Christmas Dinner Around the World
Although it varies between households, Christmas dinner in the United States typically looks a lot like Thanksgiving. A turkey or ham and a variety of side dishes are followed by pie for dessert. In other countries, though, the menu is much different.
Some cultures enjoy a feast to celebrate Christmas. There’s a large Christmas Eve dinner and a Christmas Day lunch in Spain, traditionally featuring seafood and holiday sweets, including turrón and polvorón. Lithuanian Christmas Eve dinner involves 12 meatless dishes and can take up to a week to prepare. It features cold dishes like herring, vegetables, and dumplings, and poppyseed biscuits. Poland’s tradition is also a 12-course meatless meal, featuring borscht, pierogi, and poppyseed cake. The Italian seven-course meal is called the Feast of the Seven Fishes and features seafood pasta, carp, octopus, clams, and fried eel, with panettone or tiramisu for dessert. Swedish Christmas dinner features a smorgasbord or Julbord; this buffet includes herring, salt cod, liver pâté, ham, roast lamb, and a meatball and potato casserole, followed by sweets like saffron buns and rice pudding. In the Philippines, people start celebrating in September! Christmas dinner involves a spit-roasted suckling pig, a queso de bola, spring rolls, fruit salad, pasta, sometimes ox tripe in peanut sauce or baked chicken. In Germany, Christmas dinner has several courses, with meats, potato dumplings, and sausage stuffing.
Often, the culture is reflected in the meal. It’s biryani with lamb, mutton curry, dishes like aloo gobi and jeera pulao, and Christmas sweets in India. Tamales are a popular option in Mexico and Costa Rica, while Romanians eat traditional pork dishes and a sweet bread known as cozonac. Hungarians eat carp soup, stuffed cabbage, fried fish, and a pastry called beigli, and British Christmas often features prawns, mince-meat pies, and turkey cooked with sausages. Greek favorites include roast lamb, with cabbage rolls called yiaprakia. A French Christmas meal has plenty of seafood but also foie gras, chestnut-stuffed turkey, and cheese. Jamaicans favor curried goat on Christmas, while in Austria, the meal is fried carp followed by a Sacher-Torte. In Portugal, people fast on Christmas Eve and break the fast with a Christmas dinner of salt cod or octopus, boiled eggs, cabbage, sweet potatoes, and sumptuous desserts. In the Czech Republic, people fast during the day on Christmas Eve and the large evening meal has fish soup or mushroom kuba, followed by the main course that’s traditionally fried carp and potato salad.
If you’re interested in trying interesting new foods, make NetCost Market your first stop. We’re a local grocery store with a global reach, providing everyday food products and a variety of culinary delights from around the world. It’s our goal to provide authentic, high-quality food products from local farmers and suppliers from around the world. When you shop with NetCost Market, you’ll find a comfortable and gratifying shopping experience that even includes online grocery shopping and home delivery.