Growing up, we always spent Christmas Eve at my grandparents for a traditional Ukrainian dinner. My grandmother had an entrée or dish to represent every figure in the major scene. There was always some hay sprinkled underneath the tablecloth to represent the crib for baby Jesus. Some of the foods we hated as kids was pickled herring, honey barley soup, and codfish among other dishes. When I grew up and got married, I carried on this tradition by doing finger foods or appetizers for Christmas Eve along with cookies cakes and breads. I of course did Russian tea cakes, some Italian cookies, and of course chocolate chip and peanut butter cookies. Cookies such as orange drop cookies and jam thumbprint cookies were my favorite but my son‘s referred to them as adult cookies and moaned every time I made them. For appetizers, I would make dips and hot spreads as well as nachos and asparagus roll ups and cheese balls etc. Since we lived in a different city every three or four years, I would invite anyone I had met who did not have family around them at Christmas time to join us on Christmas Eve. I started baking one week before Thanksgiving and made two different kinds of cookies every week until Christmas week. I would freeze them. I always found Christmas Eve to be more special than Christmas Day. I think it’s because of the early days of going to my grandparents on Christmas Eve and having dinner with them and cousins from that side of the family that I saw very rarely. I guess this is too much information lol. Merry Christmas everyone
This is exactly the right amount of information! I inhaled it like I was eating a Russian teacake. Thank you so much for sharing!
Christmas Eve is the big day here in the Czech Republic. Families have their big dinner — fried carp, schnitzel, potato salad, cookies — and before the kids go to bed, Christmas presents and the tree (which has been hidden) magically appear.
When I was growing, my mom started making Christmas cookies just after Thanksgiving. I can still see the tins lining the stairway to our basement (to keep them cool). My dad and I would make fruitcake together so it could age properly by Christmas/New Year's, and we always had a homemade cheeseball (still the best recipe) and potted shrimp (which I thnk is just shrimp pureed with a bunch of butter and garlic) to spread on Triscuits.
My grandmother and my mother side of the families from Prague. She was a baker. One of my cousins is over there right now visiting family. And really wanting some nut roll or poppyseed roll bread. Would give anything to have that from my grandmother along with her pierogies.
This was a wonderful recap of your traditions. I had never heard of the tradition of cooking dishes to represent the figures in the manger. And now I wanna go find a recipe for orange drop cookies.
The best orange drop cookie has buttermilk in them. It’s funny because my son‘s wife and my grandson’s love those orange drop cookies. They are very soft because of the buttermilk and moist and they are topped with an orange glaze icing. So good.
Forty six years ago my dad heard a tuba quartet playing Christmas carols on a corner in downtown San Francisco. He found out that they were playing at Perry's bar on Christmas Eve - so this good Jewish family went to lunch at Perry's on Union Street. Except for pandemic years we've been going ever since - 10-18 people depending on who's home. It was our daughter's first trip out as a new born. The tuba quartet split up some thirty years ago but we always raise a glass to them. This year we'll be going without dad hoping he's found a tuba quartet in a better place. Also - we are a Muppets Christmas Carol family. Thanks for all you guys are - you make me a more interesting human. ❤️
This is more of a New Years Eve tradition. Each person chooses a meal they want from a restaurant and my husband drives around town picking up all the orders. We lay it all out on the dining room table and chow down. Last year there was Indian, Chinese & pizza.
In honor of my husband's growing-up tradition, my family orders Chinese food & watches 'A Christmas Story' on Christmas Eve. There is also an abundance of cookies - selecting, baking, eating, giving, receiving, exchanging -- YUM!
My favorite tradition is all about movies. White Christmas gets multiple viewings. Also Scrooged, Love Actually and Miracle on 34th Street (the original with Maureen O’Hara and Natalie Wood), Home Alone, and A Christmas Story. Others that take place during Christmas are The Apartment, Desk Set and the ever controversial Die Hard. I’ve watched them so many times I can recite the dialogue.
We watched Desk Set for the first time maybe two years ago, and I loved it. The costumes! The office party vibes. So cute! I also LOVE Scrooged, especially the scene from Christmas past when they exchange gifts on Christmas Eve. It's so sweet.
