As much as we all love our traditional British Christmas food, sometimes it’s good to change things up. Although you can’t go wrong with a classic Christmas Dinner, it may be a good idea to consider doing some things a little differently. You could do this by adding new ingredients, changing flavours, or even baking some nice festive treats for the family. There are all kinds of ways that you can make Christmas a bit different and exciting.
With the big day approaching us quickly, we wanted to talk about why we love our traditional Christmas food, but also give you a few ideas around how you can do some things differently or try something new this year!
Why we love our traditional Christmas food
When you think about Christmas Day, quite a big part of this is having Christmas Dinner. This is a special time to get together with your nearest and dearest and celebrate the festivities with some traditional Christmas food. As well as it being a lovely way to spend time with your family, a lot of people wait all year for the traditional components of the Christmas Dinner, such as turkey, pigs in blankets, and even brussel sprouts!
Most people tend stick to what they know and love, and just have the same traditional food every Christmas. However, there are lots of ways that you can make little changes, that you may find you actually really enjoy!
Tastes from around the world
Although our traditional British Christmas foods are so familiar to us, have you ever wondered what people eat in other parts of the world? How is their Christmas different to ours? Is there anything you could try? You don’t have to make any dramatic changes, but trying something new could go down a treat with you and your guests. One example could be cranberry sauce. This is the staple part of an American Christmas Dinner, and it could be the perfect way for you to do something different this year, as it just adds that little bit of extra flavour and festive delight.
Not everybody is a big fan of turkey, despite it being seen as the main substance of our Christmas Dinner. Another way to switch things up this year to perhaps appeal to your guests more if they prefer certain types of meat to others, is to choose something different! For example, in Iceland their main meat on a Christmas Dinner is a leg of lamb, whereas over here we traditionally have turkey. Depending on the preferences of you and your guests, this could make your Christmas Dinner even better.
Our desserts on Christmas Day certainly vary more than the main course, however we still have some traditional dishes that are very common at this time of year, such as Christmas pudding, or a yule log. Perhaps you could add something new into the mix this year. In Germany, one of their favourite festive treats to have as a dessert after Christmas Dinner, is Stollen. This is a bread/cake loaf with bits of dried fruit, nuts and spices, often covered in powdered sugar. It’s quite a different but tasty treat to enjoy with the festivities, and we would definitely recommend giving it a try.
Christmas Eve
Now we don’t have a set dish that we traditionally eat on Christmas Eve, but a lot of people have their own traditions, and pick their favourite meal to have every year on the night before Christmas. We all have different Christmas Eve traditions, but food can be a big part of this. Some people might celebrate with a curry, or perhaps some fish pie. Whatever your meal of choice on Christmas Eve, we all have our unique rituals in preparation for the big day!
