I have to admit that when it comes to food, tradition is my master. The thought of seeking out new ideas for the holiday table has crossed my mind lately, but, to me, it really just feels like deviation from some unwritten plan that I’ve actually already made up my mind to follow.
Growing up, it was turkey at Thanksgiving, a hot and cold buffet on Christmas Eve, and traditional Italian food on Christmas. I realize that my predilections are not shared by everyone, namely my husband, who grew up with a totally different set of family holiday food traditions than I did. Being Jewish, he has no register for what a traditional Christmas is like, so it was through his urging that we branched out when holiday entertaining. We’ve made beef tenderloin (his favorite, which he would gladly have over turkey on Thanksgiving), rack of lamb and even Cornish game hens. Definitely not my mother’s typical milieu—these foods were practically foreign to me before I learned how to cook.
I am reminded of a friend who decided to make a huge Christmas Eve feast for her husband’s extended family. She was intent on finding something that would wow and make her seem like an accomplished, albeit new, wife and homemaker. She decided that the main dish would be fish, and endeavored to bake whole red snappers in salt crusts. She made a variety of Mediterranean salads and a rice dish to accompany her entrée. Her husbands’ family, in from out of town and staying at a local hotel, politely picked at the fish and, as her family’s lore goes, ordered sandwiches at a Sheetz gas station on the way back to their hotel. Needless to say, red snapper did not become a tradition.
I am thinking of reviving an old family favorite for Christmas this year—maybe as a side or with Christmas brunch, tourtiere, a French Canadian meat pie that my French Canadian grandmother served at (Canadian) Thanksgiving (it is in October, not November like America’s).
What are your family traditions? Does your family love something that might be viewed as unique, strange or unusual by other people’s standards?