My mom always made sugar cookies for us to decorate when I was growing up, but soon after I got married I had the idea to make gingerbread cookies also. I discovered that I LOVE gingerbread cookies so much more. I make 2-3 batches in December because we give them out and I have two each morning with my latte while I read. My family had to switch to GF and lactose free, but thankfully I found an excellent gingerbread recipe from Danielle Walker in her Celebrations cookbook.
Dave and Mel, I love the idea of having a meeting to get ready for the holidays - We have some set traditions, like watching Terry Pratchett's Hogfather on Christmas Eve and eating pork pies and sherry. I always make a bunch of cookies (Neapolitans and candied ginger shortbread are favourites) and board games happen whenever the kids make it home for the holidays. Gifts are not the most important thing - food takes the spotlight as we will have a big turkey dinner one day and Eastern European vareniki another day.
My parents have a mini tree that they got a ornament for each year since they got married. My Mom will sit with the bag of ornaments and pass them out to who will put each one up - I get the one from the year she became a Mom ('91), my sister will put up one the year we got our Christmas puppy. It's been neat that as we've added new partners to our family, we already have ornaments that have become theirs to put up - we happen to have 90's ornaments of their favorite animal, and for my sister-in-law we have her favorite animal from the year she was born!
We do a version of Jolabokaflod that started when our kids were fairly young. We’d pick names out of a hat and then all go to the bookstore where we each took turns buying for whoever we got. Because the kids were young, we would each write a short list of ideas that might be specific titles or just genres. After buying the books we would take them home and hide them until Christmas Eve when we would exchange books and then spend the rest of the night reading and eating cookies.
TINSEL! (When we can get it!) ANY KIND OF CHRISTMAS COOKIE! LISTEN TO A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS!!! WATCH THE GRINCH! WATCH HOME ALONE!! WATCH THE SOUND OF MUSIC!!! LOTS OF LIGHTS!!!
Listening to “John Denver & The Muppets: A Christmas Together” has been a tradition since the TV special aired in 1979. You can’t get the video anywhere now. But between my parents and me, we have the vinyl, cassettes, CDs, and sheet music (which my dad plays on the piano most years). On one lyric, my dad always changed it to be my name when he sang. I felt VERY special. Every time music media changed, we got an updated copy.
You’ve probably heard the Muppets 12 Days of Christmas which is the only song that plays on the radio. But that’s the tip of the iceberg! There are so many great songs - and I will sing every note.
My husband's family is of Polish decent and his grandma always made dozens of poticas to give to friends and family for the holidays. She's in her nineties now and can't do it on her own, but all the women in the family and all the great grandkids go over the weekend before Christmas to make a bunch. I didn't grow up with much for holiday traditions so that has been such a meaningful thing for me to have been accepted into.
For those that don't know, potica is a sweet bread rolled and filled with cinnamon sugar, butter, and ground walnuts. Somewhere between cinnamon roll and babka and just so amazingly delicious. We will usually eat it all week, toasted in a pan with more butter.
Also, White Christmas, Muppet Christmas Carol, and Love Actually are my non-negotiable I'm watching these every year movies.
The image of all the women in the family gathering to make the poticas made me a little choked up. That is so awesome. And a slice of potica pan-toasted in butter? Yes, please.
When my two (adult) children and I all lived in NYC, we would wander around on 5th Avenue and critique the Christmas windows in the retail stores. Bloomingdale's was always the most interesting, always fantastical with a window or two of more traditional decorations. This year we'll all be there again so I'm hoping Bloomingdale's windows don't disappoint.
We usually made candies rather than cookies when I was growing up. The one that has lasted is almond roca. Even the people who don't usually eat sweets love the home-made almond roca.
The Grinch Who Stole Christmas is always a favorite and one of these years I will actually learn the words of the Whoville carol.
For now, I'm looking forward to reading through all these great traditions. Thanks all for sharing!
I love Tree Day. We go in the morning to cut down our tree, playing Christmas music along the way (although not always reverent- Lady Gaga's Christmas Tree song makes the mix.) Each of the (now grown) kids gets a new ornament that somehow represents their past year, and we decorate. Food of course is always involved- a big breakfast spread, or tree-shaped pasta....I love this day. All the days leading up to Christmas are more enjoyable than the holiday itself, I find.
