Festive Season – Scottish Style

A few people have asked what Christmas looks like in Scotland, so if you’re among that group, this one is for you.

One surprising thing I learned from the National Trust for Scotland is that Christmas was actually banned in Scotland for close to four hundred years. It had been celebrated before the Protestant Reformation but some time after Protestant Reformation, in the middle 1600’s, it was outlawed out of concern that celebrations were too close to Roman Catholicism. Christmas became a Scottish public holiday only in 1958!

Nowadays, Christmas looks very much like it does at home with festive lights, Santa Claus and Christmas trees.

Of course, there is always a Scottish twist . . .

While, like the U.S., festivities center around a shared meal, the food traditions around Christmas holiday lunch here are a bit different than home.

Turkey seems to be the most common main course, though leg of lam, steak pie, ham or beef could also be served.

Brussel sprouts are a common holiday side. I’ve read that 25% of the annual UK consumption of brussels takes place in the two weeks around Christmas! Tatties and neeps (potatoes and turnips to you) and carrots are likely to feature also. Less familiar things like Yorkshire puddings (most similar to a popover), black pudding (blood sausage) and pigs in a blanket (also called “kilted soldiers” in Scotland) may also be on offer.

Christmas cookies don’t seem to be quite as big of a thing as at home – though mince pies seem an extremely popular holiday treat. They’re small (about the diameter of a cookie) and filled with dried fruits and spiced with cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg. You can’t go anywhere in food stores without seeing big displays of mince pies. Centuries ago, they started as large oblong savory pies filled with actual minced meat, dried fruit and spices. The shape represented the manger and the fillings, the gifts of the Wise Men.

The typical holiday meal comes to an end with a Christmas pudding with a brandy cream sauce. It’s a boiled, moist cake chock full of dried fruit. There’s a tradition that as it is being prepared, every member of the household should stir the pudding while making a wish. It is sometimes doused with brandy and set alight for a dramatic presentation.

Christmas crackers are often part of the festivities. They are tubes covered with decorative paper that make a popping sound when pulled. It’s sort of like the pulling of a wishbone as one person holds each end and the person that winds up holding the bigger portion after the pull is the winner of the small trinket inside.

Thank you so much for your support and encouragement this year. However you celebrate the holidays, I wish you health, happiness and time spent with those you love.