What to eat on Christmas

December 15, 2019 6:29 PM

What does your non-traditional Christmas dinner look like? Bonus points if you're of South Asian heritage!

I grew up in Canada to Indian immigrant parents. We never celebrated Christmas. For our own holidays, we made Indian food - special dishes like biryani - which I love and still eat on those holidays. But now I'm celebrating Christmas in my own home, and I don't want biryani on Christmas! It feels like a strange clash of cultures. However, neither do I want turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, etc - that meal feels oddly "borrowed"; it doesn't hold any sentimental value for me, and I don't generally eat that way [meat, starch, side of veg]. I eat a wide variety of cuisines but I'm not sure how to build a Christmas dinner that feels "right". Please tell me what/how you eat on Christmas if you come from an immigrant culture!

posted by orange and yellow to Food & Drink (19 answers total)

Christmas dinner in our immigrant Chinese/american Caucasian household is about family togetherness so we don't have a prescribed rules about what counts as right or wrong. We'll make something that takes a little more effort and costs a bit more than a normal meal, but past that, no serious must haves (unlike Thanksgiving). As I am now raising a young toddler it's become more and more important to me to ensure he realizes that "immigrant food" is just as valid for holidays than "white American food," so make food that you like to eat!

It's all about what tastes good but is worth the extra effort because family is here. Prime rib, King crab legs, roasted pork/suckling pig are favorites but we've also done dumplings, egg rolls, roast duck and Chinese hot pot.

Christmas biryani sounds AMAZING. Assuming flavors you grew up with carry sentimental value you could also take meats and flavor them with spices closer to your tradition, like this guy.
posted by Karaage at 7:18 PM on December 15, 2019 [3 favorites]

Growing up, we did the whole turkey/potato/Christmas crackers thing, which was lovely. But now, Christmas dinner in our Korean/Chinese/British household is usually going out for Szechuan food. It's awesome. Also I have a colleague who is Scottish stock, and her whole life, her family has bought Chinese food on Christmas eve, and microwaved it the next day for Christmas dinner. Tradition is what you make of it!
posted by stray at 7:48 PM on December 15, 2019 [1 favorite]

When I've done a celebratory holiday bird, I've always done a duck; it's the right size for a small household, and it's not something I normally spend the expense and time on.

I'm Mexican-American and used it as an excuse to make my own mole sauce one year.

Another year I used the concept of Duck à l'orange but added some of my own favorite flavors to the honey and orange.
posted by Juliet Banana at 7:59 PM on December 15, 2019 [2 favorites]

My mum's family moved to Australia from Sri Lanka about 50 years ago. Christmas dinner features a buffet spread of many curries, as well as a roast (traditional), some ham and usually prawns, seafood and salad (Australian). This is for 30-40 people.
posted by cholly at 8:11 PM on December 15, 2019

<3 an interesting and important question! maybe one of the many
options within the broad category of "Indian Christians' Christmas Foods" will feel more grounded in tradition to you than Anglo Christmas or Biryani?
posted by athirstforsalt at 8:15 PM on December 15, 2019

I don't do a desi Christmas, but a raan roast is probably what I would serve if the guests didn't prefer more Anglo stuff. Or a pulau/ biryani made with a whole chicken. These are both foods that were served in my Pakistani family for Eid lunches.
posted by tavegyl at 8:43 PM on December 15, 2019 [1 favorite]

Another thought: Christmas meals are primarily about abundance, I think. So it's worth thinking how you could do that - one major highlight (like a turkey or a roast) and lots and lots of other items. In Pakistani food at least you don't really have the concept of sides (other than raita and chutneys) so these might be a daal, a couple of vegetable dishes, some kebabs, a salad, etc. Instead of looking for Christmassy foods, you could just compose a meal that feels abundant to you, and over time it'll start feeling Christmassy because you only assemble it in that form once a year.
posted by tavegyl at 8:48 PM on December 15, 2019 [2 favorites]

Of course all of this could depend on what flavor of Indian you are...but surely there has to be decadence with glorious swathes of butter (ghee?) and cream (coconut?) and rendered fat (if you eat meat). Our dishes change from year to year, but the table is always groaning with steaming plates. The whole living space should be smothering in the smells of cooking and frying and spices. I could see giant clouds of bhature (in the winter, we use applesauce to thicken chole, with a bit of cinnamon to complement, it's practically Christmas!) And Lamb! Lamb curry, lamb kebabs, western style lamb chops or rack of lamb rubbed with a bit of cumin and served with translucent fried onions. Some kind of fried potatoes, which can get dipped in the leftover bits of sauce on the plate. Glistening breads of some sort - fluffy naans or stuffed parathas... I don't know why, but we often eat oranges with Indian food (no, we don't fry them) and that happens to be perfectly traditionally Christmassy.

