Much Maligned Christmas Accoutrements

[willow]

I love fruit cake. My fruit is soaked in brandy not whiskey. Cake baked weeks in advance and 'fed' a teaspoon of brandy every week to keep it moist. Iced with a layer each of apricot jam, marzipan and royal icing (icing sugar, egg white and lemon juice) and decorated with a penguin scene because I wuvs penguns.



Really not the worlds no.1 cranberry fan but I do like a tiny bit of the jellied kind on my turkey and am especially partial to a little spread on the bread when having the obligatory boxing day 'turkey dinner' sandwich.

The other Christmasy sweet stuff I can take or leave. My Christmas night chill time snack/supper will be a small mixed cheese board, crackers and fruit.

[Greyson]

I love mincemeat pie. My father loved this pie and every year at our big Christmas Eve dinner at his house, we had mincemeat pie. I did have to learn to acquire a taste for this pie when I was a child but once I did.

I have been unable to find a mincemeat pie for most of my adult life. Then this year, I befriended my personal trainer who is an only child and his parents had him late in life. His father was a professional baker and my friend/trainer bakes home made pies for the holidays. My twin sister and I enjoyed mincemeat pie with our Thanksgiving dinner. Again for Christmas dinner I will savour mincemeat pie.

I do have a question, why is this pie called mincemeat? There is no meat in this pie. It is all fruit.

[1QuirkyKiwi]

Originally Posted by Greyson

I love mincemeat pie. My father loved this pie and every year at our big Christmas Eve dinner at his house, we had mincemeat pie. I did have to learn to acquire a taste for this pie when I was a child but once I did.

I have been unable to find a mincemeat pie for most of my adult life. Then this year, I befriended my personal trainer who is an only child and his parents had him late in life. His father was a professional baker and my friend/trainer bakes home made pies for the holidays. My twin sister and I enjoyed mincemeat pie with our Thanksgiving dinner. Again for Christmas dinner I will savour mincemeat pie.

I do have a question, why is this pie called mincemeat? There is no meat in this pie. It is all fruit.

Mincemeat is a mixture of chopped dried fruit, alcohol and spices, and vegetable shortening….originally, in medieval times mincemeat always contained meat. In the UK, NZ and Autralia they are called Mince pies. I'll have one small one every few years, lol!

[Dean Thoreau]

claxton fruitcake dark is the best.
sugar plum wine is great to wash down the fruitcake with
gingerbread houses dont get delcious till the week before easter....u need at least an inch of dust on them
my gran daughter just handed me two cookies she made..with so much frosting and red and green sprinkles that the sugar high should last till july.
real peppermint candy canes are the only kind to have.....and they have no expiration date....so u can eat them and the leftovers use year after year....
I love xmast crap food......and the best fruitcake i ever had was when some of my old parishoners gave me some they had soaked in brandy.......for a year or so i think....I dont remember much from that xmas eve till about umm good friday
Ok I need to go now,,,sugar plum wine...heritage winery new jersey......only way to eat sugarplums

[Cin]

Tinsel is somewhat problematic. It’s not so much that I don’t like it. It’s more that not everyone can be trusted to use it properly. I think you need to be tad OCD in order to decorate a tree with tinsel. Often people just clump the shit on. That’s not acceptable. My mother always put the tinsel on one strand at a time. I don’t have the perseverance to do it exactly like that, at least not a whole package, but I do it as singularly as I can. To me that’s the only way it looks good. I’ve never been with anyone who had the patience to do this. People seem to think if you put a clump on the end of a branch it’s adequate. Clumping tinsel is an incompetent way to decorate a tree. It just doesn’t look good. No matter that it’s a pain in the ass you have to take it a couple of strands at a time. Either one should use tinsel correctly or one should just eliminate it from the repertoire.

And if you have pets you might want to just forget tinsel altogether. It’s bad enough that one ends up finding this stuff clinging to furniture and out of the way places way past July, but if your pet eats it you will pulling it out of their ass for months. Nothing more delightful than a strand of tinsel sticking out your Fluffy’s A-hole.

