Christmas and New year food traditions

[pusur44017]

It's always a bit fun to hear what people from other countries have for dinner on these special occasions. In Norway, there are 3 main types of dishes on Christmas. (Some translations may sound somewhat undecadent)

Stick meat
A rib of lamb is conserved the traditional way with lots of salt before being dried. Sometimes it's smoked using traditional ways for those who like that. Before being cooked, the salt content is diluted with a soak in water. It is steam cooked on top of birch sticks. Served with potatoes and mashed rutabaga/swede/yellow turnip with "sauce" made from the juices from cooking the meat.

Rib w/ more
A rib of pork is cooked. The most important part of any Christmas meal based on this is to get crispy rind. Then they make patties made of a special pork meat blend with spices such as cloves and muscat. In addition to this, there is also a thick sausage present... All of this is served along with pickled red cabbage and potatoes.

Lye fish
A dried fish is placed in water to fill it with water, this takes 5-6 days, then it is placed in a water solution with lye for a very argued upon amount of time. It's now toxic and needs to be watered down to be edible. This takes another 10 days or so. This gives a very special texture. Served with potatoes and bacon among other things.

For New Years Eve, it's not that "strict". Loads of people eat one of the above, but not always
Does anyone have any traditions to share?

-pusur

[Jaysers]

Rice. My family typically would either make a full on asian traditional meal, or we mix several different cultural dishes, for example we could have mexican rice with American style meat, with asian soup on the side as well as vegetable mixes that I'm not entirely sure from what culture.

[Emperor_Quimby]

Rice Porridge
Milk and rice boiled together so long, it becomes porridge. Served with a butter lump in the middel, and a thin lay of cinnamon and sugar on top.
Demonstration of how you serve it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dim6u6kCZ98

Red cabbage
Sour and bitter cabbage, best eaten mixed with pork.

Rice à l'impératrice
traditional Danish Christmas dessert made of rice pudding, whipped cream and blanched, chopped almonds. Nearly just like rice porridge, just more uneatable, which is why somebody have made a game out of it. The person who eats the most, wins a present.

Mulled wine
A German drink, which Danes drinks at Christmas. It's warm wine, mixed with crushed anis and cinnamon sticks, making it taste strong and one able to last the harsh nordics winters (according to lore.)

Honey Cake
Also invented by the germans. Cakes formed as hearts, made out of honey and all kinds of sweet ingredients, topped off with a lay of chocolate to cover the cake. As a last detail, a christmas scarp is place on the cake, making it officially a piece of art. 

Jew Cookie
Called this, because it was mostly sold by jewish bakers in Denmark. It's cookies formed as small logs, with sugar on top of them.

Pepper nut
Maybe the oldest recipe of cookies which Denmark has, goes all the way back to 1400. A kind of Christmas biscuits, which is small round pieces of white pepper, sugar, clove and cinnamon. The best tasting biscuits in my opinion.

Schnapps
Created to knock out your tastebuds, so you can eat anything you want at the christmas table. The national drink, Schnapps, made out of potatoes, strong as a newly tarred rope and tastes like cat piss, but really easy to get drunk on.

Gnome ale
Beer made for the christmas days, which is sweet alcohol free (0.5%) beer, which kids drinks so they can feel like adults at the christmas dinner table. I usually only drink that because of the taste, which is amazing in my opinion.

[RevolverMech]

We all wonder why my dad has a small birth of christ scene in the fireplace.

[Butlerbandit]

My household usually hosts the family Christmas party, so I'm mostly familiar with larger party-dishes

Ham or Turkey
My family usually does a big ham as the main dish, but turkey is also very popular.

Wassle
Warm, spiced apple cider with pineapple and other fruit juices mixed in.

Homemade Fudge
Not a lot of people can make this at home as it's rather complicated, but my parents have apparently mastered it and it always turns out pretty good.

Lady Fingers
A delicious little baked good made of a thin, flaky crust wrapped around an elongated blob of thick, sweet icing. Google would only give me some crappy British cookie when I searched it, so I took a picture of one for reference.[spoiler][/spoiler]



Of course, Christmas parties also include more 'standard' fair such as sugar cookies, brownies, rolls, various plates of cheeses, chips and dip, and an assortment of various soft drinks.

[pusur44017]

Now, one thing I have always wondered, what is eggnog?

-pusur

[Jahona]

Mulled wine

and

Hoppin John - It is made with black-eyed peas and rice, chopped onion, sliced bacon, and seasoned with salt.

[pusur44017]

Mulled wine

and

Hoppin John - It is made with black-eyed peas and rice, chopped onion, sliced bacon, and seasoned with salt.

I heard about the Hoppin John without getting the name, sounds good. Is there any history to that? I'll post pics of stickmeat when I get a chance.

-pusur

[Jahona]

There isn't a history of the dish that I can recall.  My family started it by using left over ham from Christmas to add to it.  Add a bit of red pepper and it has a nice kick to it.

[MissVixiy]

Here are some pics of food from my Christmas with family.
I am sorry for being late Drakon.

[Drakon]

Our aunt owns a bakery so we usually celebrate family wide events there, she made most of the pies and all of the cookies, but I'll give a brief explanation of all of them.

1st picture : deep fried sausages covered in bacon

2nd picture : Spinach salad with mayo

3rd picture : assorted pies ; cherry, to coconut

4th picture : assorted cookies ; mainly peanut butter and chocolate chip