What do you eat during the holidays?
Around the world, we associate different and diverse dishes with special occasions and celebrations like Christmas. Today, I want to explore some of these dishes!
I’ll talk about Christmas food in the UK (where I’m from) and Japan (where I live). I also asked the wonderful Thinking in English Patreon community to tell me the Christmas and holiday foods most popular where they are from.
I couldn’t have made this episode without my wonderful patrons and their responses. If you are interested in becoming a patron, joining the community, and supporting Thinking in English, I’m currently running a Christmas sale on all membership tiers!
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Vocabulary
- Celebration (Noun): A special event or activity to mark an important occasion or achievement.
- Christmas is a celebration enjoyed in different ways around the world.
- Secular (Adjective): Not connected to religious or spiritual matters.
- In Japan, Christmas is celebrated as a secular holiday.
- Stereotypical (Adjective): Representing an oversimplified and widely held image or idea about a particular person, thing, or event.
- Eating fried chicken from KFC is the stereotypical Christmas meal in Japan.
- Centrepiece (Noun): The most important or central part of something.
- The roast turkey is the centrepiece of a traditional British Christmas dinner.
- Commercialisation (Noun): The process of managing or exploiting something in a way designed to make a profit.
- The commercialisation of Christmas has turned it into a big shopping event.
- Tradition (Noun): A long-established custom or belief passed down from generation to generation.
- The tradition of eating goose at Christmas in the UK was replaced by turkey in modern times.
Merry Christmas
Merry Christmas and happy holidays!
Christmas has always been one of my favourite times of the year. I enjoy seeing my family, spending time relaxing, meeting up with old friends at the pub, and (perhaps most importantly) eating a lot of delicious food.
While holiday foods vary around the world, I think we all have special dishes we associate with celebrations. Even though many of you listening won’t celebrate Christmas, you will definitely have other religious or cultural holidays during which you eat amazing food.
I have been fortunate enough to live in a few different countries and make friends with people from around the world over the past decade. I have realised how different and diverse the foods we associate with Christmas and holidays are across the globe.
Today I want to talk about Christmas dinner.
I’ll start by talking about Christmas food in the two countries I know best – the UK (where I’m from) and Japan (where I live and where my wife is from).
Then, I asked the members of the Thinking in English Patreon for some of the dishes that they associate with Christmas in their countries and cultures!
I’ll end by asking all of you listening to leave a comment and tell me what you will be eating for Christmas dinner this year!
Christmas Dinner in the UK
I’m British and I LOVE Christmas food in the UK. It is probably my favourite time of the entire due to the great food my family cooks and prepares between Christmas day and New Year’s Day.
This year I will be travelling back to the UK for the Christmas period, and I am really looking forward to sitting down for Christmas dinner with my family.
What will be on our table?
The centrepiece, the main dish, of a British Christmas dinner is usually a roast turkey.
This wasn’t always the case; historically, goose was the traditional choice, but turkey is now undoubtedly the most popular meat for Christmas.
The turkey is often stuffed with sage and onion or chestnut stuffing and roasted until golden brown. It’s served alongside a gravy made from turkey drippings (the fat and juices that come out of the Turkey while roasting) and sometimes cranberry sauce.
Turkeys are big birds. A whole turkey can produce enough meat to feed a lot of people. While this is ok for people with big families (or people who really love eating turkey), many British families will choose to buy a section of a turkey instead of the whole bird.
While turkey is great, I actually look forward to the side dishes most. My mum’s roast potatoes, for example, are one of the foods I miss the most living in Japan.
While in North America, mashed potatoes are the traditional side dish to turkey, British people love roast potatoes. They are crisp and golden on the outside, fluffy on the inside, and often cooked in goose or duck fat for extra flavour.
I also love pigs in blankets. Can you guess what a pig in blanket is from the name?
They are small sausages wrapped in bacon and are always one of the most popular parts of the Christmas meal.
We also serve our meal with stuffing. Again, British stuffing tends to be a little different to the “stuffing” used in North American turkey dishes. It tends to be made with the herb sage and onions, as well as sausage meat and breadcrumbs.
The name “stuffing” suggests that it is cooked inside the bird (stuffed inside the bird), but as stuffing is a really popular part of the Christmas meal, most families will cook extra stuffing on the side.
Of course, there are also a lot of roasted or steamed vegetables on our plates. Common vegetables include carrots, parsnips, cabbage, roasted onions, and brussels sprouts (which tend to be the past of the meal most disliked by children).
Last but not least are the sauces.
As I have already mentioned, we usually serve turkey with gravy (and sometimes cranberry sauce), but my favourite thing is the bread sauce. Bread sauce is a creamy, savoury sauce made with milk, breadcrumbs, cloves, and onion
For dessert, the most stereotypical Christmas dish is the Christmas pudding. Christmas pudding is dense, steamed dessert is made with dried fruits, suet, and spices, often soaked in brandy before Christmas. Traditionally, a coin or charm is hidden inside for good luck.
