Holiday Food Traditions

From latke’s to ham to sauerkraut, holiday food traditions throughout the world are about as different as our cultures.

Families celebrating Hanukkah this year will be cooking up latkes, briskets, and enough matzo ball soup to feed an army or a normal Jewish family.

We can travel to Italy to learn about the traditional “Festival of Seven Fishes” which is celebrated on Christmas Eve and has, you guessed it, seven different kinds of seafood dishes. Some fish included are anchovies, whiting, lobster, sardines, cod, smelts, eels, squid, octopus, shrimp, mussels and clams.  Also, keeping with tradition, pasta, pasta and more pasta!

Traditional Christmas meals for Americans consist of hams, turkeys, casseroles (of any sort), potatoes (of several sorts) and pies (lots of pies).

If you’re the type to drink your food, you might want to check out the German traditional Feuerzangenbowle. It is a traditional alcoholic drink, which a rum-soaked sugarloaf is set on fire and drips into mulled wine.

Hungarians traditionally eat lentils on New Year’s Eve in hopes of a lucky, prosperous new year. Much like the German tradition of eating pork and sauerkraut for luck on New Year’s Day.

Whatever your tradition, and wherever you’re eating, we hope you have a very Happy Holidays.