What's the real beauty of Christmas?

Togetherness, generosity, and feasting have a world flavour

Christmas is, for most, a time for tradition. And yet, traditions evolve over time, with lifestyles, distance, a diasporic world with mixed heritage families and changing family units all playing their part. What then does it mean to us today, beyond its religious significance and the big bird on the table? More of us are having what could be termed an alternative Christmas and it may well not be that alternative after all.

A Hindu does Christmas?

I know a thing or two about celebrating an alternative Christmas as a Hindu whose family never let the opportunity for a feast escape them. I grew up in Kolkata buying fake Christmas trees, kitsch decorative paraphernalia and Christmas cake from Muslim and Jewish traders in a bustling market. As I hit my teens, I attended Midnight Mass and attended my friend’s family parties. Her Christian mum served guests biryani - a regal dish with deep roots in South Asia’s Muslim community.

My family in London had its own traditions. We had a set time for opening the presents (after breakfast, before lunch - obviously), a set way of doing those divisive brussels sprouts (shredded a la Jamie Oliver) and, of course, a set time for ladling the mulled wine. Following my divorce five years ago every year has been that little bit more alternative.

The first one involved being sick with Covid and alone, eating a Christmas meal delivered by loving neighbours to my doormat. Another being adopted by a pregnant friend who couldn’t make it home to Ireland. Last year, we gathered as waifs and strays around my sister’s two desks conjoined and dressed to Noel nines. I cooked a lavish three course meal with home cured gravadlax, Turkey, all the trimmings and two desserts.

Yet, I imagine our enduring traditions don’t differ significantly from yours. Herein lies the beauty of Christmas. To many, Christmas remains what it ‘traditionally’ was, a deeply religious time of year. But for others, Christmas stands for something more. As Britain’s demographics and religious attitudes have changed, so too has Christmas. Each of us picks and chooses different elements - from carols, to Christmas trees, to (regrettably), the newish ‘naughty elf’ tradition from across the pond.

I know families from all sorts of backgrounds, religions and heritages that celebrate Christmas wholeheartedly, blending tastes, cultures and backgrounds for a time of togetherness, feasting and family fun. Seema Pankhania, superstar food personality and recipe creator who has over 1.3m followers on TikTok, does an Indian Christmas Dinner for everyone “with immigrant parents who complained constantly about roast dinners” or those who just “fancy a change”. The recipes make an appearance annually since they first landed to much success in 2021 and still make waves.

A time-honoured tradition of world flavour

In the UK, change is the only thing constant with Christmas dinners. We have a Christmas that adapts, changes and shifts with the country itself. There is no better reflection of this than our food. We may think about the Christmas dinner as quite a steady, consistent thing. But the truth is, festive food traditions have evolved, inspired continually by new influences from around the world. 

Tudor Christmas banquets could include badger, blackbird and woodcock - but the centrepiece would be a boar’s head or a Christmas pie, made of a pigeon inside a partridge, placed in a goose, inside a chicken, then a turkey, encased in pastry. Puddings would be meaty and remained so until the Georgian period. It was at this point that spices from overseas - such as cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger - became more widely used, having previously been the preserve of the very rich. 

While Queen Victoria opted for roast swan, it became common to see goose and turkey on Victorian Christmas dinner tables as dinners became a smaller, more family-focused affair. Slowly, turkey took over. Turkeys, in fact, were imported from Mexico, via the Spanish, around the 16^th century. Potatoes came from Peru, while Brussels sprouts made their way onto Christmas tables from our continental neighbours in Belgium. After World War II, Brits began to experiment with continental flavours - seventies Christmas dinners often featured fondue, a Swiss staple - while the country’s increasing multiculturalism brought new tastes and traditions to the table. 

And it continues to this day. Mixed heritage and diasporic families are not averse to putting their own spin on things. A recent Guild of Food Writers Christmas event hosted by Priya Mani, food writer and trustee of the Oxford Food Symposium, and member of my Diversity team, shone a spotlight on these traditions. Japanese/British author Erin Nimi Longhurst said: “I love blending both cultures - I'm half Japanese and half English, so I do a nabe (hot pot) on Christmas Eve, usuall chicken, and then the liquid is a rich broth that I use in the gravy the next day (leftovers but also very delicious).”

