166 Fun Facts About Christmas Food Around the World

Which corn-dough parcel wrapped in plantain leaves and filled with meat stew is Venezuela's Christmas dish?

The hallaca is Venezuela's Christmas dish: corn dough around a stew of beef, pork and chicken with raisins, olives and capers, folded in plantain leaves, tied with string and boiled.

What Italian city is considered the birthplace of panettone?

Milan is panettone's home, yet the tall, soft dome known today dates only from 1919, when Angelo Motta's bakery there began turning out the modern loaf.

What is France's traditional Christmas dessert?

The Bûche de Noël (Yule Log cake) is a traditional French Christmas dessert made from rolled sponge cake decorated to look like a log, referencing the old custom of burning a Yule log.

Eggnog is believed to descend from which medieval English drink of hot curdled milk?

Posset was taken as a cold remedy and a nightcap: in Macbeth, Lady Macbeth drugs the guards' possets so that they sleep through King Duncan's murder.

Which German city is most famous for its Christmas stollen, holding an annual festival in its honor?

Dresden's Stollenfest parades a giant stollen weighing tonnes through the streets to the Christmas market each Advent, where it is cut up and sold in portions for charity.

What fairy tale is credited with popularizing the tradition of building gingerbread houses?

Hansel and Gretel inspired German bakers' decorated houses in the early 1800s, yet the Grimms' witch lives in a house built of bread, roofed with cake and windowed with clear sugar.

What is traditionally hidden inside a British Christmas pudding for good luck?

A coin, usually a silver sixpence or threepence, went into the mix; whoever found it in their helping kept it and was promised wealth in the year ahead.

Germany's finest gingerbread, Elisenlebkuchen, may contain at most 10 percent of which baking staple?

Flour is capped at 10 percent in Elisenlebkuchen while nuts must make up at least a quarter, so the soft, sticky dough is piped onto thin wafers to bake.

During Las Posadas, the meal after the piñata usually includes atole, buñuelos and which dish?

Tamales round off each posada, the nightly processions that re-enact Mary and Joseph's search for an inn, washed down with ponche, a hot punch of fruits such as tejocote and guava.

Stir-up Sunday, when Christmas puddings are traditionally mixed about five weeks ahead, falls on which day?

Stir-up Sunday falls on the last Sunday before Advent. The name comes from the Book of Common Prayer collect for that day, which begins "Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord."

What hot spiced drink is the signature of Christmas markets across Germany and Austria?

Mulled wine, sold there as Glühwein, is red wine heated with cinnamon, cloves and citrus; for Feuerzangenbowle a spirit-soaked sugarloaf is set alight above the pot and drips in.

Where do many Polish families keep a live Christmas carp for a few days before cooking it?

In the bathtub: the carp is bought alive and swims there for a few days, a habit said to rinse away its muddy taste before the Christmas Eve supper.

A 15th-century papal letter freed German bakers to put which fast-forbidden ingredient in their Advent stollen?

Butter was banned during the Advent fast, leaving stollen a plain, hard loaf, until Pope Innocent VIII's 'Butter Letter' lifted the rule; an earlier pope had refused the same plea.

Which roast is the centrepiece of most British Christmas dinners today?

Roast turkey was already on English Christmas tables by 1573, when farmer-poet Thomas Tusser listed it among the season's fare; before it spread, goose or roast beef was the usual centrepiece.

What small sausages wrapped in bacon are a staple side dish at a British Christmas dinner?

Pigs in blankets are chipolatas wrapped in streaky bacon in Britain; ask for them in the United States and the 'blanket' is bread or pastry dough instead.

What is the name of the traditional Filipino whole roasted pig served at Christmas celebrations?

Lechon is roasted whole over charcoal, often stuffed with lemongrass and tamarind leaves; the Spanish word means a suckling piglet, but in the Philippines it now covers any roast pig.

What Italian Christmas cake from Verona is traditionally star-shaped and dusted with powdered sugar?

Pandoro's coat of icing sugar is meant to make the tall, star-shaped loaf look like a snowy mountain peak; Verona confectioner Domenico Melegatti patented the recipe in 1894.

Which fruit at the bottom of a Christmas stocking is said to stand for St Nicholas's gift of gold?

An orange, or a tangerine or satsuma, recalls the legend of St Nicholas secretly leaving gold for a poor family, gold that some tellings turn into three golden balls.

What is the Nordic name for the spiced hot wine, of Swedish origin, drunk around Christmas?

Glögg takes its name from Swedish glödga, to heat, a verb built on glöd, 'ember'; it is served with raisins and blanched almonds in the cup.

Which flavour is traditional for a red-and-white striped candy cane?

Peppermint is the classic flavour; canes were bent by hand, with heavy breakage, until a priest, Gregory Keller, built a machine for his brother-in-law's Georgia candy firm in the 1950s.

Which cold dish, brought by Italian immigrants, is a fixture of Argentina's Christmas table?