This sounds so lovely! The ornament tradition is such a good one! When I was growing up, my parents got us a new ornament every year, and it was the one present we could open on Christmas Eve.
Two favorite traditions: Cookie Baking Day with two of my daughters and four of my granddaughters. We make six kinds of cookies, four of them being recipes from my paternal Swedish grandmother. On Christmas Eve we go to the worship service at church, then home for a traditional Swedish supper with Swedish meatballs, Poor Man's Rice, bondost cheese, rye crisp, limpa bread, and glogg.. The cookies we baked are the dessert.
It is rice, milk, sugar and butter cooked for a couple of hours in the oven, stirring frequently. My grandmother said it was called Poor Man’s Rice because it was like rice pudding but had no eggs. The poor could not afford the eggs. Funny story: In my Spanish class I was telling the students about our Swedish Supper menu, and one of my students asked, “Mrs. Poore, did you invent Poor Man’s Rice?”
Growing up, we always spent Christmas Eve at my grandparents for a traditional Ukrainian dinner. My grandmother had an entrée or dish to represent every figure in the major scene. There was always some hay sprinkled underneath the tablecloth to represent the crib for baby Jesus. Some of the foods we hated as kids was pickled herring, honey barley soup, and codfish among other dishes. When I grew up and got married, I carried on this tradition by doing finger foods or appetizers for Christmas Eve along with cookies cakes and breads. I of course did Russian tea cakes, some Italian cookies, and of course chocolate chip and peanut butter cookies. Cookies such as orange drop cookies and jam thumbprint cookies were my favorite but my son‘s referred to them as adult cookies and moaned every time I made them. For appetizers, I would make dips and hot spreads as well as nachos and asparagus roll ups and cheese balls etc. Since we lived in a different city every three or four years, I would invite anyone I had met who did not have family around them at Christmas time to join us on Christmas Eve. I started baking one week before Thanksgiving and made two different kinds of cookies every week until Christmas week. I would freeze them. I always found Christmas Eve to be more special than Christmas Day. I think it’s because of the early days of going to my grandparents on Christmas Eve and having dinner with them and cousins from that side of the family that I saw very rarely. I guess this is too much information lol. Merry Christmas everyone
This is exactly the right amount of information! I inhaled it like I was eating a Russian teacake. Thank you so much for sharing!
Christmas Eve is the big day here in the Czech Republic. Families have their big dinner — fried carp, schnitzel, potato salad, cookies — and before the kids go to bed, Christmas presents and the tree (which has been hidden) magically appear.
When I was growing, my mom started making Christmas cookies just after Thanksgiving. I can still see the tins lining the stairway to our basement (to keep them cool). My dad and I would make fruitcake together so it could age properly by Christmas/New Year's, and we always had a homemade cheeseball (still the best recipe) and potted shrimp (which I thnk is just shrimp pureed with a bunch of butter and garlic) to spread on Triscuits.
My grandmother and my mother side of the families from Prague. She was a baker. One of my cousins is over there right now visiting family. And really wanting some nut roll or poppyseed roll bread. Would give anything to have that from my grandmother along with her pierogies.
Aw, I love this. I always wish I could have my great-grandmother's pita bread... I get it.
This was a wonderful recap of your traditions. I had never heard of the tradition of cooking dishes to represent the figures in the manger. And now I wanna go find a recipe for orange drop cookies.
The best orange drop cookie has buttermilk in them. It’s funny because my son‘s wife and my grandson’s love those orange drop cookies. They are very soft because of the buttermilk and moist and they are topped with an orange glaze icing. So good.
Living in Vermont, we always watch White Christmas every year!
I LOVED the snow when we lived in Vermont. Fingers crossed that Prague gets a dusting sometime this winter.
snow . . . Snow . . . SNOW!
