Winter Holiday Kin Keeping
What traditions do you continue?
While nursing a sore back this past week, I watched the latest season of The British Bake-Off and noted how many times the bakers mentioned the influence of their mothers and ethnic backgrounds on their baking efforts. The older women in our lives are often kin keepers—they carry out the activities that maintain family connections. For many of us, winter’s religious and secular celebrations are filled with traditions and rituals preserved by the kin keepers in our families.
I spent my childhood in Wisconsin, where the German holiday bread Stollen was a Christmas morning tradition. A yeast bread, filled with candied fruits and nuts and topped with icing, was available only during December from local bakeries. For several years, I made Stollen for my family and ate most of it myself, so that tradition mostly ended. This post offers the European history and recipe for Stollen. It looks so good; I may make it this year!
My mother didn’t bake much, but I remember baking Christmas cookies in our small kitchen, which she had painted a weird but warming orangish pink. One cookie recipe she made each year was Russian Teacakes, and it was my job to roll the baked cookies in powdered sugar after they cooled. Five decades later, I still make these melt-in-your-mouth cookies as a Christmas tradition.
My mom made Grasshopper Pie one Christmas - a frozen, creamy, mint-flavored pie scooped onto a chocolate crumb crust. It was popular in the 1960s, an extension of the Grasshopper drink that originated in New Orleans. It became our Christmas dinner dessert for several years. Decades later, I made Grasshopper pie for Christmas dessert, and my son loved it so much that he requested it each Christmas for years. Frankly, I was over it - it was too sweet! My son doesn’t bake tea cookies but occasionally makes Grasshopper pie. This post describes the history and occasional misunderstanding about the ingredients (recipe included).
Keepers of Christmas Past
While reading an article about the extra labor of the Christmas holiday (most often performed by female kin keepers), this quote summed up the emotional connection to holiday traditions: “The way Americans celebrate Christmas Present is rooted in Christmas Past.”
December is nostalgic for me, and I continue the Christmas traditions I experienced as a child. I decorate a tree each year, using blown glass ornaments similar to the ones my mom had. Christmas dinner is still a baked ham, potatoes (sometimes mashed, sometimes au gratin), corn, and rolls. Some years, I will add something new: a vegetarian strudel and lemon pudding cake are on the menu this year.
Entertainment Traditions
I added holiday music and movies to my month-long secular celebration of Christmas. I have a CD collection of classic holiday songs recorded by Perry Como, Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole, etc., that I play when baking and cooking. And the movies? I watch most of the older ones and some of the new-ish ones. Each year, I wait for the eye-rolling and groaning from family members who do not share my love of this entertaining tradition. What is wrong with them?
I watched The Family Stone last weekend while decorating my tree. It’s a great story about family relationships. Other favorite movies:
White Christmas (1954) - I love corny old musicals, and that gorgeous finale brings tears to my eyes each year.
A Christmas Carol (1984) - George C. Scott is the best Scrooge! (available on Youtube)
The Grinch that Stole Christmas (2000) Jim Carrey is fantastic - both funny and dark - despite being miserable during the film’s production. The Wikipedia entry on this movie offers some interesting details on its production.
Let’s have some fun this week. Share some or all of your winter holiday traditions, especially recipes. How about a digital cookie recipe exchange?
Favorite holiday movies and music
Favorite holiday bake
Favorite traditions you continue or started
A story about a kin keeper in your family
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I love the made-for-tv movie with Ed Asner. "The Gathering." It speaks to my generation especially ("prodigal" son whose been in Canada for years as a result of Vietnam war draft/dissension). It's a great lost movie.
How fun to read about your traditions, Sue! And I love the phrase, "kin-keepers."
I celebrate Winter Solstice rather than Christmas, and on Solstice evening, I line my walk and front porch with luminarias (a votive candle on a scoop of sand in a paper lunch bag) and leave them to burn through the longest night to bring the light back. I also make homemade eggnog, the real kind, separating the yolks and whites, "pickling" the yolks in and enriching them with cream, and whipping the whites to make the nog foamy, and invite friends and family to share the rich eggnog and other treats.
BTW, in my family, we call Russian teacakes, "Mexican wedding cookies." But my mom always made them at Christmas, along with a dozen other kinds of cookies. Go figure!