Vitel toné, cold veal in tuna sauce, is Piedmont's vitello tonnato under its dialect name; served chilled as a starter, it suits a Christmas and New Year that fall in the southern summer.

Torrone, Italy's Christmas nougat, is a speciality of which Lombardy city, also home to Stradivari's violins?

Cremona's legend has torrone first served at the 1441 wedding of Francesco Sforza and Bianca Maria Visconti, moulded like the Torrazzo bell tower.

Which vegetable, loved by some diners and loathed by others, is a fixture of the British Christmas dinner?

Brussels sprouts divide the table, and an old kitchen habit may not help: the cross cut into each base, meant to help them cook evenly, is said to leave them waterlogged.

What is the name of the Greek Christmas bread decorated with a cross on top?

Christopsomo means "Christ's bread". Some of the dough is set aside to form the cross on top; its Easter cousin lampropsomo has dyed whole eggs pressed into the braid.

What is the traditional Christmas dessert in Australia, reflecting the country's summer holiday season?

Pavlova, meringue under whipped cream and summer fruit, was named for ballerina Anna Pavlova after her 1920s tours, and Australia and New Zealand still dispute who made it first.

A popular origin story says candy canes began in 1670 with the choirmaster of which cathedral?

Cologne Cathedral's choirmaster, the legend goes, had sugar sticks bent into shepherds' crooks in 1670 to keep children quiet through the Nativity service; no record from the time backs the story.

Which Polish city, birthplace of Copernicus, is famous for its pierniki gingerbread?

Toruń has baked its honey-and-spice pierniki since the Middle Ages; the teenage Chopin stopped there in the 1820s and praised the gingerbread in a letter.

The French Christmas Eve dinner 'réveillon' survives in which US city's restaurants?

New Orleans keeps the réveillon alive; the name comes from the French réveiller, 'to wake', because the long meal keeps diners up well past midnight.

Norway's Christmas dish pinnekjøtt is made from which cured and dried meat?

Pinnekjøtt is lamb ribs, salted and dried (sometimes smoked), then soaked and steamed over birch sticks, served with mashed rutabaga and akevitt; it is the Christmas main across western Norway.

What spongy sourdough flatbread is torn off to scoop up the stews of an Ethiopian Christmas feast?

Injera is plate and spoon at once: the Ganna feast's spicy stew is ladled onto the flatbread, and diners tear off pieces to scoop it up.

What is the name of the traditional German Christmas market, famous for its food stalls?

Weihnachtsmarkt simply means 'Christmas market'; the markets date to the late Middle Ages, and many in the south are called Christkindlmarkt, after the Christ Child said to bring the presents.

In the classic poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas," what food are the children dreaming about?

Sugar plums in the 1823 poem were not plums at all: the name covered small round sugar sweets, 'plum' describing their size and shape rather than the fruit.

What year did KFC Japan launch its famous "Kentucky for Christmas" marketing campaign?

KFC Japan launched 'Kentucky for Christmas' (Kurisumasu ni wa Kentakkii) nationally in 1974, pitching fried-chicken party barrels as a substitute for the turkey Japan lacked; the campaign made KFC a Christmas Eve ritual.

What Swedish soft drink outsells Coca-Cola during December?

Julmust was devised by Harry Roberts, a teetotaller, and his father as an alcohol-free alternative to beer; each December Swedes drink so much of it that other soft-drink sales fall by about half.

What do Dutch children traditionally leave out for Sinterklaas's horse in the weeks before 5 December?

A carrot in a shoe by the fireplace is the horse's treat; the children sing a Sinterklaas song and hope to find sweets or a small present in the shoe next morning.

A Yule log cake is traditionally baked from which kind of sponge before being rolled?

The genoise is baked flat in a Swiss roll pan, spread with buttercream and rolled, then iced to look like bark, often with a stub "branch" cut off and stuck on the side.

Which custard-like dessert is paired with buñuelos at a Colombian Christmas?

Natilla, set with cornstarch rather than eggs and sweetened with panela, is handed round with buñuelos after families pray and sing carols at each night's novena before Christmas.

Which warmed spirit is poured over a British Christmas pudding and set alight before it comes to the table?

Brandy gives the pudding its blue flame; in Dickens's A Christmas Carol, Mrs Cratchit carries hers in 'blazing in half of half-a-quartern of ignited brandy'.

What Western-style cake is traditionally eaten at Christmas in Japan?

Japan's Christmas cake is a strawberry shortcake: white sponge layered with whipped cream and strawberries, sold by the confectioner Fujiya from the 1920s and a Christmas Eve fixture in the post-war years.

Wassail, a traditional Christmas punch, takes its name from a medieval greeting meaning what?

'Be in good health' was the greeting 'wæs hæil', which has Old Norse roots; the reply was 'drinkhail', and the spiced drink in the shared bowl took the greeting's name.

Families stirring a Christmas pudding mix from east to west are said to honour whose journey?

The Three Wise Men came from the East, so each family member stirs the mix that way and makes a wish; one superstition also calls for thirteen ingredients, for Christ and his disciples.

