This is What People Eat For Christmas in Different Countries

“In Switzerland we stick some meat pieces on a super-long fork and dip it in boiling bouillon soup to cook it, kind of like a hotpot! It’s served with french fries or potato chips, and a variety of sauces for the meat.”

“I’m from Venezuela and our traditional Chrismast dinner is ‘hallacas’, which is pretty much like a tamal; roasted pork or turkey; ‘pan de jamón’, which is bread stuffed with Christmas ham, raisins, and olives; and ‘ensalada de pollo’, which is a chicken salad with potatoes, carrots, and peas. For dessert we have ‘torta negra’, which is chocolate cake with rum-soaked fruits.”

“In Botswana the standard Christmas meal is rice, salads, and fried chicken. This meal is actually served in important ceremonies like weddings, parties, or any grand festivities.”

“In Denmark we eat ‘flæskesteg’, which is a pork roast with crackling. With this we eat potatoes, warm red cabbage, gravy, small caramelized potatoes, and chips. For dessert we have ‘ris’a’la mande’ – a rice porridge with almonds, whipped cream, and vanilla in it.”

“In Britain we traditionally have a turkey (but sometimes people may have a goose or chicken) with cranberry sauce, Brussels sprouts, pigs in blankets (small sausages wrapped in bacon), roast carrots, roast potatoes, parsnips, and the best of all, gravy! Just before the dinner you pull a cracker with someone else, and it has a really bad joke, a hat, and little toy inside.”

“In Poland we eat borscht, which is beetroot soup, with dumplings.”

“In Finland we have ham, potatoes, a lot of different types of fish, and then we have these things called ‘lanttulaatikko’ (pictured) which are kinda like casseroles. Potato salad is also quite popular and some people eat meatballs, too. For dessert we just have traditional gingerbread cookies, plum jam tarts in the shape of a star, and we love to drink glögi, which is quite similar to mulled wine but with cardamom.”

“In Guatemala we eat tamales, but these can be black or white/red. The red ones are savory and the black ones are sweet. We eat them right before midnight, because at midnight the whole country sets off fireworks in honor of the birth of Jesus.”

“In Mexico, tamales are the staple dish for any Christmas dinner. My personal favorite are bean tamales, but the most popular ones are made with chicken. Champurrado is also a delicious chocolate drink made from corn. Some other popular dishes include pozole, buñuelos, and la rosca de reyes (pictured).”

“In the Netherlands we usually gourmet during holidays and I think most families have a gourmet set at home. It’s like a grill plate with little pans you put on the dinner table. Everybody gets their own little pan and wooden spoon. You basically grill miniature meats like sausages, slavinken, and hamburgers or small pieces of fish and vegetables at the table. Every supermarket sells ready-to-go gourmet meat or fish plates.”

“In New Zealand we eat whatever can fit on the BBQ, followed up with a pavlova of course. I love how laid back it is.”

“In Norway the Vikings celebrated Yule before they became Christian – at the same time we now celebrate Christmas, so a lot of our foods comes from the Vikings’ traditions. For example, we have a strange thing where we place cod in lye so it becomes jelly-like and then we rinse it, like, 20 times before serving it with melted butter and bacon. We also eat dried cooked lamb head, and dried lamb rib that’s been boiled with sticks for eight or more hours. Since the 1700s it’s become a status symbol to have at least seven types of Christmas cookies in the house, and they all had to be homemade, so that’s a tradition we’ve kept. Oh yeah, and we celebrate Christmas on the 24th and we open presents on the same night.”

“In the Philippines, Noche Buena, the mother of Christmas meals, usually starts at 12am Christmas Day. Yes, we stay up all Christmas Eve so we can feast come midnight. The star of the meal is usually the fiesta ham. For carbs, we serve rice and Pinoy-style spaghetti. Many of us also serve chicken, in either fried or roasted form. For dessert, we serve fruit salad which is nothing like the fruit salad elsewhere. Ours is a weird mix of grapes, apples, cherries, and tropical fruits like papaya and pineapple, and we dress it generously with a sweet mix of all-purpose cream and condensed milk. And if there’s room for more, we may serve leche flan – a close cousin of crème brûlée.”

“Russians celebrate Orthodox Christmas on January 7. Unlike New Year’s, which is basically just a big party, tradition calls for Christmas to be a family affair, held either at the parents/grandparents’ house or that of the eldest offspring. And it also marks the end of a fast, so lots of meat and fish dishes make it to the table. The most traditional dishes are stuffed roast goose, pork tenderloin with apples and cabbage, and some form of coulibiac (pictured). It’s basically a closed pie with fish, rice, and hard-boiled eggs inside.”

“In Slovakia we eat potato salad with mayonnaise, pickles, and breaded fish or meat, and sauerkraut soup with sausages and smoked pork.”

“Sweden also celebrates Christmas on the 24th. On the traditional Christmas dinner table you’ll find ham, meatballs, sausages, spare ribs, different kinds of herring, lox, Jansson’s temptation (a potato casserole with anchovies), red cabbage, brown cabbage, Brussels sprouts, some lye fish (very smelly), and in the south it’s traditional to eat smoked eel. To top it off, you have Christmas porridge and an array of cookies and sweets. We also have a Christmas soda called Julmust.”