Christmas traditions

There are not many specific foods that remind me of being at home, at least not in the way that a ketchup sandwich reminds my mother of dinner time in the home that she grew up in. She has told me how her and her siblings were not allowed to leave until they had finished their sandwich and how they hated them so much that they would hide them in the drawers of the table until their dad got home and let them off the hook. At our dinner table there are only four people, instead of nine, and eating dinner is usually pretty uneventful besides a few laughs and the stories my younger sister often tells. We eat foods from many different backgrounds, each delicious in it’s own way, unlike the ketchup sandwiches my mom had to eat.

Holidays are usually more connected to specific and memorable foods whereas the dinner table is more connected to my sister’s stories of 6^th grade drama. For Christmas, thanksgiving, and Easter, cooking and eating certain foods are as much a tradition as opening presents or egg hunting. On thanksgiving we eat all the normal thanksgiving foods at either my house or my grandmother’s house in the afternoon and always go to my aunt and uncle’s house for dessert at night. On Easter we always make crepes with my neighbors while the younger kids hunt for eggs in our backyard. However, more than any other holiday, the most memorable food traditions of my family are our Christmas traditions.

Christmas cooking traditions in our family consist of many interesting recipes, many of which don’t seem very Christmassy at all and some of which are not very appetizing, at least not to me. Usually someone might recall the Christmas ham, potatoes and vegetables they had each year, but when I think of Christmas food I think of squid pie, smelts, spanakopita, baklava, and rice pie. It is unclear to me where these traditions came from. Squid pie and smelts, which apparently are Italian recipes although I have never heard of them at any Italian restaurant, were, I think, passed down from family on my mom’s side. We also always make spanakopita and baklava, which are Greek foods and I am pretty positive no one in my family is Greek, so I am not sure why this has become a tradition in our family. I have no idea where rice pie even comes from.

My least favorite of these traditions are the smelts and the squid pie. The smelts are usually made on Christmas Eve at my cousins’ house. I try to avoid the kitchen, but you can always smell the small fishes frying from the living room where those of us who do not enjoy the smelting process watch the never-ending Christmas movies on abc family. Then someone will come in holding a plate of the disgusting silver fishes and I will always say that I do not want to try one. The smell of smelts will unfortunately follow you home on your clothing every Christmas Eve. Then there is the squid pie. I have watched it be made many times and, like the smelts, I think it smells pretty bad when it is done but, for some reason, people seem to like it. The squishy “tubes and tentacles” as my aunt calls them just don’t look too good to me.

The spanakopita and baklava are newer traditions I think, and almost everyone in the family has gotten at least one baklava making lesson. I don’t remember when I got my first lesson, but now I have become a professional. First, you melt butter in a bowl in the microwave and lay out the first thin piece of filo dough in the pan brushing on a layer of butter on top. Once you have enough filo dough and butter layers, about 25, you add a layer of sugar, cinnamon, and nuts, and then add some more filo dough layers. Next you have to cut the baklava into diamond shaped pieces and stick a clove into each one so that it will stick together. After the baklava cooks you pour a sticky honey mixture on top and its done.

 I remember one year I begged my mom to let me skip school and let me stay over at my aunt’s house and help her make all the Christmas foods. Although I find a few of our Christmas recipes questionable, they are important to me because they are so connected with my experiences.