A Country Christmas: Holiday Recipes and Memories

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PHOTO: PHILIPPE-LOUIS HOUSE
A fine roast goose—crisp, juicy and beautifully brown—for a traditional Christmas feast.

Enjoy these country Christmas holiday recipes handed down from years of family tradition. Recipes include the goose of Christmas past, and Danish kringles that can vary according to the cook’s whim.

A Country Christmas: Holiday Recipes and Memories

The setting: Bloomington, Illinois. Time: the ’50s and ’60s. This is the very heart of the heartland, and our home. Snow settled over the black cornfields of McLean County in mid-December, and the dark soil disappeared into white. A brick house, fir tree lit up on the front lawn, wreath on the door, sleds leaning against the side of the house.

The ghosts of Christmases past gather outside. Through the windows they see a family, a rough dozen of us, different ages and sizes, assembled here from various origins, from Italy and New York, from Des Moines and Denmark. A volatile mixture, ready to celebrate Christmas.

Through the windows of that house in Bloomington could be seen certain traditional events and foods and even arguments that were carried on from year to year. Discussions about midnight mass or an early one Christmas morning, and Danish kringle for breakfast–these were two of several topics in our household that were as traditional as Santa himself.

  • Published on Nov 1, 1987
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