Holidays food traditions?

Living in New Mexico, for Christmas Eve we do an "open house" where friends, neighbors, family, etc stop by and say hi...some stay longer and others just pop in and out. We always have good homemade red chile posole to serve up as well as tamales, tortillas, etc...and lots of wine. We learned this local tradition when we moved here and it stuck...when I was a kid, we did similar at my grandparents house but the food was different being in Northern Colorado and they being German. We'll be traveling to the East Coast this year though.

For Christmas day, I usually do a rib roast. If we're having Christmas at my mother and father in law who are British, we have a Turkey. Going East this year to visit my sister and brother in law and the niece and nephew...he usually does a rib roast as well.



Easter means we're on Spring Break so we're often not home to celebrate, but if we are we usually go to my mom's for ham and then go fly kites in the park weather permitting.

We have the standard "American Thanksgiving." Turkey, mashed potatoes, candied yams, green bean casserole, corn, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie.

My birthday is Christmas Eve so my parents usually made an effort when I was a kid to distance it from Christmas and let me have whatever I wanted. I usually picked brunch and we would just have a light dinner.

My mom always did turkey when I was little for Christmas Day with mashed potatoes, stuffing, a salad, some simply cooked vegetables, and pumpkin pie, but we have a small family and have never been elaborate with our holiday dinners, so that's about it.

I don't do much for Christmas Eve or Christmas Day anymore. My parents generally go on holiday for Christmas and sometimes my husband and I do too. If we're home, we'll have dinner with his father, stepmother, sister, and grandmother, but they also do things pretty simply. No casseroles or variety of desserts or anything like that, just a normal-sized meal except for with a small turkey.

I do cook a traditional Thanksgiving dinner most years, though, for my parents, husband, and mother- and sister-in-law.

I guess we're boring, but we're just not big celebrators, especially with food...unless you count the Baileys and coffee I pretty much mainline on my birthday while I sit on the couch with a book. That's my one concession to holiday indulgence because I can't really justify it any other time of year.

In our family we have Chinese food and watch The Christmas story just with our kids on Christmas eve. Then we have the whole family over for brunch on Christmas morning that usually has a large ham, quiche, roasted potatoes,fruit salad and a bunch of pastry type items on Christmas morning.

Here in Australia ...

Halloween ... minimal and easily ignorable.


Thanksgiving ... doesn't exist.


Christmas ... I like to have a bit of Halva (that's a tradition handed down by my great grandfather), and possibly a variety of small chocolates, and the occasional mince tart in the days surrounding Christmas. Nothing overboard, just a little. We've already started on the mince tarts.

In Canada ... lots of mandarin oranges. Here in Australia ... lots of cherries and mangoes, especially, but other fruit as well.

Then there is one big meal, and the day it has been on depends on what else is happening with the family, but usually Christmas Day, with the option of having something on Christmas Eve or Boxing Day.

In Canada it was always turkey, and is most of the time here too, but here there's a chance that seafood might make an appearance. But it is usually the turkey, salads, potatoes and several other veg. Desert will be things like Christmas pudding and/or pavlova and/or mince tarts. In Canada there were sometimes things like date squares and mint Nanaimo bars, but those aren't popular here.

Then there might be turkey sandwiches and other leftovers the next day or two or three.

And there are usually bicycle rides and splashing at the beach.


New Years Eve ... nothing special. Restaurants are usually booked out and also raise their prices so there's no point trying to go out. But the Christmas pudding may have gone on special after Christmas, so we might have some of that.

I like to get a bicycle ride in on New Years Eve and then again on New Year's Day. Good way to end and start the years. And fireworks, of course. And if New Year's Day is hot ... the beach.


Australia Day - Jan 26 ... lots of people have BBQs and things, or maybe make a long weekend of it and go away. And again, bicycle rides and beaches.

Same with the Royal Hobart Regatta Day - Feb 8, Labour Day - March 14, and Anzac Day - April 25.


Easter ... usually quite a long weekend (5 days), so we usually go away. Nothing particularly special is eaten, except maybe 1 or 2 Cadbury Easter Eggs.

Francl27 wrote: »

Machka9 wrote: »

Here in Australia ...

Halloween ... minimal and easily ignorable.


Thanksgiving ... doesn't exist.


Christmas ... I like to have a bit of Halva (that's a tradition handed down by my great grandfather), and possibly a variety of small chocolates, and the occasional mince tart in the days surrounding Christmas. Nothing overboard, just a little. We've already started on the mince tarts.

In Canada ... lots of mandarin oranges. Here in Australia ... lots of cherries and mangoes, especially, but other fruit as well.

Then there is one big meal, and the day it has been on depends on what else is happening with the family, but usually Christmas Day, with the option of having something on Christmas Eve or Boxing Day.

