Southern Christmas - Yankee Style



Posted: Wednesday, July 14, 2010

by Jennifer Landers
Christmas Tree For Me

I'm a Yankee transplant in a Southern state. I have fallen in love with Virginia in the ten or so years I've been here, though I've learned to stop praying for a white Christmas. Honestly, I believe it was love at first sight. I've learned to accept that southerners go into hibernation when the thermometer dips below forty degrees, and I have been known to start a fire in the fireplace when it's fifty degrees outside. I don't know if it's a Southern thing or an aging thing, but Christmas is different down here.

I think the major difference in Christmas traditions is the cooking. Although most of the staples are the same, many of the side dishes are different. Of course, I understand that my experience certainly does not speak for everyone in Connecticut, but until I moved to Virginia I didn't know that macaroni and cheese could be a holiday side dish. Down here it's a staple - no celebration would be complete without somebody's aunt someone or other's super secret recipe signature macaroni and cheese. Here's one thing I thought only existed in American southern fiction; collard greens. Yes, that's right, I said collard greens. If someone had told me twenty years ago that I would be proud to have mastered a recipe that instructs one to cook all the nutritional value out of dark, leafy greens and replace it with animal fat for flavor I'd think they'd gone mad. I have become quite a fan of collard greens, although I will not concede (as many people do) that the traditional preparation is healthy.

Actually, perhaps it is just my husband's family, but all side dishes seem to be referred to as "vegetables". This includes the famed, overcooked collard greens, the honored macaroni and cheese, as well as grits, green bean casserole (okay, technically the beans began as vegetables), cole slaw, and corn bread. Sometimes corn bread will fall into the bread category, but only if biscuits and gravy are served as a vegetable, leaving the an opening in the bread-and-biscuit division. Cream cheese, or any cheese for that matter, is found in abundance at a holiday meal. We southern cooks can work it into anything. I wouldn't trade any of it for another brussels sprout. As a matter of fact, I have yet to encounter a brussels sprout at any holiday meal in Virginia. This is reason enough for anyone who has considered moving here to get on Interstate 95 and never look back.

In the south Martha Stewart is (quite rightly, in my opinion) regarded suspiciously and you will rarely find her magazine gracing the rack in the grocery store checkout line. Paula Deen and Sandra Lee, however, are considered domestic goddesses. Although my cooking style leans more toward Martha's, Paula and Sandra display a zest for life and boisterous love of food that leave Martha's more conservative and artsy Christmas celebration in the dust.

I can confidently say that one Christmas tradition is unwavering across the cultural lines; it is the joyous gathering of friends and family. However different our tables may look, one of the true celebrations of the holidays is the anticipation of happy camaraderie, with food, of course, as one of the major focal points.

Have a Southern Christmas with Flocked Christmas Trees from http://www.christmastreeforme.com

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