There’s no one way to celebrate the most wonderful time of the year – it all depends on where you are, what you love and your own traditions. But there’s one festive theme that’s beloved around the globe, and that’s Christmas dinner.
Whether it’s a roast turkey with endless sides, spicy meat stew, a seafood extravaganza or even no-frills Kentucky Fried Chicken, there’s no holding back when the season for feasting rolls around. Get inspired for your upcoming banquet with these nine traditional Christmas meals from across the world.
1. A traditional turkey dinner in the UK
Christmas dinner in the UK is all about the gut-busting roast. This typically consists of roast turkey – chicken and goose are also popular choices – served with all the trimmings, from stuffing, roast potatoes, parsnips and Brussels sprouts to pigs in blankets (mini sausages wrapped in bacon) and devils on horseback (dates wrapped in bacon). All of this is washed down with plenty of gravy, a dollop of cranberry jelly and a healthy scoop of bread sauce. Regional variations include clootie dumplings (fruit pudding) for dessert in Scotland.
2. Dine on delicious mezze in Lebanon
Alongside the turkey or chicken (traditionally stuffed with spiced rice), the Lebanese Christmas food fest features a range of national foods: kibbeh pie made from bulgur wheat and minced meat; mezze dishes of lamb, hummus and vegetables; and tabbouleh, a Middle Eastern salad made with tomatoes, parsley, onions and mint. Sugar-coated almonds are also a very popular sweet snack to share among Christmas guests.
3. Savour a spicy feast during Christmas in Ethiopia
One of the oldest nations in Africa, Ethiopia still follows the Julian calendar, so Christmas falls on 7 January. In the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, Ganna (Christmas celebrations) involves a period of fasting on Christmas Eve (6 January), followed by an early mass on Christmas morning.
When fast is broken on Christmas Day, it is with a traditional meal of wat – a spicy meat and vegetable dish served with a type of sourdough flatbread called injera that is used as a plate-turned-edible-spoon to scoop up the thick stew.
4. Celebrate Christmas in Japan with a bucket of KFC
While Christmas Day is not a national holiday in Japan, people still celebrate by getting into the spirit of giving and spreading happiness. And what could be more joyful than sharing a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken with your loved ones? Thanks to a very successful media campaign by KFC in 1974, fried chicken is now a staple of the Japanese Christmas experience – it’s so popular, in fact, that branches have to take orders many months in advance.
Another festive export is the Japanese Christmas cake; a lighter take on the stodgy puds of the West, it is made up of a sponge topped with cream and decked out with strawberries.
5. Lychees are the holiday treat of choice in Madagascar
Christmas is truly a time for family in Madagascar. Come 25 December, families don their best clothes and join together en masse for a delicious dinner of pork or chicken with rice – mouthwatering variations include Akoho sy Voanio, a chicken and coconut stew, and Akoho misy Sakamalao, chicken cooked with garlic and ginger.
Lychees are considered a special Christmas treat in Madagascar, so expect to see plenty of these little pink fruits decking out shop displays and street stalls at this time of year.
6. Fill your belly with stollen in Brazil
Not one for downplaying festivities, Brazil’s Ceia de Natal (Christmas dinner) is a veritable banquet served late on Christmas Eve. Turkey – often decorated with local fruits – is served alongside a plethora of accompaniments like ham, garlicky kale, salted cod, salada de maionese (potato salad with raisins and apple slices), farofa (seasoned and toasted cassava flour), rice and nuts.
When it comes to dessert, Italian and German influences mean that panettone (Italian sweet bread) and stollen (a German fruit cake) have pride of place amidst the tropical fare. Rabanada is also a favourite festive pudding in Brazil – a variation on French toast, slightly stale bread is dipped in eggs and milk and fried before being covered in sugar, cinnamon and a spiced-port syrup.
7. Steaks and prawns on the barbie in Australia
It’s summertime Down Under, so Aussies fire up the barbecues in preparation for their Christmas spreads. It varies from region to region, but popular choices for the grill include steaks, chicken and seafood such as prawns, lobster and crayfish.
Traditional foods from the northern hemisphere, like ham, turkey and chicken, may make an appearance, sometimes served cold. The whole event is rounded off with a generous serving of pavlova, a baked meringue nest filled with whipped cream and decorated with fruits like kiwi, strawberries and passionfruit.
8. Indulge your sweet tooth in Iceland
Cookies and cakes abound at Christmas time in Iceland, with many households outdoing themselves with festive bakes. Icelanders further prove their culinary (and artistic) skills by frying up laufabrauð (leaf bread), a wafer-thin bread decorated with intricately cut patterns and shapes.
The pièce de résistance of the Icelandic Christmas dinner is typically hangikjöt (smoked lamb) and sometimes rjúpa (a type of seabird), and in recent years, even reindeer has graced the plates of Iceland – poor old Rudolph, eh?
Christmas buffets are a popular affair in Iceland this time of year, serving up lots of seasonal grub and traditional dishes such as pickled herring, cured salmon, reindeer pâté and smoked puffin.
9. Dine on lechon in the Philippines
In the Philippines, the main Christmas feast is the Noche Buena, held late on Christmas Eve. This meal has Hispanic roots and consists of lechon (roasted pig), queso de bola (Edam cheese), various pasta dishes and for dessert, fruit served with condensed milk or coconut cream. Tsokolate (hot chocolate) is another ubiquitous staple and, unusually, a slightly sweet version of spaghetti with tomato sauce has made it onto the Filipino Yuletide table in recent years.