Ind

Compared to other religious festivals, Christmas is quite a small festival in India, due to the number of people who are Christians. Midnight mass is a very important service for Christians in India. Churches in India are decorated with Poinsettia flowers and candles for the Christmas Eve Midnight Mass service. One of the most popular Christmas dish in India is the traditional Rich Fruit Cake Though it is wildly popular, in India, it is accompanied with a variety of sweet dishes such as Neuros (fried, small pastries stuffed with dry fruit and coconut), which is especially popular in Goa and Dodol (toffee-like dish with cashew and coconut in it). Dodol Neuros These sweets are a part of ‘consueda’ when people make sweets before Christmas and give them to their friends and neighbors.

Nor

Now Christmas wasn’t celebrated in Norway until about 1000 or 1100, when Christianity first came to the area. Before this people celebrated jul or jòl in the middle of winter. It was a celebration of the harvest gone and a way of looking forward to the spring. Lots of beer (juleol) and lots of fun! Norwegians celebrate Christmas with many different types of cakes and biscuits. One of the most popular is a special bread called ‘Julekake’ that has raisins, candied peel and cardamom in it. The main meal is normally pork or mutton ribs served with ‘surkal’ (white or red cabbage, finely chopped and cooked with caraway seeds and vinegar) and potatoes. Julekake Rice Porridge is eaten on Christmas Eve either as a meal at lunchtime (served with butter, sugar and cinnamon) or as a dessert to the main evening email (with whipped cream mixed in!). Rice Porridge And If you are lucky enough to find an almond in your portion, you will be traditionally given a pink or white marzipan pig.

Gre

Chistmas is celebrated in Greece with traditional sweets such as Baklava (a sweet pastry made of filo pastry filled with chopped nuts and sweetened with syrup or honey), Kataifi (a pastry made from a special form of shredded filo dough and flavored with nuts and cinnamon), Theeples (a kind of fried pastry). The pastries are either eaten for breakfast or as starters. Baklava

Kataifi Theeples

Another popular Christmas dessert are melomakarono, egg or oblong shaped biscuit/cakes made from flour, olive oil, and honey and rolled in chopped walnuts. Melomakarono A traditional table decoration are loaves of ‘Christopsomo‘ (Christ’s Bread or Christmas bread). It’s a round sweet bread which is flavored with cinnamon, orange and cloves and decorated with a cross. The bread is made on Christmas Eve ready to be eaten on Christmas Day. Christopsomo

UK

Now I know the majority of the world is set against Brussel sprouts (bleaahhh..), but it features as a special vegetable at Christmas in UK. The main Christmas Meal comprises of roast turkey, roast vegetables and ‘all the trimmings’ which means vegetables like carrots & peas, stuffing and sometimes bacon and sausages. It’s often served with cranberry sauce and bread sauce. And of course Christmas cake covered with marzipan and icing!

Can

Oh Canada! It is perhaps one land where Christmas traditions are influenced by so many cultures, its hard to keep count. Like French, English, Irish, Scottish, German, Norwegian, Ukrainian and native/first nation influences. There is, of course, the main Christmas meal of roast turkey with vegetables and mashed potatoes! Traditional favorite Christmas desserts include Christmas/plum puddings, mincemeat tarts, fruit cake and crackers! Most interestingly, Canadians eat sweets called Barley Candy and Chicken Bones! Barley Candy is usually on a stick and is shaped like Santa, reindeer, snowmen, a tree and other symbols of Christmas. Chicken Bones are pink candy that tastes like cinnamon. You melt them in your mouth and once melted, they reveal a creamy milk chocolate center. Barley Candy Chicken Bones

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QBC

The people of Quebec celebrate Christmas with a special stew called ‘ragoût aux pattes de cochons’ which is made from pig’s feet! Ragoût aux Pattes de Cochons However, many people now have a ‘Tortière’, a meat pie made from venison (or pork or beef). Tortiere On January the 6th, the end of the Christmas season, people of Quebec have a celebration called “La Fete du Roi”. They bake a cake and place a bean in the middle. Whoever is the lucky discoverer of the bean, gets to be the king or queen, according to tradition.

EUA

On the cold wintery day of Christmas, what better to warm your bellies and heart, but a cup of steaming Glühwein, i.e, mulled wine or Feuerzangenbowle which is translated as

“Fire Tong Punch“.

Kind of reminds one of Firewhiskey (winkwink fellow Harry Potter nerds) Food wise, Germans have it solid with Carp, duck, rabbit or Goose served for the main Christmas meal accompanied by German delicacies such as apple and sausage stuffing, red cabbage and potato dumplings. And for dessert, nothing beats Stollen, a popular fruited yeast bread. You might think it is like cake, but boy, oh boy, you would be surprised! Stollen

Aus

Even though Christmas is celebrated in a warm weather in Australia, the festivities are a unique experience. The hero of the Christmas meal is HAM, glazed with honey, maple or apricot or even pineapple juice.

The traditional English-inspired feast is accompanied with a barbecue with seafood such as prawns and lobsters. The sweet dishes include White Christmas, a no-bake slice is made using Copha, desiccated coconut, dried fruit such as sultanas, raisins and currants and rice bubbles breakfast cereal) and Pavlova, an egg dessert with a crisp meringue shell and airy marshmallow-like centre, covered in stiff peaks of whipped cream and fresh fruit, including cherries! And no Christmas is complete without the Classic Christmas Trifle! A layer of cake (or swiss jam rolls), fruit salad, jelly and followed by cold thick custard, and topped with Whipped cream and sprinkled with Flaky chocolate bar (thank you 2centsworth@reddit)! yummmm! Classic Xmas Trifle White Christmas

Pavlova



Fin