What Do British People Eat at Christmas?
This post is written by Gayle from Appetizing English. Gayle is a food lover, language enthusiast and English teacher.
If you’re in the UK at Christmas time there are many traditions we adhere to when it comes to what we put on our table on Christmas Day. Let’s have a look at the most popular British food traditions at Christmas time. This post will focus on what to expect if you are invited round to Christmas dinner at someone’s house in Britain but some people prefer to eat out at a restaurant and there are many places serving a traditional Christmas dinner.
For British people, the 25th December is when we have our Christmas Dinner which is usually served at around 3 pm (or whenever the turkey is done in our house!) However, the Christmas food festivities begin long before the big day itself so what do British people eat at Christmas?
For many British people, the first job is to make the traditional Christmas cake which is a rich fruit cake covered with marzipan and icing. For best results, the cake is made about two months before the big day. The reason the cake is made so early is to allow the dried fruits, spices, flour and butter to mature and ideally, the cake is ‘fed’ with rum or brandy during the two months so you end up with a rich moist cake.
The cake will take pride of place on the table on Christmas Day but usually, you are not allowed a slice until teatime on Christmas day.
Another make-ahead Christmas treat is mince pies and I don’t mean the savoury kind you eat at football matches! Christmas mince pies are made with sweet mincemeat which is not actually meat but a rich blend of fruits, both dried and fresh, sugar, spices, brandy and suet. Now, you are allowed to eat mince pies from around the middle of November and they will be offered at every Christmas party or gathering throughout the festive season. They are truly delicious but by the time Christmas is over, you will probably be a bit fed of up them!
Christmas Eve
In Britain, there is not one specific traditional dish that is eaten on Christmas Eve, although many households have their own traditions. This can range from going out for a curry, having steak and chips, enjoying a buffet type meal with friends – whatever you like really. There is, however, one traditional dish that is always served up on Christmas Eve but it is not for the family to eat, oh no. Before you go to bed you leave a carrot for Rudolf and a glass of brandy and a mince pie for Santa. It is very important to honour this tradition because if you don’t leave these out, then Santa won’t leave any presents obviously. It is also important to check that Santa and Rudolf have had their treats when you get up on Christmas morning but don’t worry if they haven’t eaten it all – they visit a lot of houses and get through many, many mince pies and carrots...
Christmas Day
Early on Christmas morning is when the real feasting begins starting with (usually) breakfast unless an edible present is opened first which must, of course, be tasted.
Breakfast – In some households breakfast is a big affair (given that you get up with the kids at 5 am so you need something to keep you going.) In our house, we usually choose between a bacon sandwich, scrambled eggs with salmon or pate and toast. After that, it is generally understood that all family members are allowed to munch their way through the selection boxes until Christmas dinner is served. Here’s a thing. In my free guide to British eating habits and meal times, I talk about how lunch is served at midday and dinner in the evening except in some parts of the country where lunch is dinner and dinner is tea……! However, Christmas dinner is always Christmas dinner even though it is served anywhere between 1 and 4 pm!
Christmas dinner usually begins with a small starter which can be anything really but prawn cocktail served in wine glasses was a thing in our house and it’s still considered the traditional starter to Christmas dinner. Nowadays there is a huge range of different dishes served as a starter but also many households, including ours, don’t have a starter because you have to leave room for the main event – don’t you?
Now comes the best bit in my opinion – roast turkey with all the trimmings. All the trimmings mean the vegetables and other sides that must accompany the turkey. For most British people including us, Christmas just isn’t Christmas without a roast turkey, but other roast meats are popular such as goose, duck, beef or honey glazed ham.
I’ll concentrate on a turkey dinner here because that is what we always have and if you have turkey you must have stuffing. Stuffing, as the name suggests is something you stuff the bird with prior to cooking although most often it is cooked separately and only a little bit put under the skin of the turkey breast. It is actually not a good idea to stuff the cavity of the bird at all as this doesn’t allow the heat to get through and can result in a poorly cooked turkey.
Carving the turkey is a small ceremony in itself! We usually bring the turkey to the table and carve it there, passing round plates as the bird is carved. The most important question here is whether you want white or dark meat. Once the turkey has been served, then the breaking of the wishbone is done. Usually, the two youngest children take the v-shaped wishbone, hook their little finger either side and pull. Whoever gets the biggest half is allowed to make a wish.
Once the turkey is on the plate, next comes the stuffing. The stuffing is most traditionally made of sausage meat, onion and sage – sage and onion stuffing. Other popular types of stuffing include chestnut, bacon and cranberry stuffing or apricot and chestnut stuffing.
Along with the roast meat, the ‘trimmings’ are considered vitally important for the perfect Christmas dinner. The top vegetable has to be roast potatoes and many people, including me, have spent hours perfecting the perfect ‘roastie.’ Top tips include parboiling, roughing up the edges and roasting in duck or goose fat for the ultimate crunch.
Mashed potatoes are also a must along with mashed yellow turnip or suede (which we can’t get sadly here in Spain)
Roasted parsnips and carrots are the next two most important vegetables which must make an appearance. I like my carrots slowly cooked in butter but they must be cut Julienne style otherwise they don’t taste right.
Next comes the controversial Brussels sprout. Even if you don’t like them, they have to be present on the Christmas dinner table – luckily for me, we can’t get them here either but we did have them when we lived in the UK. They can be disguised slightly by shredding and frying up with bacon but typically, there is a big bowl of sprouts present which have to be eaten as some poor person has spent ages, peeling off the yellow outer layers and putting little crosses on the stalks before cooking. The one good thing about sprouts actually is that they make great bubble and squeak so it doesn’t really matter if they don’t get eaten on Christmas day.
