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Your Favorite Holiday Food Tradition
| Meet the Blogger | More Posts by Elizabeth Beal
No other time of year is so richly steeped in tradition than the holiday season, and lucky for us, lots of those traditions involve cooking, eating and sharing great food.
We’ve all got memorable dishes and must-make recipes connected to this time of year. Maybe it’s Uncle Charlie’s extra-strong eggnog or Grandma Ruth’s red cabbage sauté. How about your own famous scalloped potatoes or a special-batch baklava you make every New Year’s Eve?
We want to know about your treasured holiday food tradition. Tell us about it in the comments section below by December 21 and we’ll pick a winner at random to receive a $50 Whole Foods Market® gift card.
To get in the spirit, we asked some Team Members to share their favorite food traditions.
From Mara:
"Our family is part Puerto Rican and we celebrate Christmas each year with paella. My mother-in-law spends the entire day cooking and makes her own sofrito as the base seasoning for the rice. While I love Christmas dinner, my favorite is leftover paella — it seems to even be more flavorful the next day."
From Anna:
"When invited out on Christmas I ALWAYS bring a huge green salad with lots of crispy fresh veggies with mandarin sections and dried cranberries. I use a light lime dressing. It is a tangy wonder that offsets all of the heavy food we love to eat this time of year."
From Jennifer:
"The children in our Chinese-American family insist on traditional holiday food – stuffing, ham, turkey, cranberry sauce, casseroles — the works! A few years back, one of my cousins who isn’t big on cooking ordered noodles from a Chinese restaurant as his contribution. Now our holiday meals aren't complete without some takeout Chinese noodles — it's the one dish at our table guaranteed not to have any leftovers."
From Elizabeth:
"For the past four years, my nephew and I have baked molasses cookies while listening to the Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack. The cookies have gotten tastier as he's gotten older, and now we know the songs by heart."
From Betsy:
"It's an unofficial Jewish tradition to go out for Chinese food on Christmas, so last Christmas Eve, my husband, in-laws and I decided to try a hole-in-the-wall Chinese barbecue joint. We enjoyed an amazing feast of Peking duck, hot and sour soup, fried rice, Chinese broccoli and all of the fixings. It was so good we now plan to ring in Christmas every year with Chinese barbecue."
From Allison:
"My husband’s family in Houston does tamales and chili every Christmas Eve. My mother-in-law makes the chili and the tamales come from our favorite Mexican restaurant down the street, and we open presents with plenty of hot sauce on the side."
What’s your favorite food tradition of the holiday season? Share it with us by December 21 for the chance to win a $50 Whole Foods Market gift card. We can’t wait to hear about your festive feasting traditions!
The fine print: No purchase necessary. Promotion ends December 21, 2011. Must be a legal resident of the US or Canada (except in Quebec, where it is void) age 18 or older to participate. Taxes on prize, if applicable, are the responsibility of the winner. Employees of Whole Foods Market, Inc., are not eligible. Void where prohibited.
1,104 Comments
Comments
My daughter comes to my house early christmas afternoon. I have a fire going and presents under the tree. And all we have is 'nibbles' . . . shrimp and cocktail sauce, fresh fruit, cheese and crackers, olives....easy and all ready so we can just sit, relax, talk and enjoy the fire, christmas carols, and time together.
12/14/2011 8:35:24 PM CST
Turkey with stuffing made of saltines. Thanksgiving, Christmas, it's all good. Stuffing is good any time.
12/14/2011 8:55:34 PM CST
The tradition in my grandmothers shortbread. This recipe is simple but very special. It has 3 ingredients you can buy from the store the rest of the ingredients come from the heart. This recipe was my grandmothers favorite and passed down to my mom who continues to make it every year ( my mom is 85). This shortbread melts in your mouth.
12/14/2011 8:56:16 PM CST
Every Christmas Eve since I was a little kid my family has had burritos and nachos with margaritas for the adults. I can't imagine a cold Christmas Eve mass without a comforting spicy meal beforehand!
12/14/2011 9:13:56 PM CST
In my opinion, stockings are the most exciting part of Christmas morning- but, even that didn't make me want to miss preparing breakfast with Dad. Although I helped in some way as long as long as I can remember, I was probably in my early teens when he taught me to make omelets one Christmas morning. He shared his secrets for flipping, explained the importance of cooking the vegetables prior to adding, and taught me how to crisp bacon perfectly. I lost my father a handful of years later, but the time we spent together in the kitchen will always be some of my best memories. Christmas morning isn't the only time I put his omelet training to use, but it's certainly the most important.
12/15/2011 3:35:21 AM CST
Every year since I can remember, my mother always made cranberry muffins, put birthday candles in them and then sang "Happy Birthday." It is probably funny to other people but it was always a tradition of ours. Then, my whole family (even my Jewish dad!) went to church.
12/15/2011 4:22:40 AM CST
Baking cookies with my siblings!
12/15/2011 5:20:21 AM CST
It isn't Christmas without my grandmother's roll-out cookies, my mom's kiffles (cookies) and my dad's chicken bar-b-q.