Forty six years ago my dad heard a tuba quartet playing Christmas carols on a corner in downtown San Francisco. He found out that they were playing at Perry's bar on Christmas Eve - so this good Jewish family went to lunch at Perry's on Union Street. Except for pandemic years we've been going ever since - 10-18 people depending on who's home. It was our daughter's first trip out as a new born. The tuba quartet split up some thirty years ago but we always raise a glass to them. This year we'll be going without dad hoping he's found a tuba quartet in a better place. Also - we are a Muppets Christmas Carol family. Thanks for all you guys are - you make me a more interesting human. ❤️
This story! I love it so much! What a fantastic tradition. And Perry's looks like such a fun place. Love the traditional vibe.
This is more of a New Years Eve tradition. Each person chooses a meal they want from a restaurant and my husband drives around town picking up all the orders. We lay it all out on the dining room table and chow down. Last year there was Indian, Chinese & pizza.
OMG, that sounds like so much crazy fun!
In honor of my husband's growing-up tradition, my family orders Chinese food & watches 'A Christmas Story' on Christmas Eve. There is also an abundance of cookies - selecting, baking, eating, giving, receiving, exchanging -- YUM!
We keep the 24-hour loop of this movie on ALL DAY.
We do, too!! Unless there's a football game on...
That sounds like such a fun Christmas Eve tradition!
My favorite tradition is all about movies. White Christmas gets multiple viewings. Also Scrooged, Love Actually and Miracle on 34th Street (the original with Maureen O’Hara and Natalie Wood), Home Alone, and A Christmas Story. Others that take place during Christmas are The Apartment, Desk Set and the ever controversial Die Hard. I’ve watched them so many times I can recite the dialogue.
We watched Desk Set for the first time maybe two years ago, and I loved it. The costumes! The office party vibes. So cute! I also LOVE Scrooged, especially the scene from Christmas past when they exchange gifts on Christmas Eve. It's so sweet.
My mom always made sugar cookies for us to decorate when I was growing up, but soon after I got married I had the idea to make gingerbread cookies also. I discovered that I LOVE gingerbread cookies so much more. I make 2-3 batches in December because we give them out and I have two each morning with my latte while I read. My family had to switch to GF and lactose free, but thankfully I found an excellent gingerbread recipe from Danielle Walker in her Celebrations cookbook.
You know, I've never made gingerbread! I wish I could teleport to your house so you could show me... I'm intimidated by the whole icing situation.
I don't even put icing on my gingerbread cookies! It's too much sweetness that it ruins it for me. The naked cookies are so delicious on their own.
Dave and Mel, I love the idea of having a meeting to get ready for the holidays - We have some set traditions, like watching Terry Pratchett's Hogfather on Christmas Eve and eating pork pies and sherry. I always make a bunch of cookies (Neapolitans and candied ginger shortbread are favourites) and board games happen whenever the kids make it home for the holidays. Gifts are not the most important thing - food takes the spotlight as we will have a big turkey dinner one day and Eastern European vareniki another day.
Pork pies! I'm not familiar with Hogfather — seems like I should learn more about that!
We are very big on meetings in our house, even though there's only two of us. We kind of specialize in meetings and lists. NERDS.
🤣
My parents have a mini tree that they got a ornament for each year since they got married. My Mom will sit with the bag of ornaments and pass them out to who will put each one up - I get the one from the year she became a Mom ('91), my sister will put up one the year we got our Christmas puppy. It's been neat that as we've added new partners to our family, we already have ornaments that have become theirs to put up - we happen to have 90's ornaments of their favorite animal, and for my sister-in-law we have her favorite animal from the year she was born!
This is so cool! I just love hearing how creative everyone is. What a fun tradition!
We do a version of Jolabokaflod that started when our kids were fairly young. We’d pick names out of a hat and then all go to the bookstore where we each took turns buying for whoever we got. Because the kids were young, we would each write a short list of ideas that might be specific titles or just genres. After buying the books we would take them home and hide them until Christmas Eve when we would exchange books and then spend the rest of the night reading and eating cookies.
Oooh, love the bit about picking names and going shopping together. What a fun twist!
TINSEL! (When we can get it!) ANY KIND OF CHRISTMAS COOKIE! LISTEN TO A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS!!! WATCH THE GRINCH! WATCH HOME ALONE!! WATCH THE SOUND OF MUSIC!!! LOTS OF LIGHTS!!!
