A tradition remarketed

Christmas crackers are a thoroughly British tradition that have only just in the last few years made it over to the United States. For many years they were pretty much impossible to find. Nowadays, you may have to look hard, but it is possible to find them. Most Americans are still pretty clueless about them though - the Americans I've met who know about them have all spent a Christmas in the UK or have a British relative. So I was surprised, not to say stunned, to see this in the seasonal aisle at my local supermarket this morning:

Yes, that's a box of crackers! ( Or "6 Celebration Cracker" as the box says!) Yes, they are red, white, and blue - with stars but no stripes! Yes, it's completely the wrong time of year for crackers. Remember though, that most Americans have no idea what crackers are and you have an opportunity to rework the tradition - the box reads:

"Party Surprise Fun!!
Great for birthday parties, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years . . . and more."

I didn't take a closer look at the box to see if there are instructions on what to do with the crackers - after all, if you haven't seen one before, it's not necessarily obvious! I wonder what's in them, and if Americans will wear the paper hats if there are any. I may have to go back tomorrow and buy a box. I wonder, if they sell well, if we'll start to see crackers for every 'occasion' - Halloween, Valentines' Day, Hannukah, weddings, baby showers . . . So much marketing potential that's been missed in the UK!

Merry Christmas

No snow on the ground here, but there were just a few flakes in the air this morning - very pretty. The temperature is perfect for using the 'fridge' in the basement. In the summertime it would be nice to have a real fridge down there, but at this time of year the hatchway stairs work just fine!

Merry Christmas!

No snow here, but it still feels like Christmas.

Thanks again to LJB at Crankymonkeys for some new ornaments for the tree! Santa brought a couple of new ones too - the red and white baubles with writing on them.

Merry Christmas!

Having a wonderfully perfect day thanks to my darling DH!

Christmas traditions

For many years after I first came to the United States, I was often a guest in someone else's home at Christmas. When I eventually got married it was really nice to finally be able to celebrate Christmas in my own home and start creating some of our own traditions as a family.

Some things we do a little differently to when I was growing up. We leave the stockings downstairs, but Santa always delivers one present upstairs to each of the kids. Breakfast on Christmas morning is cinnamon rolls. (Although this year it may be banana blueberry muffins as they are already made!) Lunch is never turkey, as we have turkey at Thanksgiving and for some reason DH thinks it's too soon only a month later to have another turkey. Not really - we just choose to have something different. As DH had to work until the end of the day this Christmas Eve, he is not making beef Wellington as he did last year. There will still be beef though, and salmon for those of us who don't like beef very much. No Christmas pudding or Christmas cake. After my recent attempt at making mince pies, I'm thinking I should try making a real English Christmas cake next year and am hoping my mother still has the recipe she used when we were little. I do make a 'kid's trifle' - with jelly/jello instead of sherry, but mostly I'm the only one who eats it. (Trifle makes for a yummy breakfast on Boxing Day!) DH surprised me this evening by producing a box of English Christmas crackers - the kind that go bang and have silly paper hats in them.

I got the following via email from friends a couple of days ago:

1st Annual Christmas Day Open House
Friday December 25th, 12:00 noon -10PM

For Kids & Childish Adults ▪ Dress Exceedingly Casual ▪ Light Fare Served All-Day
Leave your present-opening mess at home & come mess up our house, instead!

Although we've always considered Christmas Day a family day, I think we will take them up on their invitation. There's room in the routine for a new tradition!

Where is Mr Kipling when I need him?

Mince pies are not easy to find here in the US, and when you do find them they are often quite expensive. Most Christmases I just go without, although occasionally I do find some imports and decide to indulge in a box. This year, inspired by Karen, I decided to try making some.

I'm not sure when the last time was that I made mince pies, if ever. I think I need to practice. The store-bought mincemeat was acceptable, but the pastry left something to be desired. They did look quite nice though:


Maybe if I master making mince pies, another year I'll try making a real Christmas cake.

Who ate the tree ornaments?

I finally found some chocolate tree ornaments - for some strange reason they're not very easy to find over here. I put them on the tree after the children were in bed. Within seconds of coming downstairs for breakfast the next morning, or so it seemed, they noticed them. They appear to have inherited my chocolate gene. I warned the children not to touch them.

