Before Christmas is too far behind us, I want to write one more post about our Christmas activities this year. As I noted at some point in early December, we had opted to study Christmas around the world during December. We checked out lots of books from the library, and we received this neat story book to review:
Celebrate Advent
The real reason the term “Advent” was used in the title seems to be timing. There are twenty-five stories in this book, designed to be read one a day during December, leading up to Christmas. Each is accompanied by a heavy paper ornament which can be punched out of the back of the book. (The publisher has even thoughtfully included pockets inside the back cover so you have a way to store the ornaments between Decembers.)
Although our family probably won’t ever use this as a centerpiece of our holiday traditions, we have enjoyed reading the legends and learning more about traditions around the world. One thing I wish had been included that isn’t is a note of which country/countries are the source(s) of each legend. This is fun book! (If you choose to use the ornaments, I would recommend laminating them.)
And Eating Goose
So what does that have to do with goose? Well…goose is a traditional Christmas dinner entrée, especially in England. A reader sent me an email after I mentioned studying Christmas around the world. Karrieann said:
I was reading about your children learning about Christmas around the World and I wanted to share with and your family of what my husband and I do for our Christmas Traditions!We choose a country or culture from around the world each year and research their Christmas Traditions. We would make homemade decoration that were/are being made in that country. We also make our menu for our dinner following their traditional Christmas meal.One year we did Germany. Last year it was Italy. the first year we did Colonial Christmas.Here is link for an example of Germany’s Christmas. We always enjoy the meal, mind you.. we don’t make EVERYTHING. That would be way too much for the two of us. So, we pick and choose from the menu to suits. It is fun every year to pull out the decoration from preceding years!
Lovely idea to try foods from round the world, but you can’t have a proper english Christmas dinner without Brussels (although quite often no-one actually eats them)! Most people have turkey rather than goose, and serve it with roast potatoes, gravy, and lots of other vegetables. Here in the UK you can buy ready-made Christmas pudding everywhere and it is like a very moist fruit cake. We usually have it with cream.
Thank you, Louise, for your “insider” comments! That’s funny about the brussels sprouts! (I really wanted to do them, but hubby wanted to be sure there was something he would like. 😉 ) My reading suggested that turkey is a more common Christmas dinner now, but that it is a relatively recent option (say, in the last 100 years or so). Would you say that is accurate? Or not?
Apart from the pudding, it sounds as though a modern English Christmas dinner is much like the typical Christmas dinner here in the US!
I’m English, I live in Yorkshire. Goose is an old tradition, but turkey is far more common these days. In my family, a nice big ham is an essential part of the Christmas meal too. Brussel sprouts are essential. Lots of people in my family love them, so I cook them. On Christmas day I eat one sprout, and that’s it for the whole year! It wouldn’t seem right if I didn’t have at least one though. Roast potatoes are also essential, roast parsnips are pretty common. Cranberry sauce and bread sauce always make an appearance at our traditional table too. And it wouldn’t be Christmas without a really tasty stuffing, and if I consider leaving out the pigs in blankets there would be mutiny! Pigs in blankets are thin sausages, wrapped in bacon and roasted. I’ve never made a Christmas pidding in my life – you can buy really good ones that you just heat up in the microwave, and I think that is what most people do. We often serve it with brandy sauce. Sherry trifle is also a common Christmas pudding. Then, a few hours later, out comes the Christmas cake and the mince pies to fill any gaps!!! Ooo, I’m looking forward to next Christmas already!!!!
You guys are making me hungry! We might have to study England again NEXT Christmas. 😉