I grew up attending the Italian side of the family' Christmas eve feast: traditionally, there are many fish dishes. Baked eel, fried smelt, linguini with clams, and calamari (squid) were the main things; sometimes oysters Rockefeller. My dad still makes a scalloped oyster dish every Christmas day; baked with lots of milk and crackers, but as I have never eaten it I have no idea why people like it. No meat was allowed on Christmas eve, but my grandfather did make some excellent baked chicken which was allowed after midnight (and he would sneak some to me early because I did not eat the fish dishes). It was great: baked with oil and vinegar and Italian spices. He was an incredible cook and taught me how to make his sauce, and real braciola.

Christmas day dinner was more traditional English/Irish fare from my mother's side of the family. When we used to have a huge sit-down dinner for loads of people, there'd be a turkey and often a ham, too; stuffing, mashed potatoes, Yorkshire pudding, vegetables, and my grandmother used to make cranberry sherbet which was incredible...oh, and BOTH sides of the family had many traditional sweets they baked! This year, as I have every year since I got a decent iron to make them with, I made pizzelles (those thin crispy waffle cookies) flavored with vanilla, not the traditional anise (my mom hated anise so we never did them that way). Also made roll-out sugar cookies and decorated them with icing and colored sprinkly stuff. We often had fried bowtie cookies (deep-fried then rolled in confectioner's sugar), cocount macaroons, two-tone twists made with chocolate and vanilla dough, and mom was known to make English toffee candy: a buttery brittle covered with dark chocoalte then rolled in crushed walnuts...yum.

All these traditions have lessened in grandeur but there are still some dishes we always have. The old standbys are now the scalloped oysters, fried smelt, pizzelles and oysters Rockefeller...and usually a ham instead of a turkey on Christmas day. We now only have a few peopel over (fewer than ten, as opposed to the 30 or more that used to show up!) and now eat buffet style as my Mom simply can't do all that work anymore (nor should she).

Happy Christmas to all!

peg