimes I think this is our force, but also our weakness).

Mine was a... jocular curiosity.

Anyway, it seems to me that, as far as... nutrition, human fantasy is without limits.
And, if I must be sincere, you, all you, made me mouth water!

[enterprikayak]

C'mon. It can't be that weird! We're an accepting bunch around here (unless you bring up guns or the like ) Xmas food shouldn't start a thread war or anything. So let's hear about a few regional Italian dishes.

Yesterday the sewer guy came and in between telling me that the city was going to charge me $3500 for a permit (a PERmit! A PIECE OF PAPER!) and he was going to charge me $2600 to decommission my poopsmelling failing septic field and hook me up to civilisation, he mentioned how he has been to Italia many many times and he loves it. So....props for Italy. Sewer guy likes it. My 3 sisters have allllll been to Italy. Me? Not.

And for Xmas I eat potatoes, yams (with secret ingreds: orange juice + Kraft dinner powder!!), cranberry sauce. stuffing that hasn't sat inside a dead animal, rolls, Brussel sprouts (yech), corn, steamed veggies, yummy.

....and if it's at Priso's parents....litres and litres of Wassail (sherry, beer, brandy, milk, cinnamon, and all manner of other things among big huge bobbing stewing apples). Eat an apple after a few hours of it bobbing in there and you're right ready for the emergency room.