Tradition, evolution and the changing of the Christmas meal

By Bailee Farrens, Contributing Writer

Dating all the way back to medieval times, the Christmas meal consisted of piles of meat and stuffing, marking celebrations for the holiday season.

The main tradition of medieval times in England was the wild boar's head the people would eat at Christmas time. According to Cleveland’s Boar’s Head and Yule Log Festival, “The presentation of the boar's head at Christmas symbolized triumph over evil. The Church endowed this custom with symbolic meaning, transforming it to the worship of God, and the triumph of Christ over evil.” 

In the early 1800’s, most Victorian families celebrating would have platters of turkey and stuffing, wild goose, rib roast, lamb and a wild boar's head. 

While starting to stray away from traditional meat roasts, meals in the later centuries have not only become more accessible, but diverse as well. Traditional dinners today tend to consist of turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce and deserts from pudding to pies. When asked what their dinner on Christmas looked like, of the 56 responses from Centralia High School (CHS) students, 53.57% tend to stick to traditional dinners. 

While times have changed and evolved, so has the food. Families have chosen to create dinners with traditions of their own. For some, it involves culture, for others, just an everyday meal. 
Alyssa Van Hulten, a student at CHS described her family’s meal. “The name of the dish is panes rellenos de pollo. It's a really messy chicken sandwich with tomato sauce mixed with a bunch of different spices in a bolillo (bread from Mexico) with veggies inside. We pair it with stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, deviled eggs, cranberry sauce, apple pie, lemon meringue pie and homemade cherry cheesecake pie,” said Van Hulten. Another student, Caris Finlay expressed how her family chooses to go another route. “My family always has something different for our Christmas meal. Last year we had hamburgers and grilled chicken and this year we are having pasta. We don't do the normal traditional Christmas dinner because our family wants something different than what we just had for Thanksgiving,” Finlay said. 

While the foods on the table may change, the celebration continues. Whether it is a feast of meats and wild boar heads or a personalized twist on the meal, Christmas continues to bring people together around the table.

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