12/15/2011 5:22:13 AM CST
We make loaves of "Pumpkin Bread" and give then out to friends, neighbors and family every Christmas. It's us great joy to share these bountiful loaves of bread.
12/15/2011 5:33:34 AM CST
Every December I go to my Swedish lodge for the Julbord and indulge in Swedish meatballs with lingonberry sauce...my absolute favorite!
12/15/2011 5:47:06 AM CST
We make a cranberry tart share on Christmas morning, which we'vesuccessfully veganized. Christmas eve, we gather for dinner before church, and the tradition has been to make black-bean and sweet potato burritos!
12/15/2011 6:02:47 AM CST
old family recipes like: steamed sweet rice cake[chestnuts,dried jujubes,cinnamon,sesame oil,pine nuts] ,a kind of punch made w/dryed persimmons,...
12/15/2011 6:03:24 AM CST
My families favorite holiday tradition for the past 7 years has been to add more healthier items to our list. but we don't make it boring we make it exciting and tasty, a better word may be delicious. Before we started this tradition we would eat buffet style and everyone would just stuff ourselves with all the heavier foods and end the day saying " My I'm stuffed".
But we have changed that every year, we now sit down at the table restaraut style with an always delicious vegetable soup. The first year we started off with a scrumpious butternut squash soup with fresh herbs which really intensified the flavor, another years a fire roasted tomated soup with roasted garlic and onions pureed. It is part of the excitement being served an always new and delcious soup over family conversation. Being served such new dished always initiates the topic of other delicious foods we have eaten througout the year. Our family enjoys talking about good food!
Then after the soup, we do the same thing with the salad. Every year we serve a new and innovative salad (always something that compliments the main meal. This year at Thanksgiving we served a salad of butter lettuce with a light dressing of Fraiche mixed with fresh tarragon and toasted poppy seeds. It was delicious and a nice introduction to our main meal.
12/15/2011 6:09:50 AM CST
I make a cranberry sherbert which was my grandmother's recipe. I have the delicate crystal bowls that she used to serve them in.
12/15/2011 6:18:00 AM CST
My favorite food tradition is eating cookies and milk well into the night
12/15/2011 4:53:19 PM CST
Christmas Eve we have cheese fondue and invite anyone whom we encounter who does not seem to have plans. We have pears, apples, sausage, mushrooms, other veggies and all sorts of bread options. It is pure heaven, communal and easy. It doesn’t hurt that I married a man who had two fondue sets!
12/15/2011 5:09:46 PM CST
I love tamales- we make them as a family and its always a fun time together!
12/15/2011 6:53:03 PM CST
Mu favorite holiday traditions started when I was a child and we used to bake all kinds of German Christmas cookies. We baked for hours and they were so yummy. Now that we are in America and I spend Christmas with my husbands family we start cooking for Christmas dinner the night before making casseroles, dressing, cakes, and yummy side dishes. So different but what a wonderful tradition we know have and I hope to pass on to my son.
12/15/2011 6:52:34 PM CST
As a Jew, my favorite holiday tradition is the annual family Chrisnukkah party that we organize with our neighbors. So much fun!
12/15/2011 6:50:23 PM CST
Every year my grandmother makes a big batch of pecan candy. Now that I live far away, I make it myself. It is delicious, but I can only make it in December because it just feels wring any other time of the year!
12/15/2011 7:19:51 PM CST
Making Very Green Christmas Tree cookies...Started when my children were young.. one year someone put too much color in... Cookies made mouth green Became a favorite of youngsters after that... they are now grown with families of their own and every one continues to make them. Last year my daughter and 2 grandchildren came to visit and we make them together.
12/15/2011 7:14:19 PM CST
There are so many things I love about Christmas, and this time of year! I love that every year, our family that lives the closest get together and we have a meal and exchange presents.We always do what we call "White Elephant". Which is when we find items in our home that we can wrap up and give at Christmas. It's so much fun seeing what people will give!Last year, I thought it was so funny when my brother had placed a wee little bookmark in a HUGE box! My cousin was expecting something more. :)
12/15/2011 7:47:15 PM CST
My favorite tradition is drinking homemade hot apple cider with cinnamon sticks while opening gifts on Christmas day.
12/15/2011 7:59:16 PM CST
Our family always serves fresh and smoked polish kielbasa for breakfast and/or dinner. Breakfast includes scrambled eggs with all of the fixings. Dinner includes sauerkraut and sausage that has been heated in the crock pot on low for most of the day. Holidays are not the same if it should be missing!
12/16/2011 9:16:46 AM CST
When I first moved to so Fl, I met a wonderful Italian family. then I was introduced to my first traditional Christmas eve dinner. The Seven Fishes. Every year Mr C. prepared an entire meal around seafood. It was great. Now that he and his wife has passed on, it's only a memory.
I do my five fish in one dish now. Soup based on a San Fransico dish.
Merry Christmas
12/16/2011 11:07:46 AM CST