The 'thirteen desserts' of Christmas Eve, among them nougat and olive-oil bread, are a tradition of which French region?

Provence's thirteen desserts stand for Christ and the twelve apostles; the first four, nuts and dried fruit known as the 'four beggars', represent four orders of friars.

Jamaica's deep-red Christmas drink 'sorrel' is brewed from which flower?

Hibiscus sepals, from the plant called roselle, are steeped with spices for sorrel; the plant reached the Caribbean from Africa, and Mexicans call the same red drink agua de Jamaica.

Which late-December Roman feast is considered a precursor to Christmas food traditions?

Saturnalia ran from 17 to 23 December with feasting and gift-giving, and for those days the usual social rules were suspended, so that slaves could join the banquet.

The official Christstollen from Saxony's capital carries a seal depicting which ruler?

Augustus II the Strong, Saxony's pomp-loving elector, is on the seal; in 1730 he had the city's bakers make a stollen weighing well over a tonne to feed some 24,000 guests at a military show.

Which German city's finger-sized bratwurst are sold three to a roll at its Christmas market?

Nuremberg's Rostbratwurst are only 7 to 9 cm long, seasoned with marjoram and eaten 'Drei im Weggla', three in a roll; EU protection means only sausages made in the city can carry the name.

At which institution did the whiskey-fuelled Eggnog Riot break out on Christmas Eve 1826?

West Point cadets smuggled in whiskey to spike the eggnog for a Christmas party; the drunken riot that followed ended in courts-martial, and future Confederate president Jefferson Davis was among the revellers.

What is coquito, Puerto Rico's answer to eggnog, made with?

Rum and coconut define coquito, 'little coconut': Puerto Rican rum blended with coconut milk, coconut cream, condensed milk and cinnamon; unlike eggnog, the basic recipe needs no eggs.

In Britain, eggnog was at first mainly a drink of which group?

Aristocrats drank it in Britain, where milk and eggs were foods of the wealthy; it caught on more widely in the American colonies, which were full of farms, cows and chickens.

Which slow cooking method, lasting several hours, is traditional for a British Christmas pudding?

Steaming in a basin took over in Victorian times; before that the pudding was boiled in a cloth, which is why Dickens's Mrs Cratchit serves one 'like a speckled cannon-ball'.

Which king is nicknamed the 'Pudding King' in an unsubstantiated plum pudding myth?

The tale claims he demanded it at his first Christmas in England in 1714.

Which 17th-century English ruler is popularly, but wrongly, blamed for personally banning Christmas feasting?

Oliver Cromwell gets the blame, but it was Parliament's Puritan majority that restricted Christmas in the 1640s and 1650s, when mince pies were attacked as indulgent and Catholic.

What did medieval English cooks call the thick pastry case that held a pie's filling?

A coffyn was the stiff, plain pastry case, with straight sealed sides, that served as the pie's baking dish; the word then simply meant a basket or box.

Which dried fruit joins sultanas and raisins in a traditional English Christmas cake?

Zante currants are not berries but tiny dried grapes, their name a medieval garbling of 'raisins of Corinth'; with sultanas and raisins they are soaked in spirits before the cake is baked.

Popular legends say panettone was first baked by a baker or kitchen boy called what?

Toni, in one telling, is a kitchen boy who saves a Christmas banquet with a sweet loaf of leftovers after the dessert burns; in another he is a poor baker whose daughter a nobleman courts. Either way the loaf becomes 'Toni's bread'.

Which Dutch spiced biscuits, pressed in carved wooden moulds, are a December staple?

Speculaas grew out of the Dutch spice trade, and the dough is pressed into moulds of St Nicholas because the biscuits were baked for his feast in early December.

Which Armenian monk is claimed to have brought gingerbread to Europe in 992?

Gregory of Nicopolis, an Armenian monk who settled at Bondaroy near Pithiviers, is said to have taught French priests to bake gingerbread from 992 until his death in 999.

Which monarch's court is credited with the first gingerbread men, served to dignitaries?

Elizabeth I is credited with the first gingerbread men: she had the biscuits made in the likeness of dignitaries visiting her court and presented to them.

Which hot port punch does the reformed Scrooge promise to share with Bob Cratchit in A Christmas Carol?

Smoking Bishop is port heated with sugar, spices and clove-studded citrus fruit that is roasted first; Victorians drank a family of such punches named after clergy, including a 'pope' made with burgundy.

Which Asian country took up France's rolled Christmas log cake as a December tradition of its own?

Vietnam inherited the log cake from French colonial rule and kept it after the French left, so its bakeries still sell it every December, as do those of Lebanon and Quebec.

The Christmas ham is thought to descend from a boar sacrificed to which Norse god?

Freyr's own mount was the gold-bristled boar Gullinbursti; on Yule Eve the sacrificial boar was led into the hall, where men laid their hands on its bristles and swore their vows.

Which US state is turducken associated with?

