For Robbie Cheadle’s challenge at #TankaTuesday challenge I’ve written a double tanka about my childhood Christmas Eves.
###
Church bells ring-a-linged
We walked through the candy canes
in the crisp-aired park
Flakes coating our hair and coats
Sliding ourselves to the first house
*
Progressive dinners
Mom’s aunt’s house, then her uncle’s
Grandma baked desserts
Worst part was the oyster stew
Now my fondest memory
###
Eight years ago I decided to investigate this Christmas eve oyster stew phenomenon for my family history blog. My mother’s maternal family were the ones who celebrated with the progressive dinners and the oyster stew (a pan of milk and oysters essentially until my husband joined the family and added spices and seasonings). That family was half Dutch and half Pomeranian (an area on the Baltic that was part of Prussia, although the genetics of the German-speaking people (before WWII when they were kicked out of Poland) was actually Slavic. Anyway, the Pomeranian “half” was through the women, so that’s where I thought the tradition must come from. Here is the link to my post. Keep in mind one of the links within the article is now dead. A Christmas Tradition from the Old Country
To my knowledge nobody in the family carries on this tradition. We have all created new holiday traditions with our children.
Did your family have a tradition that seemed to pull the family together like this that is now nearly forgotten?
My mom made milk noodles for Christmas Eve. It was milk, soup noodles, salt, pepper and a dash of nutmeg. I remember liking it although I haven’t had it more than 50 years. It’s noodles, what’s not to love! 🙂
Oh my! I have never heard of that. It does sound good! I wonder where that idea came from. Do you think her mother made it when she was young?
My mom was one of nine kids and her dad died when she was young. This was before any government nets to help out. It was a cheap meal. A lot of our basic dishes involved eggs, milk and flour with a very small portion of meat. It’s surprising how the old cooks could make basic ingredients taste so good. Austrian background so from the old country.
That makes a lot of sense. Even the old standby bread with milk and sugar probably has its origins similarly.
Love the backstory! Mine was Grandma Ruby Neal’s suet pudding, which may also have come from the Old Country (Pellworm Island, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany).
Suet pudding! I actually didn’t know humans ate suet. I thought of it as something for birds! Have you ever tried to find out if it came from your grandmother’s family traditions? What did it taste like?
I did a post with my grandma’s suet pudding recipe. It was so yummy. I did make it once, but lord, the cholesterol!
Stupid cholesterol. I don’t eat mammals like cows and lambs, so I always fool myself into thinking I don’t get cholesterol as I wolf down the cheese hahaha.
Cheese is probably my downfall, too!
It’s the best!
Interesting – the foods different cultures came up with, sometimes out of necessity. People were more resourceful long ago.
I am wondering if you celebrated Christmas eve or day. You are so right about resourcefulness. My kids never had to be.
We’ve always done both – Christmas Eve with my family and Christmas Day with the Captain’s.
So convenient to have two days 😉
It helps when you have to meld the customs.
It sure does.
We didn’t have an ironclad tradition, but I enjoyed hearing about yours!
Ellen, did you change it up every year? Put a tree up at a certain time?
Everyone must have lived nearby. It sounds so fun to have that progressive dinner. No Christmas traditions like that in my family obviously. Though we’ve created others for other holidays that continue–like the cranberry squirrel for Thanksgiving.
Everyone lived in SW Michigan. Now that extended family is spread out. I love your cranberry squirrel! What about a Hanukkah tradition?
I don’t think Hanukkah was a very important holiday when my parents were growing up, and my parents were not religious at all. I don’t think we even had latkes as a usual thing. I guess the one food tradition is lox, cream cheese, bagels, and smoked fish, but now that’s a special thing instead of regular thing.
And now you embrace all kinds of traditions, especially with your cooking. Since my kids were babies we always make latkes and brisket (although I don’t eat the brisket).
I only make a brisket for the meat-eaters at Rosh Hashanah and Passover. 😊
We do, too. Often it’s my son who makes it because he and my SIL and husband like brisket a lot. But this time I made it (again–used to of course all the time), and according to them it was amazing :). So I wrote down how I did it this time. Otherwise after this will always be a failure ;).
Wrote it down? What an interesting idea. 😂
Sure did. Now that I see my mother’s dementia I am being realistic!
💙
I hate to admit it, but going to church on Christmas Eve has fallen by the wayside.
For you or in general? I have a scene in my memoir btw about going to church on Christmas Eve when I was a teen. Horrible scene heh. Not church’s fault. When I was eight and younger we went to a small young church, and always had a little Christmas play on Christmas eve along with the carols and sermon. That was really nice for the kids.
For me as a former Preacher’s Kid.
Ah, the guilt!
Yes, I have guilt a-plenty!
I can only imagine.
Remind me what denomination he was?
Episcopal.
In my family research I found many newspaper mentions of oysters coming in by train for the holidays. It was a big deal, and a widespread tradition, I think.
WOW!!!!!! That is amazing news. I wonder where it came from and why my family was so committed to it.
My mom had “pork tenderloin and oysters” for Christmas dinner when she was a child, even in a rural area. I think the oysters were prepared as oyster stew — with cream and potatoes, perhaps. This is how the oysters got to the Midwest in the 1920s: by train, in barrels of ice. There were lots of oysters available in December. Or they could have been canned. Here’s a nice article: https://www.illinoistimes.com/food-drink/christmas-eve-oyster-stew-12926902/
I like how people started writing about this AFTER I wrote my article (she wrote sarcastically). Wow, really amazing. I think what’s weird from my perspective is how my family clung onto the tradition. I never met another kid whose family did that. Pork tenderloin and oysters, hmm. Pretty fancy! By the time I was eating oyster stew the oysters were canned. But I imagine they were not when my mother was a kid. or when my grandmother was young. That recipe you shared sounds more like my husband made, whereas in the article sounds more like my family made (more plain).
My mom’s youth was mark by poverty and plenty. Her dad died. The depression. That was “poverty.” But her grandparents owned a farm, and that meant a certain amount of “plenty.”
That is so different from poverty and plenty today. The whole shift from farm families has changed so much.
Great poem and backstory, Luanne!
Yvette M Calleiro 🙂
http://yvettemcalleiro.blogspot.com
I love the closing lines which hint at how things change as we age, how we see things. I spent my first seven years in the UK and my paternal grandparents offered suet pudding, roast goose and duck. Since coming to Australia the heat dictated salads, cold drinks, BBQ and the like. My own family – we have a leg of ham a modern turkey roll and salads, my wife makes a traditional fruit cake in advance (which I tell everybody it is awful – because it is in fact divine) 🙂
I have never had oyster stew. I have had seafood stew. Although we live in an area that is famous for oysters, I am not really fond of them. I love crab cakes and crab anything! It is interesting to see how different traditions are passed down in families. In my family, we have a Swedish smorgasbord every year with Swedish meatballs, scalloped potatoes, baked ham, lingonberries, and rice pudding for dessert. Through the years, we have added different items, but the basic menu is the same. The family has grown and now we have spoon bread, mac and cheese, etc. Anway, wishing you a Happy New Year…almost here!
This is fabulous, Luanne! It was so good to see you here. My genealogy is from Pomerania, Germany, as well. However, they became the Volga Germans, living as Germans on Russian land. When they immigrated to the U.S., they kept saying they were Germans, yet lived in Russia for over 200 years!! I love that you brought back a bit of the food from the ancestors. Have a blessed New Year! ❤️