Brief Christmas Words
Merry Christmas!
Well, I’m not going to take up much of your time today, but I always like to send something out on holidays, just to take a moment when I’m not really publishing something to say thank you for reading.
Thank you especially to everyone who subscribed during my week of “Christmas specials.” It’s a lot of fun to work on these pieces ahead of time; sometimes I’ll have an idea in the first half of the year and think, that would make a good Christmas special. I’ll work on it and make it really good. I hope you thought so!
I also like to invite you to share any comments about your holiday traditions/food/etc. We always do an Italian-ish Christmas Eve dinner—not full Feast of the Seven Fishes, but an assemblage of Italian recipes I grew up eating, plus one or two new ones and sometimes something new that my wife and I make.
Our Christmas dinners are always much simpler than our Thanksgiving dinners; those are full of fun sides (to make up for the essentially underwhelming turkey, I suppose), while Christmas dinner is always a beautiful prime rib (we use this recipe, and it works great) and only a green vegetable and some nice bread on the side.
I just wrote about “the holidays,” and how I think of there as being basically two Christmases—one American, civic, secular, and consumerist, and the other a joyful yet quiet and almost spooky Christian celebration. I don’t feel, personally, that the way our culture skips Advent and celebrates Christmas for two or three months takes away from the sense of waiting and expectation. I like it a lot; it fills in the sparse winter days. It’s the fact that it all evaporates on the 26th that strikes me as the problem.
Anyway, share anything in the comments about your holiday traditions, or just go enjoy the day. Thank you for reading and Merry Christmas!
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I have become the unlikely keeper of the flame of my Sicilian Grandmother's Cuccidati recipe. These are Italian fig cookies, basically a hoity-toity fig newton. About 10 years ago my Dad was no longer able to make them so I took up the challenge (culinary arts are definitely not my forte) and make about 200 cookies and mail them to all my family members and distribute to my neighborhood friends. It's a 2 day process, but I have come to enjoy it and love to share them with friends and I know it makes my Dad and Aunt happy as it reminds them (and me!) of their mother who has been gone for 40 years now. Merry Christmas!