Christmas customs in Europe could not be more diverse, but one thing is common: everyone eats a lot - V4na.com covered the topic .
The British eat all sorts of things
At the Christmas table of an English family, the most common starters are prawns and smoked salmon, followed by roast turkey as the main course, the bigger the better. It is served with roasted or steamed vegetables and served with gravy, which is a thick sauce made from meat broth. Steamed Brussels sprouts are also an indispensable element of the menu, despite the fact that very few people like this. In addition, various meat pies are also very popular, in which, in addition to meat, sauces are also filled.
This course is followed by the Christmas pudding, full of dried fruits and various Christmas spices, and brandy is served as an accompaniment.
The mince pie is also popular. This was originally also filled with meat, but now many versions are known, with meat and fruit fillings, and they are also filled with fruit.
The cake shaped like a small nest symbolizes the manger of baby Jesus, and according to superstition, if the filling of the cake is made at home, good luck will come to the house.
Another characteristic element of the Christmas table is the so-called "christmas cracker", which is a cylinder made of harder paper. You have to grab and pull this from two sides, which causes the cylinder to fall apart and small gifts fall out.
Those who have a full belly are avoided by evil spirits
It is a tradition in Germany that everyone has to eat a lot,
According to popular belief, during the Christmas holidays, those whose bellies are full are avoided by demons.
In light of this, it is no wonder that one of the Germans' favorite Christmas food is roast goose with steamed cabbage.
Germans don't just like to eat a lot, but they also love sweets, one of the most typical German Christmas sweets is stollen. It is essentially a cake made with nuts, spices and fruit and topped with powdered sugar or covered with marzipan. Stollen is mostly served in the families of Saxony on Christmas Eve, this is where this sweet traditionally comes from. By the way, the Dresden stollen was regularly prepared by families as early as the 15th century.
In many places, hot dogs, sausages and potato salad are served on Christmas Eve. Moreover, the truth also includes the fact that the price of food has increased so much this year that many families are forced to make ends meet with this simple - but all the more traditional - menu this year.
Pasta, cake - and fish
Traditional Christmas food is very different in different areas of Italy. As well as when Christmas is celebrated, because in the central and southern areas the big holiday is connected with a dinner on the evening of the 24th, while in the north the lunch on the 25th is the most important.
There are also precise rules regarding what can be eaten. On the evening of the 24th, lean meats, usually fish, should be prepared, while at Christmas everyone can let their imaginations run free. However, there are elements that cannot be missing, such as dried fruits and panettone.
In one of the northern areas, the Valle d'Aosta region, Christmas specialties include carbonade, beef cooked in red wine; the honeyed, dried and flavored goat, and the crostini loaded with mutton sausage.
In Lombardy, unsurprisingly, one of the most traditional dishes is eel fried in foil, while in Veneto they eat polenta with salt cod and boiled meat with sauces.
In Central Italy, the best-known traditional dishes are tortellini and passatelli, which are strictly served in broth, and tagliatelle and lasagne, but tortelli di zucca and alle erbette, as well as prosciutto and culatello are eaten as main dishes in the area.
Although there are exceptions: such as Modena, where people eat fish, especially preserved fish. Here they eat tuna, mackerel, anchovy and tomato spaghetti, as well as steamed or fried salt cod.
Champagne and sea animals in all quantities
At Christmas, the French celebrate as a family, many people gather around the table and the conversation connected with the meal lasts for hours. The traditional French holiday dinner always starts with the appetizer, which is usually some kind of seafood, typically lobster, crawfish, scallops, oysters, snails, and the French favorite, foie gras, cannot be missing from the festive table, and those who like fish prefer salmon preference. This is followed by the main course, which is most often turkey stuffed with chestnuts or roasted kapan, but wild game or fish are also extremely popular, and vegetables and grilled mushrooms are served as a side dish. The dessert is traditionally the tree trunk cake, of which there are now countless versions, but according to the original recipe, the butter filling is mixed with cocoa powder, which is used to spread the cake base, then it is rolled up and the outside is covered with chocolate.
According to tradition, thirteen types of sweets should be served, usually dried seeds, candied fruits, as well as local sweets and pastries, as well as nougat.
In Alsace, which borders Germany, pastries have been a mandatory element of the Christmas dinner for centuries. You can find cakes of all kinds, in the case of stollen called Christolles, with Christmas motifs such as baby, star, pine, moon and cross.
drinks consumed with the celebratory dinner ,
In France, there is no Christmas without champagne, the most of this drink is sold in the last month of the year.
Champagne goes well with fish and foie gras served as appetizers, but the French prefer wine with desserts.
Cakes, fish, mushrooms and cabbage
In Central Europe, in the Visegrád countries, huge family dinners are organized on December 24 on Christmas Eve. And the must-have dishes are often connected to some old folk custom.
Hungarian families usually put up the Christmas tree on December 24th, and then they have a big feast, and there are plenty of delicacies on the festive table on Christmas Eve. Since several families slaughter pigs before Christmas, according to traditions dating back to long ago, stuffed cabbage, hurka, and sausage usually appear on the Christmas menu. But fish soup and deep-fried fish, as well as walnut and poppy seed bagels are also indispensable dishes in several places.
Slovak families have a wide range of Christmas customs, each region has its own menu during the holidays, for example. The most common dishes in the eastern part of the country are mushroom and sour soups and pies, but there are also dishes related to Russian, Ukrainian and Ruthenian cuisine and special dishes, such as honey-garlic wafers or fried yeast dough, which are mainly they turn into poppy seeds. A typical Slovak Christmas dish is cabbage soup, of which there are several versions, and in areas inhabited by Hungarians, fish soup is also on the table.
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