Christmas is a time of year when different families around the world will get together and observe traditions that are the same for them year after year. But those traditions will differ from their neighbour’s. There are very few universal Christmas traditions any more and there is nothing wrong with that. But in the UK, there are some items that many people consider traditional and there is little that will be done to dissuade these opinions.
Turkey Or Ham?
For some families the answer is both while others answer quite quickly that it is neither. One of the best Christmas cooking ideas I’ve ever seen was lasagne. It was a Christmas Eve tradition but a delicious tradition just the same. I also know some families that have a curry on Christmas Day.
There are no right or wrong traditions only those traditions that work well for you and your family. If you feel the need to change a long-standing tradition for a large extended family, by all means discuss it with everyone involved. Otherwise it is your tradition and you should feel free to make it your own.
The Comfort Of Tradition
At the same time, there is something comforting and reminiscent of home to have those traditions to come home to year after year. I can’t help but think of the film Christmas with the Kranks. The entire film was spent in an attempt to break with the traditional Christmas trappings and trimmings, only to make a mad dash to return to them in the end. That is often the way things go when attempting to break with tradition. If you are considering this for the first time this Christmas, be sure to hang on to some of your old traditions in case you find that it just doesn’t feel like Christmas without them. You certainly don’t want it to be too late and miss out on the spirit of Christmas in your home.
Other great traditional favorites for many Brits as far as Christmas cooking goes are: sprouts, parsnips, stuffing, roast potatoes, cranberry sauce, mince pies and Christmas pudding. Of course there are regional favorites that are often highly dependent upon where you live. If one of these is a Christmas tradition for you, no matter where you are in the world you will think of home or Christmas whenever you come across them. It’s really amazing how that happens and quite nice too, when family and friends seem far away to have something as simple as a dish of food make them seem that much closer.
Making Your Own
That, of course, is the great, and almost perfect things about Christmas traditions. We pass them along to our children who one day will find that they are a little less alone because someone in an airport is eating a slice of cake. If you don’t have Christmas traditions, then maybe it’s time to start developing some of your own.