Traditional Christmas Meal

[Dr. Shane]

In the United States the traditional Christmas meal is a goose. In Mexico it is tamales. What is traditional with your family.

[rudywoofs (Pam)]

Turkey with dressing, cranberries, candied yams, pumpkin pie. There's always extra things too. Pretty much the same thing as for Thanksgiving.

Although this year we will be having the Holiday Dinner Roast (blah) since my brother and his family will be here and they're vegetarians.

[phkrause]

I googled that and I get Turkey or Ham as being the traditional American Dinner for Christmas. I can remember most of our non-Jewish and non-Adventist friends either had Ham or Turkey, not one had a goose. As a matter of fact I don't remember anybody eating goose! Of course my favorite would be Brisket of Beef for New Year's. But most of our non-Jewish/adventist friends would have a ham for New Year's.

pk

[rudywoofs (Pam)]

My mom told me that during the depression her family would have goose for Christmas (and other times during the year) because they raised their own geese. She said goose tends to be on the greasy side.

[Woody]

The traditional meal is Turkey and Pecan Pie.

[Dr. Shane]

The Christmas goose tradition goes way back a couple hundred years. It came from Europe and continued into the 20th century. The traditional food on Christmas was to eat a large fowl. The upper class would eat a turkey or peacock. The lower classes ate goose. I learned this when I worked in restaurants during college. Times have changed such that throughout much of the 20th century turkey has been more common on Christmas among the middle and lower classes while the upper class are much more likely to have a Christmas goose cooked by a gourmet chef.

In our home, we eat Central American tamales, which are made with banana leaves. My wife makes the best.

[Liz]

Growing up we always had turkey, like a second Thanksgiving. After I married our tradition has always been a brisket.

[zeta1]

Shane, I never heard of goose being the traditional christmas entree. I've lived in numerous places in the US..its always been turkey. A goose has too much fat.

[Guest]

I've never eaten a goose in my life.

[GreatLakesGramma]

When my side of the family gets together, they still always have both turkey and ham loaf for dinner, along with mashed potatoes, squash or mashed sweet potatoes, peas or green beans, biscuits and gravy, orange jello with grated carrots and pineapple chunks, with pumpkin pie and cherry cake with cherry sauce for dessert. Thanksgiving is pretty much the same except for the ham loaf.

My husband and I have always stayed home with our kids on Christmas day, and gotten together with our respective families on other days during the season. While the kids were young, we always had Worthington turkey roll, hash brown patties, onion rings, steamed broccoli, olives, and pie. The menu has been modified in recent years, since I don't buy soy-based veggie meats anymore.

We have never eaten at home on Thanksgiving day though, unless we were hosting one side or the other. We always get together with both families for both holidays. And because our sons' birthday is on November 28 and our oldest granddaughter's is December 5, we had a lot of family events in a very short time. I finally put my foot down and refused to add church and work events to our holiday schedule.

[Dr. Shane]

Shane, I never heard of goose being the traditional Christmas entree. I've lived in numerous places in the US..its always been turkey. A goose has too much fat.

Well I am glad I could teach a few folks something they didn't know before. I am wondering if wild goose has a lot less fat than farmed goose. I know that is the case with ducks. I use to hunt ducks when I was younger and the wild ducks were very dry because they were so lean but the farmed ducks were pretty good. If one googles "Christmas goose" they will find all kinds of recipes. Of course, "too much fat" is almost like "too much fun" for many folks. Many think fat means taste so the fattier a meat is the tastier it is. I have to admit that before becoming vegetarian, my favorite meat was beef ribs and I think they are more fat than anything else.

[Amelia]

Christmas was pot luck. Christmas eve was spaghetti. No we are not Italian. We just didn't have alot of money and after doing up Thanksgiving big, Christmas got thrifty. We always had a houseful of relatives Christmas eve and spaghetti stretched alot. :)

[GreatLakesGramma]

We always had pheasant at Thanksgiving and Christmas meals with my mother's family, because they were a family of hunters. It was drier than turkey or chicken. I'm sure it would be the same with goose. Domestic geese are a lot more hefty than wild ones.

[Dr. Shane]

I have never actually eaten goose myself. I have eaten pheasant and duck - both wild. I worked as a cook in college for a buffet restaurant that also did catering. Before working there the only Christmas goose I had heard of was from Charles Dickens' Christmas Carol. It wasn't on our buffet menu but was an option for Christmas catering. Now my neighbor, where I now live, raises geese but if he eats one at Christmas it will be in tamales.