Christmas preparations.

[BCAC]

At Christmas, when I was small, it was always roast turkey and all the trimmings - chestnut stuffing, pigs in blankets, roast potatoes, parsnips, sprouts, carrots, bread sauce and cranberry jelly and proper gravy - followed by Christmas pud. Always served at lunch time with washing up done in time for the Queen's speech. A buffet of cold turkey, homemade sausage rolls, cheese, pickles and salad with mince pies, Christmas cake and trifle was the tea time treat. There was always plenty and various leftovers cooked up in different ways that saw us through the next few days (no doubt inspired by the waste not want not attitude of my parents and grandparents for whom rationing after WW2 didn't end until the mid '50s).

More or less the same now, but the main meal on Christmas day has moved to the evening and the turkey is usually supplemented by a brace of pheasants or mallard. The buffet has moved to Boxing Day and both days are always family affairs. We still like to make the most of the leftovers, so bubble and squeak, turkey curry and turkey soup remain firm favourites. If we are hosting it's about twelve on Christmas Day and twenty on Boxing Day. It's a double whammy this year so we are going to be very busy!

That sounds just like the Christmases that I had when I was a nipper. Real christmases.

I must say that, unfortunately, the French people have a strange way of celebrating Christmas. Their main Christmas meal (some sort of fowl or seafood) is always on the 24th late in the evening and is supposed to carry on until after midnight but it always feels strange to me to celebrate Christmas on Christmas eve. Christmas day has nothing special and boxing day doesn't exist. Unfortunately, the Christmas spirit which was always around when I lived in the UK (from about the beginning of December onwards) just doesn't exist in France.

It's the time of year that I always miss being at home. I always try to get back for at least a long weekend during the month of December.

That's the French though. They also have a national day (Bastille day) which is the 14 of July. They always celebrate that one with partys and fireworks and always on the evening of the 13th of July. Strange habits.

[chemist93]

We had the mountain Christmas family gathering at my grandfather's house. Since they're gone now, part of the great majority. My step-mother likes going to a local cafeteria for dinner. My grandfather loved watching the Waltons Homecoming. It reminded him of his childhood. Meats were turkey or ham, spiced bread dressing, potatoes, sweet potato casserole, etc. Venison was preferred by me and a few others. A couple years we served beefsteak.