This is taken from an old post of mine on Christmas here in Ireland. Date: Wed, 17 Dec 1997 05:42:12 -0000 From: "Jane O'Brien" mailto:jayohbee@iol.ie To: IRELAND-L@rootsweb.com, At Christmas we eat mince pies, made from pastry and a fruit mixture called mince meat -seems this tradition came from the times when meat used to go off quickly and meat was put into pies with various spices and kept better - or maybe the rankness was simply not so noticeable! Today's mincemeat is made from currants, raisins, sultanas (golden raisins to you), sugar, lemon rind, cherries, apples and other dried fruits, plus a good dollop of whiskey! To keep it. Then, we have plum puddings, basically same mix as mincemeat, except here there are breadcrumbs, flour and eggs and the mix is put in pudding bowls and boiled for about 6 hours, Oh, how could I forget - the Irish recipe has guiness in it! Delicious on Stephens day - too heavy for Christmas after all the rest of the food. Served here with whipped cream or brandy butter. Also, there is the trifle, made from sponge or boudoir biscuits as the base, soaked in sherry, fruit salad mix on top, followed by jelly (jello to you) which mixes inwith the fruit, topped by custard and then topped again by whipped cream. Trifle would generally be eaten on Christmas day as it is much lighter than the pudding. Meat: We either go for the turkey or goose (used to be the tradiotional dish way back when your parents and grandparents emigrated) but then the turkey took over, so, goose goes with potato stuffing, turkey with a regular bread stuffing. In Cork they eat a lot of spiced beef over Christmas - or used to before BSE hit!! Thought the Irish are back eating beef. We haven't had as much BSE as Britain. Vegetables: Carrots and parsnips mashed together, brussels sprouts, marrowfat peas, celery. Potatoes roast and or boiled/mashed. Depending on family. There is also the ham, boiled or baked. Usually boiled the night before and then baked for a while on Christmas Day with a brown sugar and clove topping. That's the food. We give, give and give at Christmas....Charities are out in their thousands and every where you go there is a box looking for donations. They make a bomb at Christamas time.......meaning a lot of money. We are recognised as being a very generous nation. It's the truth so I might as well say it. Then on Stephens day there;'s the wren or wran. Only caried out in a few places nowadays, in every town when I was small and that wasn't too long ago. If you want to know about the wran let me know and I'l get back with that! Methinks this is a long enough mail. Also one other thing...the pies, pudding, trifle, turkey are alll British traditions which we've taken on.... :-) Jane ----------