Christmas for most people these days has nothing to do with remembering the birth of Jesus (which by the way is important to me!), but is the biggest celebration of materialism and indulgence in the year. The idea of feasting may seem odd when the western world is largely blessed with plentiful food and drink but that obviously was not the case in the past.
It is easy to forget that widespread refridgeration is in historic terms fairly new. Before the middle of the twentieth century it was necessary to preserve food harvested in summer to survive the winter. Most families were familiar with using drying or preserving fruit, vegetables and fish with sugar, vinegar and salt. Christmas was the one feast in a fairly grim part of the year.
It is interesting to see common ingredients in a lot of winter and Christmas food across Europe. For example, dried fruit is used in Christmas pudding or mince pies in the UK and Christstollen in Germany. Cinnamon and cloves are used in Glühwein in German speaking countries and spekulaas in the Netherlands. Marzipan is used in British Christmas cake, wrapped in pastry in the Netherlands and covered in chocolate in Germany.
A few years ago around this time of year I compared notes on the main Christmas dishes with colleagues in my team. It was interesting that in the German-speaking and Nordic countries the big event was on the evening of the 24th while in France, Italy and the UK the 25th was the big family celebration. Nordic countries have buffets with smoked salmon, pickled hering and hams. In N. Italy and Saxony fish was the main Chirstmas dish. I understand that capon is not uncommon in France and Italy. Goose is traditional in a lot of Germany.
This all brings me back to the traditional British Christmas. If you speak to people these days you have the impression that a Christmas turkey has been a tradition for centuries. In fact many families seem so tradition-bound that they roast enormous turkeys blissfully ignoring the fact that they do not really like eating dry cold turkey for days after Christmas. Of course, the Christmas turkey is about as traditional in the UK as a quarter pounder or a deep-pan pizza.
I recall that in the 1960s you could order a frozen turkey from the milkman (milk was delivered to the doorstep in those days!). My parents got a form every Christmas to order extra milk, a Christmas bird, cream and some other goodies. But the bird on offer was not just turkey but you could get capon (haven't seen that for sale for years!) or chicken and presumably quite a few people did not just buy turkey. In the mid 1970s I recall a TV programme where they interviewed elderly men in a Dorset pub and asked what the main Christmas dish was in their childhood. Almost all said that the tradition was "goose if you could afford it" but most families had smaller budgets and would just get a bigger joint of meat than normal like beef or pork. So maybe the Christmas turkey "tradition" only goes back to between the wars.
Anyway I just wish people in the UK were less tradition-bound and just order what they will enjoy and can prepare simply.
Bah humbug!
