Traditional Christmas dishes from thirteen countries, from Colombian lechona to Ukrainian kutia. Each one carries its country's holiday customs, and each has a full recipe here, not just a description.
Pick one, or several, and let it start a new tradition at your table.
1. Lechona Colombiana (Colombia)
Colombia's festive centerpiece: a whole pork leg stuffed with seasoned rice, peas, and onion, then slow-roasted until the skin turns to crackling. Families prepare it together, and it feeds a crowd.
Get the full recipe: Lechona Colombiana.
2. Walnut Potica (Slovenia)
A Slovenian rolled pastry filled with walnut paste, honey, and cinnamon. The dough is stretched paper thin, then rolled tight to create the signature spiral in every slice.
Get the full recipe: Walnut Potica.
3. Bûche de Noël (France)
France's Yule Log: a sponge cake rolled with chocolate cream and frosted to look like bark, finished with powdered sugar snow and meringue mushrooms.
Get the full recipe: Bûche de Noël.
4. Panettone (Italy)
Milan's sweet Christmas bread, studded with candied fruit and raisins, light and airy in texture. Eaten through Christmas and New Year, at breakfast or as dessert.
Get the full recipe: Panettone.
5. Christmas Tamales (Mexico)
Masa parcels filled with chile-braised pork, wrapped in corn husks and steamed. In Mexico, Christmas is not complete without them, and making them is a family event in itself.
Get the full recipe: Christmas Tamales.
6. Christstollen (Germany)
Germany's Christmas fruit bread, dating back to the 15th century: dried fruit, nuts, and marzipan under a thick coat of powdered sugar. It keeps well, and the flavor deepens with time.
Get the full recipe: Christstollen.
7. Bacalhau à Gomes de Sá (Portugal)
Portugal's Christmas Eve casserole: salted cod baked with potatoes, onions, eggs, and olives. A handful of ingredients, robust flavor.
Get the full recipe: Bacalhau à Gomes de Sá.
8. Jansson's Temptation (Sweden)
Sweden's Christmas buffet centers on this hot casserole of potato and sprats baked in cream, usually alongside pickled herring, gravlax, and meatballs.
Get the full recipe: Jansson's Temptation.
9. British Mince Pies (United Kingdom)
Small British pastries filled with mincemeat, a spiced dried fruit mixture. They date back to the 13th century, when the filling actually contained meat.
Get the full recipe: British Mince Pies.
10. Coquito (Puerto Rico)
Puerto Rico's answer to eggnog: a creamy drink of rum, coconut milk, and condensed milk, warmed with cinnamon and nutmeg, served ice cold.
Get the full recipe: Coquito.
11. Christmas Pavlova (Australia and New Zealand)
A meringue dessert named after the Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova: crisp outside, soft as marshmallow inside, topped with cream and summer fruit.
Get the full recipe: Christmas Pavlova.
12. Hallacas Venezolanas (Venezuela)
Venezuelan cornmeal parcels filled with a stew of beef, pork, and chicken mixed with raisins, olives, and capers, wrapped in plantain leaves and boiled.
Get the full recipe: Hallacas Venezolanas.
13. Ukrainian Kutia (Ukraine)
A sweet Ukrainian grain pudding of wheat berries, poppy seeds, honey, and nuts. It opens Sviata Vecheria, the traditional Christmas Eve supper.
Get the full recipe: Ukrainian Kutia.
good to have in the kitchen
A few tools come up again and again across this list.
A a stand mixer, for the stollen, potica, and panettone doughs, all of which take a long knead.
A a tamale steamer, for the tamales and hallacas, which both steam or boil for over an hour.
A a mortar and pestle, the traditional way to grind poppy seeds for kutia into a proper paste.
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