FROM PATCH TO PLATE Matthew Fort
‘Now thrice welcome, Christmas, which brings us good cheer, minc’d-pies and plum-porridge, good ale and strong beer’ runs an entry in Poor Robin’s Almanac for 1695. We all love Christmas. We adore Christmas. We treasure Christmas. “It’s Christmas,” we say, “the Season of Good Cheer.” There’s the magic of Christmas, with Christmas stockings, hampers, cakes, trees, decorations and presents. Added to which, there is Christmas dinner.
In Germany they celebrate Christmas with (roast goose with apples, red cabbage and potato dumplings to you). In Finland they tuck into (cinnamon-spiced plum porridge). In the French region of Provence they make do with a mere (thirteen puddings). In Poland, as far as I can make out, they eat their Christmas Day feast on Christmas Eve. And those generous Americans go for a double celebration, with Thanksgiving one month and Christmas the next.