[1QuirkyKiwi]

Originally Posted by Miss Tick

And if you have pets you might want to just forget tinsel altogether. It’s bad enough that one ends up finding this stuff clinging to furniture and out of the way places way past July, but if your pet eats it you will pulling it out of their ass for months. Nothing more delightful than a strand of tinsel sticking out your Fluffy’s A-hole.

I laughed so hard I've just spewed my tea down my nose and across the room, AGAIN! ....With 5 furbabies, tinsel is up high on the walls and the tree is demolished within minutes of it going up! LOL!

[ButchEire]

I always begin with the appropriate tinseling intensions, placing one or two carefully chosen and gently pulled strands for each branch. After ten or fifteen of these however I want to cut out my eyeballs with an ornament hook. At that point, I become reckless and grab fistfuls of the no longer shiny, but agonizingly gleaming strands, casting them in the general direction of said tree. Many make it to the tree, in random clumps that I invite guests to identify as their favorite manger animal. The strands that don't make it to the tree are deemed not worthy of a holiday and are relegated to the vacuum bag in shame.

Originally Posted by Miss Tick

Tinsel is somewhat problematic. It’s not so much that I don’t like it. It’s more that not everyone can be trusted to use it properly. I think you need to be tad OCD in order to decorate a tree with tinsel. Often people just clump the shit on. That’s not acceptable. My mother always put the tinsel on one strand at a time. I don’t have the perseverance to do it exactly like that, at least not a whole package, but I do it as singularly as I can. To me that’s the only way it looks good. I’ve never been with anyone who had the patience to do this. People seem to think if you put a clump on the end of a branch it’s adequate. Clumping tinsel is an incompetent way to decorate a tree. It just doesn’t look good. No matter that it’s a pain in the ass you have to take it a couple of strands at a time. Either one should use tinsel correctly or one should just eliminate it from the repertoire.

And if you have pets you might want to just forget tinsel altogether. It’s bad enough that one ends up finding this stuff clinging to furniture and out of the way places way past July, but if your pet eats it you will pulling it out of their ass for months. Nothing more delightful than a strand of tinsel sticking out your Fluffy’s A-hole.

[Cin]

Originally Posted by ButchEire

I always begin with the appropriate tinseling intensions, placing one or two carefully chosen and gently pulled strands for each branch. After ten or fifteen of these however I want to cut out my eyeballs with an ornament hook. At that point, I become reckless and grab fistfuls of the no longer shiny, but agonizingly gleaming strands, casting them in the general direction of said tree. Many make it to the tree, in random clumps that I invite guests to identify as their favorite manger animal. The strands that don't make it to the tree are deemed not worthy of a holiday and are relegated to the vacuum bag in shame.

You are a riot!

[Gemme]

Originally Posted by Miss Tick

Such as fruitcake.

Everybody has a fruitcake joke.

It makes a good doorstop, paperweight, boat anchor, shot-put, anvil...
You can get in shape lifting fruitcake.

Well, I happen to love fruitcake and I’m tired of hiding my feelings. There is no shame in openly indulging my desire. I’m stepping out of the closet with my fruitcake.

I really do love me some fruitcake. Every year I buy one of the fruitcakes with frosting and enjoy pieces throughout the holidays. Yes, partly it is an excuse to eat frosting. And I would probably eat mud if you frosted it, or at least I’d lick the frosting off. But I actually like the fruitcake part too. And I love a good homemade dark fruitcake. I enjoy a slice with cream cheese. Delicious.

I guess I’m really in the minority when it comes to fruitcake. I’ve heard people comment how nobody actually eats the stuff. Well then, I wish they would give them to me instead of letting them go to waste. I eat the stuff.

Speaking of stuff, I also love stuffed dates. And figs. And prune pie.

Does anyone else have some sharply criticized, judged or otherwise vilified aspects of Christmas that they secretly (or not so secretly) love? Perhaps some adornment, decoration, tradition, food, trapping or trimming that is oft maligned that you really enjoy despite public opinion and all the bad press? Do share.

Or maybe you would like to malign some aspects of Christmas that you think aren't getting the traducement they deserve. Nothing like some good natured aspersions to get in the spirit. So please have at it.

You can keep your figs and stuffed dates and prune pie.

I'll be more than happy to share some fruitcake with you, though.

Love the stuff!!!