Louisiana's Cajun chef Paul Prudhomme is generally credited with the named dish; broadcaster John Madden then made it a national craze by awarding turduckens to winning teams at NFL Thanksgiving games.

What is the culinary term for stuffing one animal inside another, as in turducken?

Engastration reached its extreme in the French gourmet Grimod de La Reynière's 'roast without equal': seventeen birds, each stuffed inside the next, from a bustard down to a garden warbler.

Which thin, crisp Swedish ginger biscuit is cut into hearts, pigs and goats at Christmas?

Pepparkakor come with a Swedish saying that eating them makes you kind; an old tale has the doctor of bad-tempered King Hans prescribing them as medicine for his mood.

The earliest known fruitcake, a Roman barley mash, held pine nuts, raisins and the seeds of which fruit?

Pomegranate seeds went into the Roman mash; honey, spices and preserved fruit joined it only in the Middle Ages, when dried fruit became widely available and the fruitcake proper took shape.

Which spice gives Germany's small glazed Christmas 'nut' biscuits their name?

Pepper, Pfeffer in German, names Pfeffernüsse, the pepper nuts; Offenbach's were once so famous that the state of Hesse offered them to guests at official occasions into the 1980s.

Besides Spain and Italy, where is turrón-style nougat sold as qubbajt at parish feasts?

Malta sells its nougat, qubbajt, from street stalls at each parish's patron-saint feast rather than at Christmas; Tunisia and Romania likewise sell theirs at fairs.

Which dough is a Mardi Gras king cake traditionally made from?

Brioche dough is braided into a ring and iced in purple, green and gold, with a small plastic baby hidden inside; whoever finds it has to bring the next cake or throw the next party.

At the Lithuanian Kūčios supper, small biscuits called kūčiukai are eaten with what?

Poppy-seed milk, aguonų pienas, is crushed poppy seeds thinned with water and sweetened, a 'milk' for a Kūčios table from which tradition bars dairy.

Which sweet wheat-berry dish with honey and nuts is tasted first at a Ukrainian Christmas Eve supper?

Kutia waits in the icon corner, the home's place of honour, until supper; the head of the family then lifts the first spoonful and calls on departed relatives to join the meal.

Which wheat sheaf, whose name means 'grandfather spirit', honours the ancestors at a Ukrainian Christmas?

Didukh is carried in by the head of the household on Christmas Eve; the ancestors' spirits are believed to dwell in it over the holidays, and afterwards it is burned to see off the winter.

Which soup, served with mushroom-filled uszka dumplings, traditionally opens Polish Wigilia?

Barszcz, a clear beetroot broth, opens the supper in much of Poland with tiny dumplings called uszka, 'little ears'; other regions begin with a wild-mushroom soup instead.

What is traditionally spread beneath the tablecloth at a Polish Wigilia supper?

Hay under the cloth recalls the manger in which Jesus was laid, and an empty place is set at the same table for an unexpected guest or a lost wanderer.

Which thin wafer with a pressed holy picture is shared in Poland at Christmas?

Opłatek is passed round before the meal: each person breaks a piece from another's wafer while exchanging wishes, and on farms coloured wafers were kept back for the animals.

Which spherical Danish pancake puffs are served with jam and icing sugar through December?

Æbleskiver means 'apple slices': the original was a slice of apple dipped in batter and fried, but today's puffs rarely contain any apple.

Lutefisk is dried whitefish cured in what?

Lye gives lutefisk, literally 'lye fish', its soft, jelly-like texture, but it leaves the fish caustic and inedible, so it has to be soaked in fresh water for days before cooking.

Which Western Norwegian pre-Christmas dish is a salted, dried sheep's head?

Smalahove begins with the head being singed over an open flame to burn off the wool; it is then split, salted and often smoked before boiling, and diners start with the ear and the eye.

What is the beetroot, carrot and potato salad served with ham on a Finnish joulupöytä?

Rosolli comes with its own dressing: cream is whipped, sharpened with a little vinegar and dyed pink with a splash of the beetroot's liquid, then usually served alongside in a separate bowl.

Which bird do most Danish households roast for their Christmas Eve dinner?

Duck, with caramelised potatoes and red cabbage, is the usual Danish choice; roasts only replaced the old Christmas Eve dish of dried cod in the mid-1800s, when 24 December became the main feast day.

Which plaited Czech Christmas loaf, made from a rich egg dough, is braided much like challah?

Vánočka takes its name from Vánoce, Czech for Christmas, and its plaits are traditionally read as the swaddling bands of the infant Jesus, an image a monk wrote down as early as about 1400.

Which roast bird, served with red cabbage and dumplings, is Germany's classic Christmas main course?

Goose reached the German Christmas table by way of St Martin's Day: one was eaten in November before the Advent fast began, and another when the fast ended at Christmas.

What do Italians call the Christmas Eve feast?

Cenone means 'big supper'; emigrants from the south, where it is a long run of seafood dishes, carried it to America, where it grew into the Feast of the Seven Fishes.

