Christmas in North America

Celebrating Christmas in North American style could have been traditional, but what's the fun in that? Tonight we embraced foods and activities from the Southern part of the continent to go beyond the usual egg nog and sugar cookies.

We made the ham to have some resemblance of a “normal” American Christmas dinner but paired it with an ensalata nochebuena from Mexico and fried plaintains from Guatemala. Coquito from Puerto Rico was a very enjoyable egg nog substitute and paired perfectly with the Jamaiican rum cake for dessert.

And while we had fun making a Christmas ornament pinata, the biggest surprise was how much fun we had carving vegetables to create our own radish nativity scene. Yep, that’s right, radishes! Oaxaca in Mexico has an famous radish carving festival that we decided to try out for ourselves. It was a blast and we may have found some new Christmas traditions for the Sommerfeld family from this!

MENU:

• Baked Ham (Canada/United States)

• Ensalata Nochebuena (Mexico)

• Fried Plantains (Guatemala)

• Tembleque Coconut Pudding (Puerto Rico)

• Red Wine & Rum Fruitcake (Jamaica)

• Coquito (Puerto Rico)

ACTIVITIES:

• Christmas Ornament Pinata (Mexico)

• Nativity Radish / Produce Carving (Oaxaca, Mexico)

• "Honky Tonk Christmas" Playlist (United States)

INTERESTING READS & CONTEXT:

• Radish Carving