I LOVE THAT YOU'RE YELLING ALL OF THESE YES!
Listening to “John Denver & The Muppets: A Christmas Together” has been a tradition since the TV special aired in 1979. You can’t get the video anywhere now. But between my parents and me, we have the vinyl, cassettes, CDs, and sheet music (which my dad plays on the piano most years). On one lyric, my dad always changed it to be my name when he sang. I felt VERY special. Every time music media changed, we got an updated copy.
You’ve probably heard the Muppets 12 Days of Christmas which is the only song that plays on the radio. But that’s the tip of the iceberg! There are so many great songs - and I will sing every note.
I just saw this on YouTube the other day! -- https://youtu.be/AXiS2ydYnB8 -- Dave
This is AMAZING. Love the different media through the years... and your dad playing the songs on the piano! Fantastic.
My husband's family is of Polish decent and his grandma always made dozens of poticas to give to friends and family for the holidays. She's in her nineties now and can't do it on her own, but all the women in the family and all the great grandkids go over the weekend before Christmas to make a bunch. I didn't grow up with much for holiday traditions so that has been such a meaningful thing for me to have been accepted into.
For those that don't know, potica is a sweet bread rolled and filled with cinnamon sugar, butter, and ground walnuts. Somewhere between cinnamon roll and babka and just so amazingly delicious. We will usually eat it all week, toasted in a pan with more butter.
Also, White Christmas, Muppet Christmas Carol, and Love Actually are my non-negotiable I'm watching these every year movies.
The image of all the women in the family gathering to make the poticas made me a little choked up. That is so awesome. And a slice of potica pan-toasted in butter? Yes, please.
Best breakfast ever
That sounds delicious!!!
When my two (adult) children and I all lived in NYC, we would wander around on 5th Avenue and critique the Christmas windows in the retail stores. Bloomingdale's was always the most interesting, always fantastical with a window or two of more traditional decorations. This year we'll all be there again so I'm hoping Bloomingdale's windows don't disappoint.
We usually made candies rather than cookies when I was growing up. The one that has lasted is almond roca. Even the people who don't usually eat sweets love the home-made almond roca.
The Grinch Who Stole Christmas is always a favorite and one of these years I will actually learn the words of the Whoville carol.
For now, I'm looking forward to reading through all these great traditions. Thanks all for sharing!
Homemade almond roca! That sounds very, very good.
I hope you have a fantastic time in NYC this year and that Bloomingdale's delivers some magical windows for you!
I love Tree Day. We go in the morning to cut down our tree, playing Christmas music along the way (although not always reverent- Lady Gaga's Christmas Tree song makes the mix.) Each of the (now grown) kids gets a new ornament that somehow represents their past year, and we decorate. Food of course is always involved- a big breakfast spread, or tree-shaped pasta....I love this day. All the days leading up to Christmas are more enjoyable than the holiday itself, I find.
This sounds so lovely! The ornament tradition is such a good one! When I was growing up, my parents got us a new ornament every year, and it was the one present we could open on Christmas Eve.
My family had the same tradition, and now I do that for my son.
Also, I LOVE the movie The Snowman. And taking abthermos of hot chocolate while driving around looking at lights.😁
Two favorite traditions: Cookie Baking Day with two of my daughters and four of my granddaughters. We make six kinds of cookies, four of them being recipes from my paternal Swedish grandmother. On Christmas Eve we go to the worship service at church, then home for a traditional Swedish supper with Swedish meatballs, Poor Man's Rice, bondost cheese, rye crisp, limpa bread, and glogg.. The cookies we baked are the dessert.
Swedish Christmas is pretty hard to beat! I love that you use your grandmother's cookie recipes.
What is Poor Man's Rice? I could Google it, but I want your personal description.
It is rice, milk, sugar and butter cooked for a couple of hours in the oven, stirring frequently. My grandmother said it was called Poor Man’s Rice because it was like rice pudding but had no eggs. The poor could not afford the eggs. Funny story: In my Spanish class I was telling the students about our Swedish Supper menu, and one of my students asked, “Mrs. Poore, did you invent Poor Man’s Rice?”
HA! That's awesome.