We had a nice quiet Christmas dinner this week. One bad thing was that CollegeBoy’s girlfriend, MissNicole, was not here which made the house quieter. We missed her, the house seems emptier when she is not here, but that is a topic for another post. For this one I want to focus on the dinner traditions.
I come from an Italian family and anyone who does now knows exactly what holiday dinners are like. Mrsfabp talks about coming to my home for a holiday dinner and being shocked that there was pasta and meat and more in addition to the typical Thanksgiving turkey or Christmas ham. Well, welcome to the world of an Italian family celebrating the holidays. I can remember growing up, the sideboard groaning under the weight of the different foods, delicacies and Italian pastries and cookies. This was a celebration and it centered on the food we shared.
Some other traditions; we traded off the holidays, one at our home, the other at my uncle and aunt's home. We lived close, only a few blocks so the traveling was easy and we would spend the day smelling the smells and enjoying the company. One controversy I remember was the stuffing. My dad was from a German family so the dressing was apples and raisins and sweeter. The Italian side of the family had a much more savory stuffing with onions and celery and spices. I do regret not understanding the value of each as I grew up, partaking only the German style for many years until I got married.
Yes, we did have a kids table! When the families were all together, there could be 13 people, too many for a simple dining room, so the kitchen table was set up for 4 or 5 of the youngest, who could make all the noise they wanted without interfering with the main dining going on.
One final tradition note. Besides all the Italian pastries and cookies, there was always a selection of pies. This all by itself should answer the age old debate about pie vs. cake: when we celebrate the holidays, we serve pie – apple, pecan, pumpkin, whatever. Ever hear of a Christmas cake going over well? How about a Thanksgiving one? And don’t give me that cheese cake argument, that’s not a cake at all. Pie wins.
Nowadays, we try to do a lot of the cooking from scratch and enjoy the process. We go all out at Thanksgiving but are a bit more reserved at Christmas, but there is all the traditional foods. We don’t do the Italian pasta tradition, mainly because there is usually only 4-5 of us. We live so far away, we usually don’t get a lot of holiday dinner visitors. MissNicole really likes pasta however, perhaps we should add a small lasagna or stuffed shells with meatballs to the menu…
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