Contact Point’s Christmas calendar visited 24 international Christmas tables
31.12.2021
This year, Contact Point’s Christmas calendar took us on a journey to Christmas tables around the world.
We published the Christmas calendar on Facebook and Twitter. If you forgot to follow the journey on social media, don’t worry: you can still explore the atmosphere at Christmas tables worldwide.
Also, remember to check out country-specific information on health services at EU-healthcare.fi when planning to travel. The country-specific pages contain reliable information about the health services, access to treatment, fees, reimbursements and health care authorities of more than 50 countries.
Contact Point wishes everyone a happy New Year!
A peek at 24 Christmas tables around the world:
- At a Danish Christmas table, you can savour traditional roasted duck, pickled red cabbage and potatoes.
- How about a warm cabbage stew called Bigos after a winter outing? This Polish national dish is also traditionally served at the Christmas table.
- The Christmas table also offers desserts to crown the meal. A Chilean Christmas table includes a sweet Christmas cake called Pan de Pascua.
- Seafood and turkey are enjoyed at the Christmas table in the Canary Islands. You don’t need wool socks here: daytime temperatures rise to over 20 degrees.
- On Christmas, friends and relatives gather together. In Iceland, board games and puzzles are played at the Christmas table.
- On Finnish Independence Day, the banquet table is decorated with two candles. You can taste blueberries in the blue and white pastries. Happy Independence Day!
- In Austria, Christmas cookies are part of the Christmas dinner. You get to dip your fingers in the dough and bake a big pile of different kinds of biscuits.
- Christmas crackers are part of the English Christmas dinner. Traditional Christmas crackers contain a toy, joke or riddle, and a paper crown.
- Large grey peas with bacon are a classic Latvian Christmas table dish.
- In Romania, children go door-to-door singing Christmas carols. Then, they sit down at the Christmas table to enjoy, for example, Cozonac bread.
- In the United States, the Christmas table is full of delicacies. Decorative red and white candy sticks also serve as a tasty dessert for the children.
- In Germany, the table is decorated with an Advent wreath. People sing Christmas carols in the candlelight and feast on hot chocolate and Stollen Christmas bread.
- In France, a beautiful table setting is as important as the food. The serving includes, for example, oysters, foie gras, smoked salmon, turkey and a yule log for dessert.
- The flashing red poinsettia flower is the eye-catcher on the Christmas table. The flower is indigenous to Central America and Mexico.
- Italian Christmas includes sweet and spiced Panettone bread often given as a gift to friends and relatives on the eve of Christmas. Panettone is enjoyed after the Christmas night mass with sparkling wine.
- It’s barbeque time! In the warmth of Australia, Christmas is celebrated on the beach with friends and family over barbecue treats.
- A traditional Estonian Christmas meal includes blood sausages, jellied head cheese and sauerkraut.
- In Norway, gnomes known as ‘nisse’ or ‘tomte’ have their own Christmas table. Bowls full of porridge are left outside for the gnomes that are said to look after the domestic animals.
- In Canada, the star of the Christmas table is a stuffed turkey with side dishes. For dessert, Nanaimo bars.
- In Slovakia, Christmas dessert also predicts the future. A spoonful of Lokša pudding is thrown at the ceiling: the more that sticks, the better the luck.
- Kurisumasu ni wa kentakkii or Kentucky for Christmas – fried chicken on Christmas is a Japanese tradition that causes queues in front of fast-food restaurants.
- Bulgarians feast on vegetarian food on Christmas Eve, with an odd number of dishes set on the table. Nuts are always a part of a Bulgarian Christmas table.
- Carp is a symbol of Christmas in Czech and the highlight of the Christmas table. However, the Christmas carp is not always eaten: it can also be released back into the wild.
- Dopparedagen is an alternative name for Christmas Eve in Swedish. It refers to the old tradition of dipping dry bread pieces in Christmas ham broth on that day.