Oh god, the desserts! I mean jalebis are most ideally celebratorily ridiculous, but imagine the delightful lunacy you could create! Put whipped cream on hot gulab jamuns, seek out red and green mithai.

By the way, rum and brandy slide gracefully into both chai and honeyed turmeric milk, but you didn't hear that from me.
posted by BlueBlueElectricBlue at 10:54 PM on December 15, 2019 [3 favorites]

In the movie The Holiday they mention making Christmas fettuccini - so fettuccini it is! I am not of South Asian heritage so perhaps my answer isn’t super helpful but I do feel it’s rather non traditional.
posted by Sassyfras at 11:29 PM on December 15, 2019

I've done desi Christmas - it's great. One time, one of my friends made a roast leg of lamb marinated in all sorts of desi spicy goodness, accompanied by the usual sides. We still remember it fondly years later. I'm no cook, so can't share a recipe.
posted by unicorn chaser at 4:00 AM on December 16, 2019 [1 favorite]

Polish-American family. We did pierogi on Christmas Eve, all made by my grandmother: meat and cabbage, sauerkraut, potato, sweet cheese, and blueberry. We serve blueberry pierogi with real maple syrup, a New England variation on traditional fruit pierogi. There were other foods, too, probably more typical "American" food, but it's the pierogi I remember and dream of as an adult.
posted by carrioncomfort at 5:15 AM on December 16, 2019

The traditional meal is based on English/ New England cooking, and has a lot to do with the foods available in December. Maybe keep to traditional winter ingredients like potatoes, squash, brussels sprouts, etc., In whatever dishes are really celebratory, and definitely go for abundance.

I hope you come back and say what you made.
posted by theora55 at 6:48 AM on December 16, 2019

We go out for Chinese, adopting the Jewish tradition, even though we celebrate xmas.
posted by neematoad at 7:36 AM on December 16, 2019

My partner (of Anglo-American heritage) was delighted to find that my Italian-American family has lasagna at Christmas. Lasagna is a pain in the butt to make. Make foods that you find delicious that are a pain in the butt.
posted by madcaptenor at 7:55 AM on December 16, 2019 [1 favorite]

In my Latin@ family, winter holidays are the season of tamales- food that's made in a group, and enjoyed in a group.
posted by aint broke at 8:22 AM on December 16, 2019

A traditional Cuban nochebuena is roast pork with mojo. Side dishes are black beans and rice, yucca (fried tastes better IMHO), and maybe fried plantains - the ripe ones (maduros), not the green ones (tostones). And of course Cuban bread, though a baguette will work in a pinch. The most difficult thing to prepare is the yucca, maybe, because it can be a bit of a pain to peel and core. You'll also want to pick up the plantains well in advance so they can be nice and ripe. The rest is pretty straightforward as food prep goes. Lotta garlicky sofrito in the air. I can smell it all even as I type this tbh.
posted by jquinby at 11:22 AM on December 16, 2019 [1 favorite]

We do pulled pork bbq.
posted by Thorzdad at 1:54 PM on December 16, 2019

I have been doing a Jewish Christmas for about 20 years I have been in Chicago. But unfortunately, Chinatown seems to be getting more and more crowded every year. I am going to revert back to what I did when I was in Grad School.

My petit-boss used to invite me for dinner at this place that was a celebratory dinner the weekend Saturday before Christmas involving family and friends. As I am a vegetarian, I did not want to impose on his wife to make a veggie dish and offered to bring something along. I knew about the "Jewish folks eating Chinese food" trope and so decided to make "CHRISTMAS FRIED RICE". Just regular fried rice but with diced red peppers and green peas! After the first time; it became a hit at this dinner. The next year when I was invited; I was strictly informed that the invitation is contingent on my making the fried rice.

I was thinking about that recently; so I am going to go back to doing that.
posted by indianbadger1 at 2:21 PM on December 16, 2019 [1 favorite]

Midwestern Anglo family. We do low-maintenance Christmas, thus keeping the cooking and cleaning to a minimum so that we all can enjoy each others’ company more. Cheese, crackers, chocolate, shrimp cocktail, sliced vegetables and hummus, olives, previously prepared homemade old-fashioned cranberry relish, that kind of thing. We graze on the snacks and drink eggnog all day.

The shrimp cocktail is the critical part. Honestly, it’s not Christmas for me without shrimp thawing on the counter.
posted by cnidaria at 9:16 PM on December 16, 2019