Capitone, a Neapolitan Christmas Eve dish, is the large female of which fish?

Eel: the female grows far bigger in head and body than the male, which is how the capitone came by a name taken from the Latin for 'head'.

Which Neapolitan Christmas dish is deep-fried dough balls mixed with honey?

Struffoli may descend from the honeyed dough balls of the ancient Greeks who settled Naples, though Andalusia's near-identical piñonate points instead to the city's centuries under Spanish rule.

Panforte is a Christmas tradition of which Italian province?

Panforte, the dense spiced cake of honey, nuts and candied fruit, is a Sienese Christmas tradition; a document of 1205 records Siena's pepper-and-honey bread being paid as a tithe to a local monastery.

Tuscan cavallucci, honey-and-anise Christmas biscuits, take their name from what?

Little horses: the biscuits are said to have once been stamped with the image of a horse, though another story credits the coachmen who ate them at country inns.

Genoa cake is a British variant of which Ligurian Christmas cake?

Pandolce was first a tall loaf raised slowly with yeast, like bread; the quick, low version, and the Genoa cake British bakers made from it, came with chemical raising agents in the 19th century.

Which oval Greek Christmas biscuits are dipped in honey syrup straight from the oven and topped with walnuts?

Melomakarona are thought to descend from the makaria, a small loaf eaten at funerals in ancient and medieval Greece; dipping it in honey, and later adding spice, turned it into a festive treat.

Greeks cut their New Year cake on 1 January, the feast day of which saint?

Basil of Caesarea is the saint Greeks link with the cake, vasilopita; in the legend told about it he had gold baked into loaves so that it would reach the people of his city, each family finding its share when the bread was cut.

Filipino bibingka is baked in a terracotta oven lined with what?

Banana leaves line the clay bowl and cover the batter, which bakes between two fires, coals underneath and more coals on a metal sheet on top; vendors sell the cakes outside churches after December's dawn Masses.

Which American fast-food chain supplies the customary Christmas dinner in Japan?

KFC owes the custom to Takeshi Okawara, who ran its first Japanese outlet: in 1970 he began selling fried-chicken 'party barrels' as a stand-in for the Christmas roast Japan lacked, and a national campaign followed.

Bebinca and kulkuls are Christmas sweets of which Indian state, where families exchange platters called kuswar?

Goa's Catholic families make kuswar in the weeks before Christmas and exchange plates of it with neighbours; the bebinca is built up slowly, each layer cooked before the next is ladled on.

Chile's Christmas cocktail cola de mono mixes coffee, milk, spices and which spirit?

Aguardiente gives cola de mono, 'monkey's tail', its kick; one story takes the name from the Anís del Mono bottles it was sold in, with a long-tailed monkey on the label, another from jokes about a losing candidate.

Which crown-shaped Portuguese Christmas cake traditionally hid a dried fava bean?

Bolo Rei once hid two things: a dried fava bean, whose finder had to pay for the next cake, and a small metal charm, whose finder could count on good luck instead.

Printen, hard spiced gingerbread bars sold at Christmas, are a speciality of which German city?

Aachen's bakers sweetened Printen with honey until Napoleon's blockade of British trade cut off cane sugar and made honey costly; they turned to syrup from local sugar beets and kept it.

Which Hungarian Christmas roll is filled with walnut or poppy seed?

Bejgli comes in two fillings for a reason: Hungarian folk belief says walnuts guard against curses and poppy seeds bring plenty to the house, so most Christmas tables carry both.

Which cookbook of Richard II's master cooks contains fygey, an early figgy pudding?

The Forme of Cury's fygey was no pudding at all: ground almonds were thinned with water and wine, then boiled up with quartered figs, ginger and honey.

Cranberry relish is first mentioned as a companion to turkey in which 1796 book?

Amelia Simmons's American Cookery (1796), the first cookbook written by an American, is the earliest book to pair cranberry sauce with roast turkey.

Terry's Chocolate Orange was created in which English city in 1932?

York's Terry's launched the Chocolate Orange six years after a Chocolate Apple that was later dropped; the York works itself shut in 2005, when its owner Kraft moved production to the Continent.

Which pastry-wrapped Scottish fruitcake moved from Twelfth Night to Hogmanay?

Black bun was a Twelfth Night cake until the Scottish Reformation did away with Christmas feasting; it moved to Hogmanay, when first-footers carry one to the neighbours so that the house will not go hungry.

Which Irish city is famed for the spiced beef eaten at Christmas?

Cork's butchers still sell rounds of spiced beef every December; in England the dish had died out before the 20th century, but James Joyce set one on the Christmas table in 'The Dead'.

What filling runs through the centre of a Dutch kerststol?

Almond paste, amandelspijs, runs through the loaf as a single log; because it is costly, cheaper Dutch bakes swap in a look-alike made from ground apricot kernels and white beans.

Läckerli, hard spiced honey biscuits made with kirsch, come from which Swiss city?

Basel made the biscuit its own, yet the word Läckerli is first recorded in Augsburg in 1591 and turns up in Basel's guild accounts only in 1711; until then the city's recipe books just said gingerbread.

Vanillekipferl crescents originated in which city?

Vienna's bakers, legend says, first shaped the crescents in 1683 to mock the moon on the flags of the beaten Ottoman army; the tale is doubted, because crescent Kipferl were being baked centuries earlier.

Bethmännchen marzipan cookies are a speciality of which German city's Christmas market?

Frankfurt legend says the marzipan balls first carried four almonds, one for each son of the banker Simon Moritz von Bethmann, and lost one when a son died in 1845; the banker himself had died in 1826.

Which chocolate-coated cube of gingerbread, jelly and marzipan was created in 1936 as a cheaper praline?

Dominostein, 'domino tile', was the confectioner Herbert Wendler's answer for customers who could not afford his pralines; wartime shortages then made the layered cube a favourite, nicknamed the 'emergency praline'.

What does the German name Baumkuchen literally mean?

Tree cake is named for its rings: batter is brushed onto a turning spit one thin layer at a time, and each browned layer shows up in the slice like a year's growth in a trunk.

What does kransekake, the Scandinavian cake of stacked rings, mean in English?

Wreath cake is the meaning, krans being a wreath or ring; at weddings the couple lift the top ring together, and the rings that come away with it are said to count their future children.

Which spice flavours Swedish lussekatt buns eaten around St Lucy's Day?

Saffron buns are carried in on 13 December by a girl dressed as Lucia, in a white gown with candles in her hair, who serves them to the household with coffee.

Which chilli-based spice blend gives the stew of an Ethiopian Christmas feast its heat?

Berbere, a blend built on ground chillies, fires a stew that follows 43 days of fasting: before Christmas, Ethiopian Orthodox Christians go without meat, dairy and eggs.

Which drink do Peruvians traditionally pair with a slice of panetón at Christmas?

Hot chocolate is the classic partner for panetón even though Christmas arrives in the Peruvian summer; the loaf itself is Italy's panettone, carried over by immigrants.

In Mexico, whoever finds the baby Jesus figurine in a rosca de reyes must host a party on which feast day?

Candlemas, 2 February, is when the finder feeds everyone who shared the cake; the figure is hidden in the dough to recall the Holy Family's flight from King Herod.

Which meat pie do Quebec families serve at the réveillon after Midnight Mass?

Tourtière probably takes its name from the round dish it was baked in; in Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean the word means a much deeper pie of cubed meat and potatoes.

Ponche crema, a bottled egg-based cream liqueur, is the Christmas drink of which country?

Venezuela's ponche crema was created in 1900 by Eliodoro González, a Caracas chemist and perfumer; the formula is still a company secret, which has not stopped families from mixing their own.

Rabanadas, the milk-soaked, cinnamon-dusted Christmas dessert of Portugal and Brazil, are a version of which dish?

French toast by another name: slices of day-old bread are dipped in beaten egg and fried, a recipe born of the need to use up a loaf rather than waste it.

Pernil, a Christmas centrepiece in Puerto Rico and much of Latin America, is a slow-roasted shoulder or leg of which meat?

Pork shoulder is a tough cut, so it is marinated and then roasted low and slow for hours, until the meat pulls apart under a sheet of crisp skin.

Every 23 December, artisans in Oaxaca, Mexico, carve elaborate scenes from which oversized vegetable?

Radishes became a Christmas contest because Oaxaca's farmers once carved them into figures to catch shoppers' eyes at the 23 December market.

In China, which fruit is exchanged on Christmas Eve because its name echoes the Mandarin word for peace?

Apples are 'pingguo' in Mandarin, a near-rhyme with 'ping'an', peace, and Christmas Eve itself is called Ping'an Ye, the peaceful night.

Which Belgian beer, now sold around the world all year, was launched in 1926 as a Christmas brew?

Stella Artois was brewed in Leuven under the code name 'X' before it took the Latin word for star, after the Christmas star, as its name.

Italian-American families mark Christmas Eve with a meatless meal called the Feast of the Seven what?

Fishes took over the table because Catholics once abstained from meat on the eve of a feast day; the seven may refer to the seven sacraments.

In which English carol do the singers refuse to leave until somebody brings them figgy pudding?

We Wish You a Merry Christmas echoes West Country carollers who expected treats from wealthy neighbours, and there 'figgy pudding' could mean a plum pudding with no figs at all.

What do Scandinavian families traditionally leave out on Christmas Eve for the nisse, a household spirit?

A bowl of porridge is the nisse's yearly wage, and it must come with a pat of butter on top: in one tale a nisse who could not see the butter killed the farm's cow.

A Polish Wigilia supper on Christmas Eve traditionally begins once what has been sighted in the sky?

The first star stands for the Star of Bethlehem, and children watch the sky hoping to be the one who spots it and lets the family sit down to eat.

By tradition, Christmas pudding mix is stirred from east to west to honour which biblical figures?

