From the time of the ancient Egyptians, goose was the main item on the menu during the Winter Solstice feasts.  When Man started doing away with pagan beliefs and celebrations and substituting them with Christmas celebrations, the menu changed too.

Henry the Eighth of England is credited with introducing turkey as part of the Christmas Day spread.  Turkeys were introduced to Europe in 1519 by the Spanish, who learned of turkeys from the Aztecs, the nation responsible for domesticating these birds.  Cranberries were also added to Christmas dinners during this time.

Christmas ham probably originated from Norse traditions of eating wild boar during midwinter feasts.  The ancient Romans also ate wild boar during a feast to celebrate the god Adonis, who supposedly celebrated his birthday on 25 December.

Humble pie was made from the ‘humbles’ of deer, meaning the animal’s heart, liver, brain and other organs, by the servants of the nobility who feasted on the better cuts of the deer.  By the seventeenth century, humble pie had become such a traditional English Christmas dish that it was outlawed by Cromwell’s Puritan government.  

Mincemeat pie was originally mainly minced meat preserved with sugar and spices, but fruits were often used as a less expensive preservative and flavouring agent than sugar.  Meat was increasingly omitted (except for beef fat) and additional fruits were added.

Plum pudding was originally a soup made by boiling beef and mutton with dried plums (prunes), wine and spices. The prunes and meat were later removed, raisins were added and the pudding was thickened with eggs and breadcrumbs to be more like a steamed cake. 

In the seventeenth century the word ‘plum’ was commonly used to refer to any dried fruit and a ‘sugarplum’ was any candied fruit (dried and sugared), such as plums, apricots, figs and cherries.  

Apples were tempting Christmas tree ornaments when the first decorated trees started appearing in Germany.  The apples were later augmented with cookies, nuts and other edibles and children could gobble up the ‘ornaments’ as soon as their parents dismantled the trees.

Candy canes also originated in Germany.  In the 1600s a choirmaster bent the white sticks to represent a shepherd’s staff and these were given to small children during the Nativity services to keep them quiet.

It was only in the 1900s that the candy sticks received their red and white Christmassy stripes and were flavoured with peppermint or wintergreen.  Many people say that the J-shape is a reference to Jesus (J-esus) and that the red and white colouring signifies the blood and purity of Christ.  FJ