Some families serve trifles – a trifle is a layered dessert of sponge cake, jelly, custard, and cream. My grandfather always loves to make a trifle for special occasions.
We will also be eating mince pies around the Christmas holidays. A mince pie is a small pastry filled with spiced fruit.
While there are other dishes, snacks, and foods we enjoy around the Christmas season, I think I have described the stereotypical Christmas meal in the UK!
How about in other countries?
Christmas Dinner in Japan
The other country I can confidently talk about when it comes to Christmas foods is Japan. I have now lived in Japan for about 5 of the past 8 years and have a Japanese wife, so I’ve learned quite a bit about Christmas here!
In Japan, Christmas isn’t a traditional or religious holiday as it is in many Western countries. Instead, it is a secular celebration. Unlike the family-centred meals in places like the UK or the US, Christmas in Japan is more about fun and romance. It is often seen as a “couples” holiday.
While Christmas isn’t really celebrated as a holiday in Japan, it is a big theme here. I’m writing this episode in a Starbucks in early December – the staff are dressed in special Christmas shirts and the menu has 7 different Christmas themed drinks. Earlier this morning, I went to the gym which has been decorated with Christmas trees and they are currently running a Christmas sale.
Christmas has become a very commercial celebration in Japan. This commercialisation of Christmas is present in the popular Christmas foods!
In Japan, fried chicken from KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) is the stereotypical Christmas meal. I spent Christmas in Tokyo in 2021, and on Christmas day I walked past a KFC and witnessed the longest line I have ever seen for a KFC.
The tradition dates back to the 1970s, when KFC launched a highly successful marketing campaign. Christmas was not celebrated in Japan at the time, so KFC was able to convince millions of Japanese people that fried chicken was the perfect festive meal for families.
Families usually order buckets of KFC weeks in advance (I saw a sign outside my local KFC in early November announcing the start of their Christmas promotions). This is to avoid waiting in line on the day.
While KFC is the most stereotypical meal, other companies also sell friend chicken for Christmas.
The other typical Christmas food in Japan is Christmas cake. As a European who is used to fruit cakes at Christmas, I was very surprised at Japanese Christmas cake.
In Japan, Christmas cake is a light and airy sponge cake, typically layered with whipped cream and topped with fresh strawberries.
Thinking in English Patron Responses!
I’ve talked about the two places I know the best (the UK and Japan), but what about other countries and cultures?
Christmas is celebrated all over the world, but the way people enjoy the holiday differs dramatically depending on where you are.
I put out a request to the wonderful Thinking in English Patreon community for their typical Christmas dishes (I’m currently running a 15% Christmas sale if you are interested in joining the community – link in the description).
Now I want to share some of their responses!
First, a Portuguese member told me that Christmas dinner in Portugal often features codfish. It might be served with potatoes and cabbage, or it could be made into fritters. In some regions of Portugal, octopus is also a popular Christmas dish.
The main Christmas meal in Poland is typically held on Christmas eve. Some of the Polish Patreon subscribers mentioned that a dish always present at Polish Christmases is red borscht – a beetroot soup – that is served with small dumplings. They also mentioned that Polish people tend to avoid meat of Christmas eve (which I believe is similar to other Catholic countries).
One of the subscribers from the Czech Republic revealed that Christmas dinner often features carp and potato salad. They also mentioned that traditionally some Czech families would be a live carp and keep it in their bathtub for a few days before Christmas.
My German Patreon members told me that the Christmas meal varies around the country, with potato salad and sausages often served on Christmas eve.
In Russia, it is New Year’s Eve that is the main celebration in December. Thinking in English’s Russian listeners let me know that salads like Olivier salad (boiled vegetables, pickles, and mayonnaise) and dressed herring (a salad of beetroot, herring, and potatoes) are very popular.
I received the most responses from Brazilian Patreon members who gave me a long list of Christmas dishes. The included roast turkey served with toasted cassava flour; churrasco (barbecued meats); sweet desserts like rabanada (similar to French toast I believe); and then tropical fruits and cold salads.
And finally, a Mexican subscriber sent me a message telling me that Mexican food is very diverse at Christmas. They said they enjoy tamales (corn dough stuffed with meat, cheese, and vegetables and steamed), mole (a rich sauce made with chili), and ponche (a hot fruit punch).
What is fascinating about these responses is how they demonstrate the diversity of Christmas dishes around the world. While things like roast meats tend to be popular in many countries, some dishes like tamales in Mexico or borscht in Eastern Europe are more regional specific.
Final Thought
Hearing about all these delicious and diverse Christmas foods has made me hungry. I hope that one day I will be able to enjoy some of these dishes.
I also believe that food isn’t just something we eat – it’s a way of sharing love, traditions, and connecting with others.
What about you? What do you eat for Christmas?
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