In Canada it was always turkey, and is most of the time here too, but here there's a chance that seafood might make an appearance. But it is usually the turkey, salads, potatoes and several other veg. Desert will be things like Christmas pudding and/or pavlova and/or mince tarts. In Canada there were sometimes things like date squares and mint Nanaimo bars, but those aren't popular here.

Then there might be turkey sandwiches and other leftovers the next day or two or three.

And there are usually bicycle rides and splashing at the beach.


New Years Eve ... nothing special. Restaurants are usually booked out and also raise their prices so there's no point trying to go out. But the Christmas pudding may have gone on special after Christmas, so we might have some of that.

I like to get a bicycle ride in on New Years Eve and then again on New Year's Day. Good way to end and start the years. And fireworks, of course. And if New Year's Day is hot ... the beach.


Australia Day - Jan 26 ... lots of people have BBQs and things, or maybe make a long weekend of it and go away. And again, bicycle rides and beaches.

Same with the Royal Hobart Regatta Day - Feb 8, Labour Day - March 14, and Anzac Day - April 25.


Easter ... usually quite a long weekend (5 days), so we usually go away. Nothing particularly special is eaten, except maybe 1 or 2 Cadbury Easter Eggs.

Man I can't imagine the Holidays in Summer! Must be nice.

It's different.

I moved here in 2009 from the middle of Canada where December was almost guaranteed to have several feet of snow and bitterly cold temps, and I have spent one Christmas back in Canada since then.

Summer Christmases, to me, feel like they're missing something ... little things, I suppose, like not turning on the Christmas lights until about 9:00 pm, because it is too light out till then. Or snowmen. Or the fact that my Christmassy clothes are all warm, way too heavy to wear here at Christmas.

On the other hand, it is kind of nice having the community Carols by Candlelight event in a local park ... sitting on the grass having a picnic in the warmth. And it's great going to the beach on my days off.

thanksgiving is traditional
christmas varies but there are always lots of homemade cookies
new years we don't do anything for
easter is ham and rolls with some sort of dessert, potato salad and coleslaw
fourth of july is hot dogs and brats on the grill with potato salad and coleslaw and dessert

I am in the UK and spend Christmas with the extended family. Nothing special Christmas eve apart from a couple of drinks maybe while lying exhausted thinking about whether we have forgotten anything.

Christmas day is roast turkey (or goose if I got my way, which I don't) with garlic roast potatoes and more veg than we eat in the rest of the year! Followed by Christmas Pudding. In the evening maybe a few snacks with cheese included.

Boxing day tends to be a buffet of ham, turkey, breads, cheeses and lots of pickles etc

New Years Eve, too much to drink but a normal food day

New Years Day, roast beef or that goose I didn't get at Christmas

All of the above tends to include too much wine as well

For the longest time (up until about 5 years ago) we used to go to Jack in the Box for Christmas Eve dinner after Christmas Eve mass. Haha. It was our family tradition, mostly because my parents didn't want to dirty the kitchen. My mother recently decided to start honoring our German roots so we started having a German meal of Saurbraten, Spetzel, salad of some sort, and Apple Cake Christmas dinner is essentially a pot luck where everyone is responsible for an item, and the host provides the ham. Always ham on Christmas. Always.

Halloween is a gathering of friends, everyone brings trick or treat items and I provide random foods, typically they look a little gorey as it is a spooky time.

Thanksgiving is one of my favorites but a horrible time to travel in our area so we either stay home and I cook up a feast, turkey, squash, potatoes, green bean casserole, stuffing, cranberry sauce, corn, carrots, gravy, rolls, chocolate pie and pumpkin mousse or we'll gather at a friends and everyone brings side dishes and the hosts cook the turkey. I still cook our own meal when we do this because well the leftovers are just amazing. TV is on for the Macy's Thanksgiving day parade then football.

Christmas my hubby needs his cinnamon rolls as was family tradition for them. I'm an early riser so I get my quiet morning coffee then bake his cinnamon rolls which always wakes him then we do gifts, maybe a holiday movie and I make a full late morning breakfast like I had as a kid. Dinner is usually again with friends as travel to see family is crazy, cranberry based sangrias, roast beast (beef) and lots of random sides.

New Years eve we stay home, no TV just music, wine and conversation. We usually pick random appetizers and keep the mood light. New Years day is "meat pie" which you cannot purchase where we live now so I have had to learn to make from scratch and bread and butter pickles.

Easter is usually a ham dinner either baked or boiled (depends on the weather) and usually spent with friends.

The summer holidays we tend to travel so the food could be anywhere from sandwiches to lobster, just depends where we are.

All the holidays I run a 5k in the morning before the craziness starts, only difference is on Christmas I run between the cinnamon rolls and making the big breakfast.I do this simply because I can and I take a few minutes during my run to be grateful to those that keep our country safe, who may wish for the ability to run again.