A global feast on
the Christmas table

This year, we're making bouillabaisse for Christmas.

OK, it's not exactly a traditional holiday dish. Beef roasts and ham seem to be more the norm, though not nearly as obvious as turkey for Thanksgiving.

Christmas is a global holiday, of course. American Christmas traditions are a mix of so many cultures that it's impossible to pinpoint one canonical food, possibly save candy canes. This is wonderful, because it means there are no rules. And since I didn't really celebrate Christmas as a child, I had no rules to work with anyway.

Our reason for bouillabaisse was remarkably simple. It's wonderful to eat, and can be fun to cook, but most certainly requires a lengthy bout of shopping and equally lengthy prep session. Not everyday cooking.

But fish for Christmas has plenty of significance -- though the tradition is southern Italian, not French. In some places, an Italian Christmas dinner may consist of more than a half-dozen fish dishes; seven by some counts, others say the number doesn't matter. The point, symbolically, is that fish are intended to represent Christ -- not much different from meatless Fridays, or so my friends who grew up with the tradition tell me.

Among the Italian delicacies prepared for this time of year might be baccalà (dried salt cod), eel, octopus.  I recall one Christmas Eve dinner at a friend's house that included all these, plus lobster.

So bouillabaisse, the traditional Marseillaise fish stew, isn't nearly as weird as it might seem. It just throws all the fish in the same pot.

Ham and herring
Initially, we'd considered ham, a proud tradition not only throughout the South but also in places like the Philippines and Finland. The Finnish joulupöytä, a massive sideboard's worth of Christmas dishes, features not only ham (often served with mustard) but root vegetables like beets and rutabagas and, of course, herring.

Similar traditions are to be found on the generous julbords of nearby Sweden and Norway, where you'll also find lutefisk (cod cured in lye) and lefse (potato flatbread) at the holiday spread. The Norwegians also enjoy kransekake, a piled-high almond cake.

And of course, no Scandanavian Christmas would be complete with glögg, which mixes wine with vodka or brandy and spices.

To the extent we made a Christmas meal when I was growing up, it was goose -- part of a full German dinner. Many folks shudder at the prospect of cooking goose; I think it's a blast, though you need to be careful not to spill goose fat on the floor as you baste. At least wear non-slip shoes.

We largely have the British and French to thank for goose and turkey at this season. That bible of French cooking, the Larousse Gastronomique, highlights the traditional nature of these dishes and suggests serving them with chestnuts "which, naturally, are often enriched with truffles."

But the British, it goes on to say, celebrate "with even more splendor."

Indeed, the Brits seem to have had a lock on extravagant Christmas feasts, perhaps because of what Craig Claiborne once called the "most famous legendary dinner in the world": the feast in Dickens' "A Christmas Carol."

Where's the plums?
Among the British holiday delicacies: mince pies, both with and without meat, plus all those curious puddings -- plum and otherwise. Plum pudding being especially curious since most recipes call for raisins and currants (and, often beef suet) ... but no plums.

The French certainly have their own stake in Christmas sweets. The bûche de Noël (Christmas log), a rich chocolate-based cake meant to resemble a Yule log. They also have marrons glacés -- candied chestnuts.

Germans also revel in Christmas Day goose, and Christmas Eve pork. They take the holiday so far as to have extravagant Christmas markets, where you can find glühwein (spiced wine) and lebkuchen (spice cookies). The Germans also have a lock on Christmas cakes; breadlike stollen, notably those from Dresden, are filled with nuts and raisins.  Italians have paralleled this with their own panettone.

In Mexico (and many parts of the U.S.) tamales are a Christmas staple. Friends from Texas still reminisce about their holiday tamales.

Many Russians celebrate Christmas not on Dec. 25 but on Jan. 7, the date according to the Julian calendar, still used by the Russian Orthodox church.  By some accounts, traditional Russian Christmas Eve dinners feature up to 12 courses, each representing an apostle, and are sometimes meatless. It may be preceded by a day of fasting, and often features a sweet soaked-kasha dish called kutiya.

Brazilians have picked up the turkey tradition, though a Brazilian Christmas turkey might get a spicy marinade and manioc flour. (Note it's also mid-summer there.)

In Egypt, Coptic Christians enjoy the fata, which often consists of rice and garlic, with soup and boiled meat.

A festival of oil
Lest you think that Christmas is the only holiday this season with such diverse foods, let's consider Hanukkah for a moment. While Americans consider the potato pancakes known as latkes to be traditional, in Israel the (mostly secular) tradition is to eat a sort of jelly donut known as a sufganiya. In both cases, cooking in oil commemorates the eight days that oil burned in the Jews' ancient holy temple.

One truly American Jewish tradition, nowhere more so than in my hometown of New York: Chinese food on Christmas.

For vegetarians and vegans, this is an especially interesting time of year -- one not without its stresses.  There are plenty of meatless Christmas options, as any Seventh Day Adventist will attest. (Many Adventists are strict vegetarians.) Two sets of options, of course: Look for soups, casseroles and other dishes that aren't especially tied to the Christmas season, or opt for soy- and gluten-based roasts that emulate Christmas delicacies, à la tofurkey.

Back to the fish, though.  Italians aren't the only ones to look to the sea for Christmas. Czechs traditionally make carp for Christmas. Southerners rejoice in oyster pie, oyster gumbo, oyster stuffing (er, dressing).

And while the French don't view bouillabaisse as a Christmas dish, in areas like Provence they do serve the salt-cod spread known as brandade de morue. So I'm feeling pretty good about this year's Christmas dish.

What are you serving? You described your favorite dishes.