Why do we eat christmas dinner? Where does the ritual of eating christmas dinner derive from.?

Question

There must be a reason why we eat a modified sunday lunch on christmas day and that we eat a turkey.Perhaps it has pagan origins.Does anybody know how it started and why we eat turkey on christmas day.

Answer 1

The traditional "Christmas Dinner" eaten the afternoon of Christmas is relatively similar all over the world. Most of the dishes eaten in America can trace their roots to England. The Turkey is probably the bird of choice due to its relatively large size - usually the Christmas Dinner guest list has more people on it than the average Sunday Dinner, ergo the need for more meat/larger meat source. This large meal for the winter holiday could trace back as far as the gigantic feast of Saturnalia that the Romans celebrated on the Winter Solstice - many cultures have feasts at this time of year to gather their community members together to celebrate survival of the "longest night" of the year.

Answer 2

I am of Polish/catholic descent and we really celebrate Christmas on Christmas eve with a huge family dinner. We mix catholic traditions with Polish traditions. We then go to midnight mass and are allowed to open one gift before going to bed. In almost every culture they use food and feasting for happy celebrations, from the beginning of time.

Answer 3

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I'm extremely lucky to have a family that is willing to eat vegan, so we usually make a cranberry coleslaw (with vegannaise), butternut squash and unstuffed stuffing, wild rice, vegan green bean casserole, baked sweet potatoes and apples, black pumpkin (my cousin says that's popular in japan where she's from), and vegan pumpkin pie and/or another type of pie. No wonder everyone gains weight on Christmas =X

Answer 4

For special occasion dinners, I like a Field Roast Celebration Roast.