Do you or your family make any special dishes for the holidays?

We usual eat at my parents on first Christmas Day (December 25) and at my children’s father parents on second Christmas Day (December 26). This is what we had last year and we generally eat th following or a variation of thee following dishes.

We started with a vol-au-vent with game meat ragout (this year we had pigeon ragout).

After that we had a mustard cream soup and bread with herbs butter, salt and gooseberry and lingonberry jelly.

For the main course we had roasted boar or pork with a mushroom hunting sauce, fava beans and chickpeas with little pieces of fatback, beetroot salad with lentils and walnuts and goat cheese, parsnip purée with pieces of fatback, red cabbage with apple and raisins, roasted stuffed goose with redcurrant sauce, simmered pears, and apple sauce.

For dessert we as usually had a sweet homemade pudding of zante currant, candied berries like blackcurrant and cherries and hazelnuts that we call Chipolata Pudding. Also we had rice pudding with almonds and cherries.

And because all of this is obviously not enough to guarantee a heart attack in the coming year we have a second dessert made of chocolate cake and cream called a stronk.

We drank water and wine with it and usually end with a glass of korenwijn.

We eat quite early (around 18.00) and go for our traditional hour walk in the forest with the whole family in the afternoon before dinner. Later on after dinner, there is talking and board games (the mill game, backgammon, chess) with more wine and tea, with pickled herring and toast with various cheeses, smoked salmon, metworst, ham, smoked horse meat and balkenbrij.

On Second Christmas Day we ate at my daughters’ father’s parents. They have usually roe deer or red deer (or occasionally hare prepared in beer), because his father is allergic for pork, at second Christmas Day. Sometimes they swop the goose for a duck or a chicken as well, because we are with fewer people at their place. No korenwijn there either: they drink old jenever.

Vol-au-vent with game meat ragout: