A question from the UK. Some of the traditional foods we have in the UK are Christmas Pudding, Mince pies , Trifle and Christmas cake.Also crackers (that is the non food sort you pull and have bad jokes and small gifts inside). How many of these items are also part or the US Christmas scene ?
Crackers are not an American Christmas tradition, and I’d daresay are unknown to most of us. However, I’ve bought 12-pack boxes of Christmas crackers for the relatives to open at Christmas dinner. You can get them in the Washington DC area at Bed, Bath & Beyond and at Linens’n’Things for about $20 for one box of 12 crackers.
I’ve never had Christmas pudding here in the US (you mean the boiled in cloth, with brandy sauce and lit on fire kind, right?), but I’ve seen small boxes of ready-made English pudding at the tonier gourmet food stores.
Here in the US, we have different regional and ethnic Christmas specialities. For example, Mexican-Americans in the Southwest make tamales for Christmas. In my family, we usually have baked ham for Christmas dinner with mincemeat pie for dessert.
I know about Christmas Pudding from Dickens, and Crackers from various Britcoms and shows. But neither of these is at all traditional in the US. The idea of putting a tissue paper crown on your head from a minor explosion would be met by stares of bewilderment by kids here. I didn’t personally experience any of these until I had to take a business trip to the UK just before Christmas several years ago. I got to pull Christmas crackers at a restaurant. I bought a Christmas Pudding to bring home. The Customs people only let me through with it after I promised to learn how to make a proper pudding myself.
Pepper Mill and I were a bit put off when we learned that the Christmas Pudding was made with SUET. We persuaded ourselves to eat it anyway.
Since then a few friends have provided Christmas Crackers at their homes. But it’s still not widespread in the US, by any means.
We have caroling and mistletoe, of course. And Dickens’ great great grandson runs around the US doing readings of “A Christmas Carol”. But most of the US customs are different from UK custons (Boxing Day? What’s that?)
This ,of course, is the 26th of December and is so called because this was the day when Christmas Boxes ( ie presents ) were traditionally exchanged .It is now just a public holiday tacked on to Christmas.
Mince pies are also non-vegetarian. In fact they used to be made with minced beef or mutton, hence the name.
Mincemeat cookies, yes (at least in my family. And yorkshire pudding when we have beef, yummy) but not pies. I can’t imagine what the texture of such a pie would be… could you elaborate on what you mean by “Christmas Cake”? Is it a specific type of cake, or just a cake? I’ve seen crackers before, but never had one. Do they really have paper crowns in them, or is that more something in books?
Generally we have the same sort of thing we have at Thanksgiving, mostly because Dad hates ham - Turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, buttermilk biscuits etc- but instead of pies we have many sorts of cookies, and fudge. I’m not sure our menu is all that typical, though.
It really depends on the region and culture. I usually go up to see my family around winter solstice, more or less, and I’ve taken up a couple of boxes of crackers that I found in a party store. While these were new to all of us, everyone enjoyed them.
Generally, everyone gets a fruitcake. This is a shame, because it seems that most people don’t like fruitcake, and will throw it out, rather than allowing those of us who LIKE it to eat it. Fruitcakes are usually dark moist cakes with lots of different dried and/or candied fruit, such as pineapple, cherries, citron, dates, etc. Sometimes they have liquor in them, too. Good fruitcakes are heavenly, but cheap, bad fruitcakes are horrid. It seems that there’s more bad fruitcakes around each year, too.
It used to be that very few places were open on Christmas day, and most closed early on Christmas Eve. This is slowly changing. I remember that my sister was horrified to find that she’d have to work on Christmas day in her food-service job.
It all depends on the individual’s religion, too. Some folks have special midnight services, etc. And again, this varies with the region and culture. Around here (Fort Worth, Texas), most Christians are either Baptist or Catholic, or so it seems. Since we have a large Hispanic population, we have a lot of people making or ordering Christmas tamales.
There’s a lot of cultural blending that goes on, too. For instance, my father’s mother was Sicilian, and she made friends with some Irish immigrants (which was quite unusual in that day) and she taught THEM to make all sorts of pasta dishes, and THEY taught HER to make corned beef and cabbage. Both families were richer for this exchange. Similarly, a lot of Anglo families will be eating tamales on December 25th, because they’ve grown accustomed to it.
