Christmas dinners around the world
Now that Christmas is nearing I’m sure everyone who celebrates Christmas are getting very excited – not only for the presents, the family time and relaxing – but for the delicious upcoming Christmas food! I’ve spoken to a few of my international friends who told me all about the kind of Christmas dinner they eat in their countries. They are very reliable sources, but obviously it differs from the different family traditions and parts of the country.
Germany
In Germany it’s tradition that you eat a nice meal on Christmas Eve – in my friend’s family they eat fondue with a lot of meat, dips, salad and of course wine. But the traditional food on Christmas Eve is potato salad and sausages, because they know they will eat so much food on Christmas day, so they just don’t want to eat too much the day before. On Christmas day they eat Schweinebraten, which is a roast dinner made from pork with potatoes, vegetables and sauce made from the meat-juice (sometimes there’s a tiny bit of wine added as well – yum!)
(German Schweinebraten – http://eatsmarter.de/rezepte/schweinebraten-0 )
Sweden
In Sweden you traditionally only celebrate Christmas Eve and there is a lot of delicious food! They start the morning off by eating tomtegröt for breakfast, which is rice pudding with cinnamon or sugar and milk on top. In the evening they have a massive buffet – or smörgårsbord as some call it – called julbord (translated to Christmas-table). There are a lot of different foods to choose from, but my friend told me about the most traditional dishes: there’s the julskinka, which is ham covered with murstardy-kind-of-stuff. While making the ham, you get a broth that you use to dip your bread in. This is a very old tradition that not many swedes do anymore, called ‘Dopp I grytan’ meaning ‘dip in the pot’. Then you have lutfisk – generally any kind of white fish, but usually you make it with saithe. They also eat Janssons frestelse, which is made from potatoes and anchovies – usually there’s one with and without anchovies at the julbord. Other than that you can also find some of the following things: crispbread, cheese, meatballs (ofc!), dill-cured salmon, herring, egg-halves with caviar and prinskorv, which is a form of cocktail sausage. In Sweden they have a certain soft drink they drink during Christmas called Julmost, and my friend described it as a kind of “christmassy coke”, whereas the internet described it as a sweeter version of root beer. At last the Swedes also eat dessert, which is called Ris a la Malta. It is made from the rice pudding you eat in the morning, with added sugar, vanilla and whipped cream. You then add different toppings such as: berry sauces, jam, canned mandarins, nuts etc. On top of that there’s a whole lot of delicious baked goods.
(Swedish Tomtegröt – http://imgur.com/gallery/Zehem )
Canada
When I asked my Canadian friend she said it was very different depending on whether you’re from the English part of Canada or the French. The English part of Canada is very inspired by their American neighbours and the traditional English Christmas dinner. They mainly eat ham, stuffed turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy and vegetables. The French part though – eat very much like they do in France on this special day. In France they eat what we may call very luxurious dishes, such as foie gras (duck liver), lobster, salmon, roasted duck, oysters and turkey with chestnuts. For dessert the most traditional is called La Buche de Noel (meaning Yule/Christmas log) and is a sponge cake with chocolate and different flavoured icings – often with liquor.
(French La Buche de Noel – http://www.the-berkeley.co.uk/knightsbridge-restaurants/koffmanns/recipe… )
Denmark
Since I am from Denmark, I can’t help but tell you about what we eat as well (also because I’m super excited and just want to google pictures of it!) Like Sweden, we also only celebrate Christmas on the 24th of December and not Christmas morning. Generally most people eat duck or flæskesteg, which is roast pork with crackling. The side for that is usually boiled potatoes with brown gravy (or in my case red wine sauce) and potato crisps (which you accidentally pour your sauce over and they accidentally get soaked and it’s such a yummy accident). We also have amazing caramelised/sweetened potatoes, which are made from small boiled potatoes which go onto the pan with either sugar, syrup or acacia honey. The most salad-y sides we eat might be grated red cabbage and these weird, yellow, canned, pickled gherkin thingies, that I really couldn’t find in the dictionary! For dessert we have a similar thing to the Swedish tomtegröt and Ris a la Malta – it’s basically the same, except it’s called Risengrød and Ris a la Mande. Another Christmassy dessert we eat is Æbleskiver (translated to apple-slices) and they look a lot like small, Dutch pancakes – they are eaten with lots of jam and powdered sugar. Contrary to the name they are rarely made with actual apples anymore. On the very first Friday of November each year, the Danes celebrate the so-called J-dag (meaning J-day – J stands for the Danish word for Christmas: Jul) On this day you basically go to your local pub/bar/club for the launch of this year’s Julebryg, which is like a Christmas beer – this is what you should be drinking from that day on until NYE.
(Danish Julebryg – http://www.juleweb.dk/nyhed102010.htm )
Australia
Last but not least, I spoke to my Australian friend who said she was sad to disappoint me because they don’t really eat anything exciting. It is mainly the same as the English and English Canadians, which consists of meat, stuffing, potatoes, different vegetables, gravy and dessert! Though since it is summer in Australia during Christmas, it’s often very hot and the traditional Christmas food can be a bit too much, so sometimes they eat seafood instead or have a barbecue.
(Australian Christmas dinner – https://www.eatabout.co/en/blog/christmas-dinners-around-the-world )