Christmas in Pennsylvania
At Christmas time, I always get nostalgic when I hear Perry Como’s line, “I met a man who lives in Tennessee, and he was heading for Pennsylvania and some homemade pumpkin pie.” It’s so memorable and quaint. Today, we headed for Pennsylvania ourselves on our road trip of Christmas Traditions Across America. And boy, did we discover a treasure trove of traditions!
Pennsylvania is the state of mummering, the Amish, putzes, Moravian stars, coal mining, “The Office,” Philly cheesesteaks, and so much more! We did our best to translate as many of these traditions into festive holiday cheer, but it still feels like we left some things out.
We started with scrapple for breakfast. For the unfamiliar, scrapple is the traditional breakfast meat of Pennsylvania. Developed to minimize food waste, it’s made with pork trimmings leftover from butchering, mixed with cornmeal, formed into a block-shaped loaf, then sliced and fried. It might not sound the most appetizing, but it fried up well with maple syrup to start the day on the right note. Just in case it didn’t turn out successfully, we had a Dutch Baby whipped up as a backup. And for those as misled as we were, “Dutch” actually means “Deutsch,” so all of these are German in origin. And now you know!
Continuing the Germanic and Amish influence, we played our “Hide the Christmas Pickle” game, decorated some hand-stamped Christmas cards, made Moravian stars, and set up our “putzes” (miniature nativity scenes). All this while listening to the fantastic album “A Pennsylvania German Christmas.” Once those festivities were wrapped up, we made some Ho Ho Hoagies out of chipped ham (in honor of the classic Christmas ham).
Throughout the afternoon, we delved into more obscure and bizarre traditions. For example, there was mummering, which is similar to caroling but involves friends or family dressing in disguise while visiting homes in their community. Then there’s Belsnickel. Oh, Belsnickel! He is a crotchety, fur-clad Christmas gift-bringer from the folklore of the Palatinate region of southwestern Germany, preserved in Pennsylvania Dutch communities. He’s known to carry a switch to beat naughty children and pockets full of cakes, candies, and nuts for good children. Fans of “The Office” will remember Belsnickel from when Dwight introduced the character and his traditions to the rest of the office in the episode “Dwight Christmas”. In honor of Belsnickel, we made “birch rod” pretzel sticks, which also corresponded well with Pennsylvania’s rich pretzel heritage.
As dinner rolled around, we made schnitz un knepp (pork shoulder with dried apples and dumplings), in honor of the Germanic and New Year’s traditions. To fill in the cracks of our bellies, we baked the iconic molasses Shoofly Pie and prepared a Birch Beer cocktail, along with a coal-mining country cocktail called Boilo. We savored these treats while enjoying some simple reading and Amish crafts by the candelight of our Christmas tree.
It was a day full of fun, discovery, and delicious food. Merry Christmas from Pennsylvania!
ACTIVITIES:
Christmas Pickle Hiding
Amish Hand-Stamped Christmas Cards
Bethlehem, PA Nativity Set-Up
"Dwight Christmas” from “The Office"
FOOD & DRINK MENU:
Scrapple
Ho Ho Hoagies w/ Chipped (Christmas) Ham
Schnitz un Knepp (Pork Shoulder w/ Dried Apples & Dumplings)
INTERESTING READS & CONTEXT:
