Historically the last few days before Christmas are when a large chunk of America gets engaged in the buying spirit.  As millions of people frantically spend the last hours before the red suited jolly guy comes sliding down the chimney looking for that perfect gift, millions more will be preoccupied with what comes after the house is covered in bits of torn wrapping paper.

Scandinavians are no stranger to a drink that finds its popularity during the Christmas season—julmust.  The words "jul" and "must" are Swedish for "yule" and "juice."It's a Scandivanian Christmas soda that is mainly consumed in Sweden. Want an indicator of its popularity in the region? Julmust outsells Coca Cola during the Christmas season and accounts for 50-percent of all soft drink volume during the month of December.  

The drink is also served during Easter. None of the ingredients are different, but it goes by a different name—påskmus. The word "påsk" translate to "Easter" in Swedish.

In addition to being served in Mexican homes during the Christmas and New Year holiday season, hot Mexican holiday punch, or ponche navideño is sold at night by street vendors who ladle it out from steaming cylindrical vats. The tejocote is a small fruit, golden in color when mature, similar in taste to an apple, but with a pastier texture. It is not easily found outside of Mexico, but apples make a good substitute. In Michoacan, a piece of beet is often added instead of jamaica to color the punch.

Tradition calls for twelve courses to be served during Wigilia. All the dishes are meatless and should be made from foods that come from the four corners of the earth: forest, sea, field, and orchard. Polish cooks over the centuries had to be very resourceful, working within these limitations, and it is a tribute to their creativity that they came up with such a rich variety of recipes based on root vegetables, dried mushrooms and dried fruits, potatoes and cabbage, local fish, and flour-based pastries and dishes, such as kluski and pierogi.

Coquito is a popular Christmas beverage in Puerto Rico. It has similarities to American eggnog, but the use of creme de coco or coconut milk gives it a unique island flavor. A version with eggs, known as ponche crema, is a favorite in Venezuela.

I used to drink chocolate milk when I was a kid; it was a real quick fix. Just pour some milk in a glass and add two tablespoons of the powdered chocolate and that was it. This wasn't my favorite beverage, but it was a good enough drink to settle down with on a Saturday or after school on a weekday. Sometimes my mother bought the powdered strawberry mix, but I didn't drink the strawberry milk. That often stayed right in the cabinet unused. It wasn't until I was just out of college and visiting my aunt at Christmas when I tasted something different—hot cocoa. Now, I'm not going to say that I never had hot cocoa before because I'm sure that I did, but this time it was so memorable. 

 

Christmas is a very festive time for Italians. Catholicism dictates abstinence from meat on Christmas Eve, therefore the traditional fish dinner was born. This was course #3 on the seven course fish dinner and one of my favorites! We would all gather in the kitchen on Christmas Eve morning and help my mom stuff them one by one with a baby spoon to fill them with the ricotta mixture. This was a family ritual that built the excitement as we prepared for the holidays together.

Sugar plums are widely associated with Christmas, through cultural phenomena such as the Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker (Composed by Tchaikovsky), as well as the line "Visions of sugar plums danced in their heads," from Clement C. Moore's poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas," better known as "Twas the Night Before Christmas." A sugar plum is a piece of dragée candy that is made of dried fruits and shaped in a small round or oval shape.

Makowiec (pronounced "Ma-KOH-viets") isn't, strictly speaking, a holiday bread. But it is a classic Polish dessert or tea bread that is commonly served around the holidays(commonly Easter or Christmas). It is a popular cuisine in other parts of Central Europe, Eastern Europe and in Israel.

A mince pie, also known as minced pie, is a small British sweet pie traditionally served during the Christmas season. Its ingredients are traceable to the 13th century, when returning European crusaders brought with them Middle Eastern recipes containing meats, fruits and spices.

Sugar plums are widely associated with Christmas, through cultural phenomena such as the Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker (Composed by Tchaikovsky), as well as the line "Visions of sugar plums danced in their heads," from Clement C. Moore's poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas," better known as "Twas the Night Before Christmas." A sugar plum is a piece of dragée candy that is made of dried fruits and shaped in a small round or oval shape.

Newsflash...it'sofficially getting colder. As the frigid temperatures settle in for the season, you may have to dress in layers and keep up with those runaway gloves, but the cold weather isn't all bad; it also brings delicious drinks that are great for warming the body and the spirit. One such beverage is Kinderpunsch, (also called "children's punch") and it is a Christmas tradition in Germany.

Easter is a ham's time to shine, but Thanksgiving or Christmas—fuggedaboutit! "No more!" says the pig. Tired of being the other meat, your ham is claiming center stage this holiday season. Move over turkey! Chef Jaimie Oliver adds a Caribbean spin to pork with this recipe for Spicy Jerk Ham. 

 

A few years I got the opportunity to interview Patrick and Gina Neely of the Food Network and we talked about a variety of things.  Among the recipes mentioned, was creamed collard greens.  I tried this recipe and it has been a winner for me. It puts a spin on the classic African American preparation of collards and gives a robust earthy taste to what would be the typical creamed spinach.

MCCN's Erika Holmes shared with us as a  Puerto Rican you can expect to find Arroz Con Dulce on the Christmas Table Spread. We found this recipe on the great web site El Boricua, which should be on list for all things Puerto Rican.

You can do things the easy and buy your flavored Masa or you can do what Emeril Lagasse says when he is cooking, "Kick it up a notch." Having prepared tamales and eaten the fruits of my labor, I suggest this recipe which call for some flavors that will certain enhance tamales and make them show stoppers.

Sparkling wine is a wine with significant levels of carbon dioxide in it making it fizzy. The carbon dioxide may result from natural fermentation, either in a bottle, as with the méthode champenoise, in a large tank designed to withstand the pressures involved (as in theCharmat process), or as a result of carbon dioxide injection.

On Christmas Eve, I stumbled upon a listing of recipes which help to comprise an Italian Christmas Eve Dinner.  Among the traditional dishes served is fried eel.  Visit mangiabenepasta.com for a complete menu of recipes for Christmas Eve.  Here is the fried eel recipe: 

There are two matzo ball camps: those that like them heavy and leaden at the bottom of a bowl and those that like them light and fluffy–these are the latter, and in my mind, the better ones.

If you can’t find matzo meal, pulse a few pieces of matzo in your food processor until it is a coarse powder. If you can’t find matzo, well, you obviously do not live in New York City.

Flan is a favorite of our logo designer Leo Cortez.  It is an ultimate comfort dessert.  This goes out to all the flan lovers out there.