The Magi came from the east to find the infant Jesus, so the spoon follows their route, and each person who stirs gets to make a wish for the year ahead.

Bacalhau, the traditional Christmas Eve dinner in parts of Portugal, is which fish, dried and salted?

Cod is one of the few fish the Portuguese rarely eat fresh, yet the country is said to have more than 1,000 recipes for the salted kind.

Czech children are told that fasting until Christmas Eve dinner will let them see what lucky vision?

A golden pig, a symbol of luck, is the promised reward for a medieval custom of eating nothing, or at least no meat, until the evening feast.

Which spice gives halászlé, the fish soup served on Christmas Eve in Hungary, its bright red colour?

Paprika goes in by the generous spoonful, often with hot peppers too, and across the border in Croatia's Slavonia the same soup is called fiš paprikaš.

Queso de bola, the red wax-coated ball on a Filipino Noche Buena table, is which Dutch cheese?

Edam hardens with age instead of spoiling, so it travelled well to Spain's former colonies, where it is served with jamón and pandesal at the midnight feast.

Which fat, shredded into the mix, traditionally enriches both British Christmas pudding and mincemeat?

Suet is the raw, hard fat found around the loins and kidneys of cattle and sheep, though modern recipes often swap it for vegetable shortening.

Arroz con gandules, a Puerto Rican Christmas staple cooked with sofrito, pairs rice with which legume?

Pigeon peas are the gandules of the name, and the one-pot dish ranks as a national dish of Puerto Rico, served mainly in the Christmas season.

Which fish do many Icelandic households traditionally boil on 23 December, the feast day of Saint Thorlak?

Skate is boiled on the feast of Thorlak, Iceland's patron saint, a day ahead of a Christmas table of smoked lamb and ptarmigan.

Gourmetten, a popular Christmas dinner tradition in the Netherlands, has each diner do what at the table?

Diners cook their own food on a special tabletop 'gourmetset', a ritual so sociable that the Dutch do not save it only for Christmas.

Which shellfish goes into the milk-and-cream stew often prepared on Christmas Eve in the American South?

Oysters may have stood in for the dried ling that Irish Catholic immigrants once stewed on Christmas Eve, a night when they would not eat meat.

Which small pickled fish, often mistranslated as anchovies, goes into Sweden's julbord dish Jansson's temptation?

Sprats cured in sugar, salt and spices have been sold in Sweden as 'ansjovis' since the 19th century, which is why translators keep reaching for the wrong fish.

Which one-pot dish is served with meat stews and fried plantains on Christmas Eve in southern Nigeria?

Jollof rice anchors the feast in the south, while tables in northern Nigeria favour tuwon shinkafa, a soft rice pudding eaten with meat stews.

Besides swan, which bird did wealthy English households sometimes serve at Christmas in the 16th century?

Peacock and swan were showpieces for the rich, while most English households of the 16th and 17th centuries made do with capon.

In Italy, the witch La Befana leaves naughty children black rock candy made to look like what?

A lump of coal turns up in almost every stocking on Epiphany Eve, on the theory that every child has been at least occasionally bad during the year.

The Tió de Nadal, which Catalan children beat with sticks until it 'defecates' sweets, is what kind of object?

A hollow log is fed a little every night from 8 December and kept warm under a blanket, then beaten at Christmas to release candies, nuts and nougat.

Which snack's box gained a string handle in 1902 so that it could hang on a Christmas tree?

Animal crackers took the name Barnum's Animals in 1902, when the box got its string for the Christmas season; a factory shift came to use some 30 miles of it.

The points of a traditional star-shaped Mexican Christmas piñata, smashed to release fruit and candy, represent what?

The seven deadly sins are the points and the pot is evil, while the blindfold on the person swinging the stick is said to represent faith.

Polvorón, a crumbly shortbread and common Christmas dessert in Latin America, is named for the Spanish word for what?

Dust, 'polvo', is what the shortbread crumbles into in the hand or the mouth; its cousin the mantecado is named instead for manteca, lard.

Szaloncukor, the foil-wrapped sweets hung on Christmas trees in Hungary, are named after which room of the house?

The parlour, 'szalon' in Hungarian, was where the tree usually stood, and the chocolate-coated fondants have hung from its branches since the 19th century.

Celebrants of the Dutch holiday of Sinterklaas are traditionally given a chocolate version of what?

Their own initial arrives on 5 or 6 December, and makers vary the thickness so a slim I holds as much chocolate as a wide W or M.

Which Spanish city, whose mazapán has EU protected status, eats the Christmas marzipan all year round?

Toledo has the first written Spanish reference to marzipan, dated 1512, and the EU recognises only one other marzipan, from Lübeck in Germany.

Which Norwegian city builds Pepperkakebyen, claimed to be the world's largest gingerbread town, before every Christmas?

Bergen has built its gingerbread city each year since 1991, a run that survived an act of vandalism that destroyed the whole display in 2009.

Which spice joins cinnamon in the bizcochito, the Christmas biscuit that is New Mexico's official state cookie?

Anise and cinnamon flavour the crisp, lard-based biscuit that New Mexico adopted in 1989, becoming the first US state to have an official state cookie.

Which spice, native to Indonesia's Banda Islands, is traditionally grated over a finished glass of eggnog?

Nutmeg is the seed of an evergreen tree whose fruit yields a second spice as well: mace, made from the covering around that seed.

Cartons of eggnog sold in French-speaking Canada are labelled 'lait de poule', which literally means what?

Hen's milk is a seasonal fixture across Canada and the United States, where shops stock it from American Thanksgiving to the end of the Christmas season.

According to tradition, who first made rompope, Mexico's cinnamon-scented answer to eggnog, in 17th-century Puebla?

Convent nuns are credited with the recipe, typical of the sweets and liqueurs that came out of Puebla's religious houses in the colonial period.

Which thick Dutch egg liqueur is mixed with lemonade to make the Snowball, a cocktail often drunk at Christmas?

Advocaat in its original form is so thick that the Dutch eat it from a tiny glass with a teaspoon; the pourable kind used in a Snowball is made for export.

Which hot Christmas eggnog cocktail is sold as ready-made batter in Wisconsin and Minnesota supermarkets?

Tom and Jerry is sometimes credited to the 1820s British writer Pierce Egan, whose book Life in London starred a Jerry Hawthorn and a Corinthian Tom.

One theory derives the 'nog' in eggnog from 'noggin', an old word for what?

A small wooden mug is one candidate; the Oxford English Dictionary points instead to 'nog', a kind of strong beer once brewed in East Anglia.

Which bacterium did Rockefeller University scientists add to boozy eggnog, only to find none left three weeks later?

Salmonella is the worry with raw eggs, and the alcohol needed time to work: a week into the test the chilled eggnog still held dangerous levels.

In Britain, long before it became an American Christmas staple, eggnog was popular mainly among which group?

The aristocracy had the milk, eggs and sherry, all foods of the wealthy, so a glass of eggnog was often raised in toasts to prosperity.

The flip, an egg-and-ale tavern cousin of eggnog, was finished by plunging what into the drinker's tankard?

A red-hot iron poker, kept for the purpose and called a flipdog, frothed the drink and gave it a slightly bitter, burned taste.

What does Glühwein, the German name for the hot spiced red sold at Christmas markets, roughly translate as?

Glowing wine has an alcohol-free sibling at German Christmas markets: Kinderpunsch, a punch with similar spices poured for children.

In the German Christmas drink Feuerzangenbowle, what is soaked in rum and set alight above the bowl of hot wine?

A sugarloaf melts and caramelises as it burns, dripping into the bowl below, and a 1944 comedy film named after the drink boosted its popularity.

The oldest known Glühwein tankard belonged to a German count who was the first recorded grower of which grape?

Riesling's first grower, Count John IV of Katzenelnbogen, owned a gold-plated, lockable silver tankard for his hot wine, dated to about 1420.

Smoking bishop, the hot punch Scrooge promises Bob Cratchit in A Christmas Carol, is based on which fortified wine?

Port was warmed with roasted lemons or Seville oranges and cloves; swap in claret and the punch became a smoking archbishop, or burgundy for a smoking pope.

Which sweet wine from Piedmont is a classic partner for a wedge of Italian Christmas panettone?

Asti, or its gentler sibling Moscato d'Asti, is poured beside panettone, though some Italian regions prefer to serve the cake with a mascarpone cream.

Which sparkling wine did the producer Freixenet promote with Christmas TV adverts starring Paul Newman and Shakira?

Cava turned Freixenet, founded near Barcelona in 1914, into a giant of traditional-method sparkling wine, and its yearly advert also drew Liza Minnelli and Penélope Cruz.

Which mix of sparkling wine and orange juice, named after a London club, is a British Christmas breakfast favourite?

Buck's Fizz is said to have been first served at Buck's Club in 1921 by barman Malachi McGarry, who also turns up in the stories of P. G. Wodehouse.

Eierpunsch, a warm egg punch sold at Christmas markets in Germany and Austria, has which alcoholic base?

White wine is warmed with egg yolks, sugar and vanilla, making Eierpunsch a wine-based cousin of the creamy eggnog drunk in North America.

At a German Christmas market, what does ordering a Glühwein 'mit Schuss' add to the cup?

A shot of liquor, usually rum, tops up the cup, and some German stalls go further by using blueberry or cherry wine in place of grape wine.

Outside German-speaking countries, Glühwein is especially popular at the Christmas markets of which French region?

Alsace, on the German border, is also home to Strasbourg's Christkindelsmärik, a Christmas market held around the cathedral since 1570.

At a Polish Wigilia supper on Christmas Eve, an extra place is traditionally set at the table for whom?

An unexpected guest gets the spare setting as a celebration of hospitality, and the supper itself opens with grace and a reading from the Gospel of Luke.