Childhood Holiday Traditions?

Saxton

DIS Veteran
Joined
Sep 23, 2004
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I had a day off from work earlier this week and for some strange reason I had a craving for cutout cookies that my Grandmother used to make. I'm not sure why since she's been gone for a long time (since 1991). Fortunately I have her cookbook so I pulled it out and looked for the recipe. I found two versions stuck in the pages (the only difference was the amount of flour) and I had to call my Mom and ask her if that was the right recipe. She confirmed that the name of the cookie was right but she didn't know what version my Grandmother used. I put the recipe together and although I didn't have any cookie cutters (and didn't take the time to figure out what frosting recipe she used) the taste was perfect and it brought me back to my childhood. Every Christmas my Grandmother used to make these cookies and have them stacked up in tins in her house. I remember going to her house and opening up the tins so I could devour the cookies. I don't know why I haven't made them before but it feels good to get back to the tradition. I'm going to buy some cookie cutters and figure out her frosting recipe for next year. I'm also going to copy the recipe and pass it on to my brothers and nieces & nephew. So what holiday foods or traditions bring you back to your childhood?
 
Orange slice candy wedges and LifeSaver's storybooks are my childhood Christmas food memories. I don't recall a time when one or both were not left for me in my stocking by the Jolly Ol' Elf. I really only liked the Butter Rum LifeSavers and while I liked the Orange slice candy, it was a my father and his father's favorite candy indulgence.

My father was dirt poor growing up on a farm in the 40's, so candy in general was a rarity, but he said that Santa usually left him an orange, some pecans & walnuts, and in the years that he was really good, he got the orange slice candy. It makes me very sad to even have to type that because I hate to think of him as that little boy. It breaks my heart. He did very well for himself as an adult, but sometimes, I still catch a glimpse of who he was and it hurts knowing what all he had to overcome.

Anyway, ahem, those are the foods that come to mind instantly when I think of Christmas as a child.
 
In my stocking I always had an apple, an orange, some hard candy, some chocolate candy (usually those foil wrapped solid chocolate balls), and mixed nuts that had to be cracked with a nutcracker. There were other little things in there that changed from year to year, but those little fruit and candy items were always included. :)

It's funny - I don't really associate any particular food or dessert with Christmas. My mom would usually make a cherry cheesecake for dessert but it doesn't really make me think of Christmas.

We never lived close to any of my extended family so we didn't spend holidays with them. I do remember making cut-out cookies with my mom but we didn't frost them. Sometimes we would put sprinkles on them, but that was it. I don't like frosting, so maybe that's why we left them plain! :rotfl:
 
My favorite tradition was going to bed with a tree that was not decorated and waking up to the beautiful site of the lit tree with all the ornaments. The food tradition was and is my mother's fruit cakes, They are to die for and people actually ask her to make them.

I type this as I sit waiting for my partner and our grown kids to get up on Christmas morning. Reading the responses and thinking of mine has made me realize how fortunate I have been in my life and all the wonderful memories of Christmas that I have. I think I will thank my mother for those memories when I see her today and say a silent thank you to my dad when I visit his grave later today. The biggest gift they ever gave me was unconditional love and acceptence.

Donna
 

My holiday food tradition include fruitcake. Preferably Claxtons. The other that I was recently reminded of (due to a long forgotten relative popping into my life) is ribbon candy. I put a box in my sisters stocking this year and she commented how it has been years since she had it. And how it reminded her of past holidays.
 
We make a ton of the same foods and carry on quite a few traditions from our childhoods here. For a week before Christmas we make all the traditional cookies from cutouts, chocolate meatballs to Russian teacakes just as both of our families did.

We make Apple Kuchen starting on the 23rd to be baked early morning on the Christmas Eve just like my grandmother and my mother. We take it to family and neighbors during the morning while it is still warm.

We then come home and make Pigs in the Blanket (cabbage rolls with sauerkraut) - my families tradition and a turkey- DPs family tradition. We eat all day and then we go to church on Christmas Eve and then come home to all open one gift. New pajamas. This is a family tradition we started because I did not want our pictures on Christmas morning to have us and our kids in holey, yucky old pjs.

No one cooks on Christmas Day. We just stay in our pjs all day and reheat food (my mother was great at this!). Actually it is now one of my favorite parts of the day. We even have people over and none of us gets dressed! We don't care - we have our new pjs. :rotfl:

We love our family traditions and what they mean to each one of us. I can't wait to teach my DD and DS the recipes of my grandmother that they will hopefully continue to use.
 










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