Why we string popcorn and other fun
Christmas food facts By Randi Roberts Published December 22, 2014 Nowadays, it
seems like Christmas is all about the presents under the tree, but in simpler
times, food was one of the focal points of holiday tradition. The sweet smell
of gingerbread wafting and the clatter of metal cookie cutters echoing through
the house used to announce the arrival of the holiday season. Grandma and her
grandbabies would spend hours stringing popcorn and dried fruits to create
festive garlands to decorate the tree. Children would hang stockings in hopes
of tiny treats, proof that jolly old St. Nick had visited. The Christmas Eve
fast observed in some homes would be broken, in Italian-American neighborhoods,
anyway, with a midnight meal of seven different fishes. The origins of some
Christmas food traditions are a little hazy. Early Christmas tree baubles were
foods for birds, cookies were munchable décor and used in storytelling, and
little edible treats were Christmas gifts. Learn about some of Christmas's most
delectable traditions and make them your own. Explore why we leave out cookies
out for Santa, and continue the ritual by whipping up some of your all-time
favorite Christmas cookies for that plate on the mantle. Celebrate with
timeless eggnog and engage with its history, or revive the old-school practice
of dropping a tangerine and/or some walnuts in a stocking or two. 'Tis the
season to be jolly! 1. Christmas cookies iStock Christmas cookies come in a
wide variety across the globe. Cookies flavored with what we think of as
Christmas spices and studded with dried fruit and nuts date to medieval times.
Cut-out cookies have been traced back to the eighteenth-century tradition of
Mummers, traveling players in England, who used them along with other foods as
props in acting out Christmas stories. Large cut-out cookies also served as window
decorations for Pennsylvania Dutch children in the 1800s. Today, they are
synonymous with the holidays all across the U.S. 2. Cookies for Santa iStock
Now, we don't typically adorn our trees with food, but in medieval Germany,
apples, wafers, and cookies were commonplace as ornaments. Once this tradition
merged with Christianity and the tree became a symbol of Christmas, children
began to notice the disappearance of edible tree ornaments. The vanishing of
decorations was blamed on Santa who snacked on them. It became traditional to
leave a plate of cookies by the fireplace to keep them warm for Santa's snack.
3. Tangerines in your stocking iStock Santa has a list and he's checking it
twice. Bad children get coal and the good ones get tangerines. Tangerines? In
the U.K., good kids traditionally get a tangerine in their Christmas stocking.
This practice began with nuns in twelfth-century France, who left stockings
filled with nuts, tangerines, and other fruits at the houses of poor families.
To their credit, a dose of vitamin C is actually a perfect gift during the
colder winter months. 4. The legend of the Bûche de Noël iStock Although the
classic Christmas cake, Bûche de Noël, or Yule log, is French, the custom comes
from pagan British celebrations of midwinter, or Yule, where a log was burned
in homes to banish darkness and bad luck. By the Tudor period, the Yule log was
decorated with ribbons and kept burning for the 12 days of Christmas. The
French log-shaped confection made of chocolate cake and pastry cream symbolizes
the belief that a log should burn continuously on Christmas night. 5.
Gingerbread houses iStock Gingerbread dates back to Greece in 2400 B.C.E., and
by the late Middle Ages, Europeans had their own version. Gingerbread houses,
however, originated in Germany during the sixteenth century and soon became
associated with Christmas. The largest gingerbread house on record was erected
at Traditions Golf Club in Byran, Texas, in 2013. It required a building
permit, covered 40,000 cubic feet, and was constructed of 4,000 gingerbread
bricks. That involved a ton (almost literally) of butter! rnaments
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