TRADITIONAL CHRISTMAS FOOD

Millions of people from virtually every country of the world celebrate the holiday season during the Winter Solstice, and this has been true even before Christmas as we now know it existed.

The celebration of the Christmas holiday in Great Britain is not unlike Western Christmas celebrations. People in Britain prepare for the Christmas holiday throughout the entire month of December, making puddings, baking pies, and decorating their homes and Christmas trees.

A traditional Christmas dinner in Great Britain takes place in the late afternoon or early evening. The table is festively decorated with candles and other Christmas items, and a great feast is placed before the family.Their traditional Christmas feast is very similar to that in the United States; the turkey is the most central part of the dinner, along with cranberry sauce, green beans, potatoes, stuffing, and numerous other food items. For dessert, traditionally families eat mince pies, fruit cake, or the famous Christmas pudding.

A traditional Christmas dinner includes roast turkey, brussels sprouts, roast potatoes, cranberry sauce, rich nutty stuffing, tiny sausages wrapped in bacon and lashings of hot gravy. For pudding (dessert) there's always a rich, fruity pudding which you douse in flaming brandy said to ward off evil spirits. Roast turkeyParsnips and Swede Brussels Sprouts and chestnuts Stuffing

A Turkey Tradition

A Christmas tradition involving the turkey is to pull its wishbone. This is one of the bones of the turkey which is shaped like the letter 'Y'. Two people will each hold an end and pull. The person left with the larger piece of the bone makes a wish.

The Christmas Pudding (dessert) Christmas pudding is a brown pudding with raisins, nuts and cherries. It is similar to fruitcake similar, except that pudding is steamed and fruitcake is baked.

Christmas pudding is served with custard or brandy sauce. Brandy is often poured over the pudding, which is then set a light as it is carried to the table. The lights are turned off so people can see the flames.

Traditionally silver coins were hidden in it. A silver coin brought good fortune to whomever was lucky enough to find it when the pudding was cut.

History of the Christmas Pudding The Christmas pudding known today began life as Christmas porridge called Frumenty, a dish made of wheat or corn boiled up in milk. As time went on, other ingredients, such as dried plums or prunes, eggs, and lumps of meat were added to make it more interesting. When cooked, it was poured into a dish. This pudding was called Plum Pudding. The name 'Plum Pudding' continued to be used even when people used raisins, currants, and sultanas instead of prunes.

The traditional time for making a Christmas pudding is on 'Stir Up Sunday ' at the beginning of advent. A proper Christmas pudding is always stirred from East to West in honour of the three Wise Men and traditionally made with 13 ingredients to represent Christ and His Disciples. Every member of the family must give the pudding a stir and make a secret wish.

Christmas Crackers Traditionally a Christmas cracker is placed next to each plate on the Christmas dinner table. When the crackers are pulled, out falls a colourful party crown, a toy or gift and a festive joke.

Did you know? Henry VIII was the first person to eat turkey on Christmas Day.Around 10 million turkeys are consumed in the UK each year.For 87% of people in the UK, Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without a traditional roast turkey

DID YOU KNOW?One notable medieval English Christmas celebration featured a giant, 165-pound pie. The giant pie was nine feet in diameter. Its ingredients included 2 bushels of flour, 20 pounds of butter, 4 geese, 2 rabbits, 4 wild ducks, 2 woodcocks, 6 snipes, 4 partridges, 2 neats' tongues, 2 curlews, 6 pigeons and 7 blackbirds.