As we also grow more confident in our kitchens, it makes sense to inject the new flavours we’ve explored and loved into our festive feasting. It also saves food waste, putting half used jars of spices, condiments, sauces and pastes to use. Recipe creator and freelance content strategist Zena Kamgaing, has been cooking her family’s Christmas dinner since she was 14. She alternates annually between a classic meal and one with a twist, giving classic Christmas ingredients a little bit of a makeover. Kimchi salt roast potatoes? Yes, please!

Celebrating Christmas without borders

It was all worth exploring. I worked with Wise, the international money transfer experts to explore what we’re eating and who we’re having around the table. The research of 2000 adult Britons they conducted with CensusWide showed that a quarter of Brits will eat something different to ‘traditional’ Christmas dinner. While three quarters (76%) of us will still have a ‘traditional’ Christmas dinner, many of our classic dishes will have a slight twist. 

Over the past five years, 59% of us have seen an increase in the use of non-traditional festive flavours in our Christmas cooking, with 22% tasting new spices and seasonings in their festive favourites. This makes sense - it reflects a more international and more culinary confident nation. I’m a big fan of not just adding spice to my Christmas dinner - but also rethinking the leftovers. And I am not alone. More than one quarter of us (26%) will turn our Christmas dinners into a new dish, such as pasta, curry or stew, with 30% eating something different to ‘traditional’ festive food.

For years, I’ve had requests for the Boxing Day curry. While it immediately conjures up a throwback to Bridget Jones’s mum and her cult status turkey curry buffet, I was happy to share regional lamb curries for the occasion. If you’re not a meat eater seasonal root vegetables work incredibly well combined with ingredients like coconut milk too. I’ve spent years finding uses for half used ingredients in my kitchen, only recently summoning up the courage to share these professionally (Thanks Waitrose Weekend).

What stays the same, though, is that Christmas is a time for generosity. Nearly one in five of us are inviting friends and neighbours (18%) over for Christmas dinner. As Hallmark as it sounds, our festive spirit is going nowhere and gen Z are leading the charge: 15% of 16-24 year olds will prepare food for their local community. Heartwarming stuff given the world we live in.

In the spirit of the findings, I shared five new recipes with a spiced twist with Wise that are online for you for Christmas and beyond (all pictured here):

• Green masala roast turkey (or chicken), with green peppercorns, garlic and nutmeg

• Savoy cabbage draped vegan roast, with harissa spiced mushrooms, lentils and chestnuts

• Pistachio and cranberry no bake cheesecake 

• Leftover roast green pilaf with star anise, cinnamon, cranberries and peas

• Frittata topped with zhoug and crispy sage 

I hope you’ll agree that the combination of photographer Simon Reed, food and prop stylist Libby Silbermann and assistant with the mostest Naya Patel made it all look glorious in the photoshoot I co-ordinated.

The real beauty of Christmas is on those plates and around them. It is that it blends tradition with change, old customs with different cultures. It is an amorphous thing, and we should cherish this. It’s also a time of the year when we’re all slow crawling towards the end of yet another tumultous year. So, as we wish each other season’s greetings - think too about what new international tastes and flavours you could add to your dinner and who you could embrace in your midst. After all, you’d only be following tradition and being part of the zeitgeist.  

What does your Christmas look like? Share your traditions in the comments!

BBC Good Food Christmas Podcast LIVE

I was delighted to join our favourite celebrity Publican Chef Tom Kerridge and Orlando Murrin, the beloved President of the Guild of Food Writers, on the BBC Good Food’s Christmas Podcast series. The theme for Christmas this year for BBC Good Food is “Make it Meaningful” and we talked sustainability, home made gifts and more. I even got to test their knowledge in a festive quiz AND in a major career high, interview Jamie Oliver on what makes Christmas meaningful for him.

The podcast is available here and wherever you listen to them and I hope you enjoy it!

Have a wonderful festive season and thank you for being here.