There is no one “true American” Christmas experience. There are a lot of different ones. In my family, we pick and choose which ones we’ll use.
My father and father-in-law both like mincemeat pie. In fact, we frequently will have mincemeat pie for both Thanksgiving AND Christmas.
And on a related topic…
In the South (still talking United States, not South America), many people eat blackeye peas for luck and prosperity in the next year on New Year’s Day. Part of Texas is considered South, and part is considered Southwestern. This custom originated with slaves from Africa. I eat them, too, not because I’m superstitious but because I enjoy them. My husband will eat a spoonful because he IS superstitious, and plays the lottery.
The Mexican holiday of the Day of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos? can’t remember) is making its way north. Since we do have a large Hispanic community, we’ll see the celebrations every now and then. We also see stuff that’s marketed to people throwing a party for their daughter’s 15th birthday, which has a special Spanish name. The girl is going through a ritual party in which she re-dedicates herself to God and Jesus and/or has a BIG party. Something like a Jewish Bar/Bat Mitzvah.
When I was living in Colorado, just about every microbrewery prodiced a special Christmas ale. A few large national brewers produce Christmas beers, too – Coors Winterfest is actually pretty good.
I think Christmas anise cookies are a Buffalo thing.
The mince Pies I am talking about are the ones made from mixed dried-fruit and candied peel. They are individual sizes (like a cup-cake) and always have a pastry top. I think originally ,many years ago, they were made with meat and fruit but tastes have changed. Also has anybody heard of “Trifle” which is a tradional pudding ?
Christmas cake, like my grandma makes, is basically a very heavy, very dense and sometimes quite moist fruitcake with added spices. It has to be covered in a layer of marzipan and then a layer of icing. I used to eat the marzipan and icing and give the fruitcake to my sister…
Christmas crackers are most commonly toilet rolls wrapped in shiny paper, ribbons and so on. There’s a cracker strip that makes it ‘bang’ when two people pull at the ends. Inside is normally a tissue-paper hat, a crap joke (and I mean really crap) and some form of gift. The more expensive the cracker, the better the gift. At yer cheap end of the market you tend to get little plastic rings, puzzles or animals, then you move up to the luxury end with mini screwdriver sets, sewing kits etc.
Here in Colorado,I make a Trifle every Christmas, no matter where we are for dinner. If dinner is at our house, we also have Christmas crackers. I’ve done this for years. Guess I am a bit of an anglophile.
elmwood
This year Coors Winterfest will only be available in kegs, and less of it at that.
Hmm… I’m trying to think of some Baltimore Christmas traditions.
One that I remember fondly was the Kids’ Christmas Wonderland Shopping Room (or whatever the hell they called it) at the old Huztler’s Department Store in Towson. It was a whole room that only kids were allowed to go into so that they could “secretly” shop for their folks’ Christmas presents. What always cracked my father up was that natch, the parents still paid for the gifts when the kids got to the salesclerk waiting outside the room!
Another one is standing in long, long lines at the old Sibler’s Bakery to get several pounds of their famous sugar cookies. That’s where everybody went to get their cookies. You could almost read a newspaper through 'em, they were so thin!
A more recent (I guess) development is the “Miracle on 36th Street” outdoor Christmas decoration display in Hampden, a famous blue-collar Baltimore neighborhood. It must be seen to be be believed! It’s a bunch of rowhouses, and the whole couple of blocks gets together and decorates the entire street. They even have toy trains runing in mini-displays up on the porches, which the residents encourage people to come up on and get a better look. (An old boyfriend of mine took me to see it for the first time about four years ago. He blindfolded me for the ride there, then guided me out of the car and down the street til I was smack in the middle of the block. When I took off the blindfold, I was purely stunned with the tacky beauty of it all!)
The lighting of the Washington Monument in Mount Vernon Square is cool as well. The best view is from the Thirteenth Floor Lounge in the old Belvedere Hotel. They string lights from top to bottom on the monument, and it’s just a big fun party in the bar and in the streets below! I do wish they still used colored lights, though; a few years ago the city switched to all white lights, and it just don’t look like Real Baltimore, Hon!
Happy Hollydays, youse guys! 
This is the first time I’ve ever heard of “crackers”. They sound kinda fun.
There’s a particular kind of hard candy that’s only sold around Christmas here. (“Here” being Oklahoma) It’s made to resemble ribbons, bows, and tree ornaments.