Christmas Menu Traditions

By Frank Whitman

At our house, Christmas food traditions tend to be static, slowly evolving at best and stubbornly hard to change. Everyone has their favorites, but once in a while a new dish or flavor can tiptoe in the side door and take a place at the table. 

Rhys Logan builds a tree

The menu for Christmas Eve is surprisingly local.  It wasn’t planned that way. In the afternoon, the grandchildren assemble Christmas trees,  stacking graduated star-shaped sugar cookies from Marsha’s delicious family recipe.  Glued together with royal icing, the “trees” are bedizened with sprinkles, glitter and pearls in a messy but creative process. 

Meanwhile, the grownups are digging into a platter of local oysters. One of my favorite Christmas shopping trips is to the Norm Bloom and Sons dock at 7 Edgewater Place in Norwalk for a couple dozen of their famous Copps Island Oysters. The tag on the box declares that they were harvested just a day or two before, brought right up to the Norwalk dock by one of the historic boats in the Bloom fleet. Our son-in-law has become an experienced opener, wielding a wood-handled oyster knife with aplomb.

Copps Island Oysters

On the same shopping trip, I swing past the SoNo Baking Company at 101 Water St to pick up my pre-order of Christmas treats. John Barricelli and his busy crew toil like Santa’s elves to make sure there is plenty. This year, I’ve signed up for a couple of their unique Persimmon Puddings and a freshly baked Stollen. The Persimmon Puddings are shared for Christmas Eve dessert, while the Stollen, with its core of marzipan, toasts well for Christmas morning brunch.  

There is also a Chocolate Panettone on order at the Wave Hill Bakery. This year they’re offering two sizes, a good thing since I eat almost the whole thing myself and a large one does some real waistline damage. It’s great for snacking at any time of day through the holiday season.  We also lay in a supply of Walnut and Poppy Seed Beigli pastries from Cafe Dolce on Main Ave.

While the trees are being built and the oysters downed, a clove-studded ham is slowly baking. For decades, Nodine’s Smokehouse in Goshen Connecticut has been my source. Large or small, bone-in or boneless, spiral sliced or uncut, Nodine’s hams are custom smoked according to the Nodine family recipe. The flavor can’t be beat. 

There’s always been a pan of mac and cheese for the kids. Cabot three-year cheddar is the secret ingredient.  Some of them are ready to graduate to ham, but none are ready for oysters. 

Turkey is the main event for Christmas Dinner. I know, Prime Rib is making a move to dominate the table. We tried it, but the consensus is to go back to the traditional bird. It’s a bigger crowd around the table as other branches of the family join in. They all bring their favorites, each with a family story. 

Two dishes have recently joined our Christmas table. Marsha whipped up a pumpkin trifle a few years back and it returns annually due to popular demand (especially from the kids.) Molded jello salads have also made a comeback, nostalgically returning from her mother’s decades-ago menu. 

I won’t begin to recommend wines for these menus. Lots of choice is the best option. I like a sparkling wine for Christmas Eve. California is great, French is a splurge. Rosé is a good partner with the ham.  On Christmas Day, I offer both a red and a white. A good wine shop can advise. 

Just like on Thanksgiving, our Christmas turkey menu yields some great leftovers. Spread it all out buffet style and let everyone dig in.  A few days later I like to make a stock with the bones as the base for a turkey, mushroom and wild rice soup. It’s a little different every year, but delicious.

Our Christmas meals are built on a foundation of tradition.  The flavors connect the generations, reaching back to loved ones and forward to the future cooks who will keep the family recipes alive.

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FYI, I wrote a few weeks ago about the Crazies awards given out by the Connecticut Restaurant Association. You can see the Statewide results here. Bar Rosina’s in Greenwich was named overall Best Restaurant as well as Best in Fairfield County.