The children left for school, I started on housework. As I was transferring laundry from the washing machine into the dryer, I found a very distinctive wrapper in with the laundry. Someone, though I couldn't tell who, had eaten one of the tree ornaments and put the wrapper in their pocket. (I suspect this was probably before I put the ornaments on the tree.) I wasn't counting as I put them on the tree, but I counted as I followed through on my warning and took them off the tree again and realized that not one but two of them were missing. However, there were a couple of new ornaments on the tree:

Both children deny having taken the chocolate off the tree in the first place, but given the appearance of the poinsettia leaves, I would bet it was DD. I can't believe she really thought I (the chocolate queen) wouldn't notice!

Postscript: She 'fessed up to taking one chocolate ornament off the tree, but denied having eaten the mini candy canes missing from the kitchen - this despite her breath smelling like mint this morning and the candy cane wrappers being hidden under her pillow. She claimed her brother must have put the candy canes in her mouth while she was asleep, and the wrappers under her pillow! She really doesn't lie very well, but I guess that's a good thing!

Christmas thoughts

I miss mince pies at Christmas time! Occasionally our local supermarket has them, but they are in the import aisle and very expensive. I suppose I could buy them via mail order, but they're even more expensive that way. I miss Christmas cake too - REAL Christmas cake though - not the nasty dry stuff you find here in the US masquerading as fruitcake. DARK fruitcake that was made (or bought) back in September and has been fed a regular diet of brandy (maybe a little Guinness) ever since so that the fruit is nice and MOIST and with marzipan and royal icing on top. Sigh! One year I will get my act together and make one. That way I'd get one exactly the way I want - without cherries which I always pick out! I suppose I could make some mince pies too. I made a green tomato pie back in September and was surprised to find that it was remarkably similar to mince pie - but then again, with a ton of brown sugar, raisins and ginger, the tomatoes didn't really contribute much to the flavour!

It is possible to get Christmas crackers here in the US now. Not 20 odd years ago though - or at least nowhere where I shopped. Even so, a confused American blogger in the UK recently referred to them as "cylindrical "bang" packages" and clearly had never heard of them, let alone seen them before. Of course it's the same here as in England - cheap crackers have cheap junk inside them. Expensive crackers have better quality junk. Our crackers this year came from The Christmas Tree Shops so I don't know why we bothered. The internationalization of holiday traditions goes both ways as last time I was in the UK for Christmas I noticed that it is possible to buy candy canes over there now. Again, that wasn't true when I first came to the US.

A deprived childhood?

We were having a family conversation recently about what to have for Christmas lunch. Growing up in the UK, it was almost always turkey. I remember having goose once, but turkey was the traditional choice. Here in the US we always have turkey at Thanksgiving of course, and with Christmas only a month later we in this household always end up discussing whether we should have turkey 'yet again' or have something else. Personally, I like turkey and would be quite happy to eat it 'yet again', i.e. for the second time in the calendar year. However, so long as I'm not doing the cooking (and I never do for special occasions) I don't really mind because I know my dear husband will always produce a wonderful meal whatever the choice. The decision tends to be to buy some really good beef, and some salmon for those of us who don't really like beef. The little ones are encouraged to have some of each. It's very nice of the chef to cook fish for me when he hates it so much! He does a good job too!

Well, we were having the usual discussion and the Little American overheard us. She apparently then spent some time thinking about it. On the way home from school a day or so later she asked if she could request something special for Christmas lunch. "What would you like?" I asked. "A really special treat. Can we PLEASE go to McDonald's for Christmas lunch?" "You want to go WHERE? WHEN? You have got to be kidding!!!"

Actually, it wasn't such a bizarre request. You have to understand that McDonald's is not somewhere we ever go. The Little American has had food from that establishment precisely once, and I can tell you exactly when: she'd had 10 stitches after tripping and slamming her head* into a wall, and her father (for some inexplicable reason**) decided that it would help make her feel better if he went through the drive-through and bought her some french fries. So, yes, to her it is something special. However, although we may be depriving her of a truly American childhood, Christmas lunch at McDonald's will only happen over her parents' dead bodies.

* As my mother used to say, "Not to worry, it's only her head!"
** They'd already given her ice cream at the hospital - she needed another treat?