Braised red cabbage is also becoming more popular as a great Christmas side dish as is cauliflower cheese as these dishes are said to enhance the ‘blandness’ of the turkey but our turkey is always juicy and never bland so we don’t bother with those!
Apart from the vegetables, no Christmas turkey can be served without ‘pigs in blankets’ which are chipolata sausages wrapped in bacon. They are so cute, tasty and delicious that they are almost always the first thing to go!
No turkey dinner is complete without the gravy which is a sauce made from the juices of the meat. It is said that gravy can save or destroy a meal and Christmas gravy is no exception. One sure fire way to get the gravy perfect is, in fact, to make it ahead of time which we have done for the past few years thanks to Jamie Oliver’s Get Ahead Gravy recipe and we can relax safe in the knowledge that our gravy will just need warming through, mixing with the juices from the roast turkey on the day and it will. Be. Delicious.
Cranberry sauce is the most traditional accompaniment to the turkey dinner and is rarely eaten at any other time of year.
Bread sauce is a mixture of bread crumbs, milk, cream, onions and seasonings and is another traditional sauce to go with the Christmas meal although, to be honest, it doesn’t taste great and not many people that I know of serve this even though it is considered part of the traditional Christmas dinner.
At this point, it is worth mentioning Christmas crackers. Christmas crackers are a very traditional part of the British Christmas which looks like a cardboard tube in three parts wrapped in festive paper. Running through the middle is a very tiny cardboard strip with an explosive charge so when you pull the cracker with another person a small bang goes off. There is some debate about when you ‘pull’ the crackers. Some people do it before the starter, while others do it after the main course to provide a break from eating. The most common way to pull the cracker is to grab the end, cross arms and grab the end of the cracker of the person sitting next to you (a bit like you do when you sing Auld Lang Syne) so all the crackers are pulled at once.
Now comes the fun part! Inside each cracker is a colourful paper crown (which must be worn) a rubbish joke (which must be told) and a small toy. Expensive crackers might have a tiny screwdriver set or a pretty key ring, while cheaper crackers will have a plastic magnifying glass or a plastic frog that jumps when you press it at the back. Once the jokes are told, now it’s time to fight over who gets to keep the best ‘toy!’
After everyone is so full, they can’t move, it’s obviously time to bring out the Christmas pudding which is similar to the Christmas cake in ingredients with lots of spices, fruit, flour butter, eggs, brandy, breadcrumbs, nuts and suet. The traditional recipe calls for 13 ingredients to represent Jesus and his 12 disciples. It is also customary to make the Christmas pudding on November 26th which is known as ‘Stir Up Sunday’ while the ingredients are being stirred (or mixed) in the bowl, each member of the family takes it in turns with the spoon and makes a secret wish while doing so. Also, the pudding should be stirred from east to west to honour the Three Wise Men who visited Baby Jesus from the east.
In years gone by, the pudding would be mixed with a silver sixpence inside and whoever found it on the day would have great wealth the following year. For obvious health and safety reasons, that is not done so much now – after all who wants a cracked tooth or run the risk of choking on Christmas day?!
Serving the Christmas pudding is also cause for ceremony. The pudding (which has been steaming for hours and hours) is tipped out onto a serving plate then at the table, you pour over a little brandy and then set fire to it. Once the flame goes out, it’s time to serve only the tiniest amount with a little brandy sauce or double cream. It has to be said that not many people manage to finish their dessert but the Christmas pudding will last forever, so don’t worry about it going to waste!
After all that eating, it’s time to collapse on the sofa, watch the Queen’s speech if you really must or check out the TV listings for a film which has been played for the past 5 years. ‘Back to the Future’ or ‘Indiana Jones’ spring to mind here….
After an hour or so, someone will open another selection box and begin eating more chocolate or Dad will usually sneak into the kitchen and come back with a plate of turkey breast and a cold roast potato to ‘pick at’ while the film is on.
Much later on, the traditional tea or supper is yet more leftover turkey and stuffing, followed by a plate of cheese and crackers to finish off the day! Oh and a slice of Christmas cake of course.
What do people drink?
Along with mince pies, steaming glasses of mulled wine signal the start of the Christmas season. Mulled wine is an alcoholic drink usually made with red wine and combined with spices such as cinnamon and cloves, orange or lemon and sugar. The wine is simmered with the other ingredients over a low heat to allow the flavours to infuse. Be careful though, this sweet warm wine will bring a glow to your cheeks but it’s quite potent!
For lots of people, a common drink to go with breakfast on Christmas day is ‘Bucks Fizz’ which is champagne or cava mixed with fresh orange juice. It might seem a little early to be having an alcoholic drink, but hey – it’s Christmas!
The drinking of a customary glass of sherry pre-Christmas dinner (with a mince pie of course) also must be observed. Even if you don’t like sherry it is not Christmas Day unless you have a small glass before dinner is served.
Much of the food and drink consumed on Christmas Day will also be eaten the next day on Boxing Day. Boxing Day is the 26th December and also a holiday in the UK and Ireland. The day has nothing to do with the sport of boxing and there is much debate about the history behind the name. While the reason it is called Boxing Day might not be clear, the day itself is a chance for family and friends to meet up who couldn’t get together the day before. Usually, a buffet of leftover turkey along with mince pies and of course Christmas cake is served. Some families do a honey roast ham, a turkey curry, turkey sandwiches or find other imaginative ways to use of the Christmas Day leftovers.
Phew! That’s it, all over – No wonder we put on so much weight over Christmas!
Have you ever experienced Christmas in Britain? How does a British Christmas differ from that in your country if you celebrate it? What do British people eat at Christmas that is different to what you eat? Answers in the comments below.
Fabulous festive Christmas food is only one part of British tradition and culture I hope you have the pleasure of experiencing for yourself and I really hope you enjoyed this post.
Gayle
Appetizingenglish.com
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