The only holiday thing I make from my childhood is fudge. My dad would make it the week before Christmas.

Other than the traditional Turkey, ham, mashed potatoes and stuffing. I do not make anything from my childhood holiday meals.

My family made things like candied yams with the marshmallow topping, pistachio pudding with the pineapple, marshmallows and I want to say cottage cheese or something like that and a version of I guess you would call it Waldorf salad. I called it apple salad with mayonnaise, nuts, raisins and I forget what else. Sadly none of those things appeal to me as an adult but they were staples at all the family holiday dinners. We also always had ribbon candy and these little candies made with fruit and nuts and sadly I haven't even had those since I was a kid.

I do make things from my husbands family holiday dinners though. Like sausage stuffing. I first had it when we had Christmas dinner with his family and I have been hooked every since. Also like to make the Portuguese Roast Pork and Linguica his family likes to have at Christmas as well.

I do remember my great grandmother making rum balls and rum soaked fruit cake as well. I do like fruit cake but I do not like anything with alcohol in it because I don't drink the flavor is over powering to me. But I do remember all the adults getting each other stockings full of different nip bottles and giving them to each other. They enjoyed their cocktails :) it is funny I just never acquired a taste for alcohol even though most of my family enjoyed it.

I don't because everything was labor intensive. From an Italian family there were many traditions. Christmas Eve was the feast of the seven fish along with home made pasta and hand made pastries for dessert.Christmas day started with home made ravioli followed by the traditional thanksgiving turkey dinner. Dessert was canolli, cream sponge cake and fruit cake and cookies that were prepared from Thanksgiving til right before Christmas. Easter was roast leg of lamb, roasted potatoes, asparagus, always proceeded by home made pasta-usually cavatelli. My sister and I are the only ones left from the immediate family and we just don't work that hard.

I make the stuffed turkey like my mother did. But we used to have mulled cider available for the afternoon and evening at Christmas and Thanksgiving, and if it is chilly enough here, I make it too. My kids love it, as much for the aroma as the taste, and I serve it in Christmas cups. I also like to make the mincemeat and peaches garnish that my aunt made. Mom often would serve the canned Cross & Blackwell quick bread, and I bake pumpkin bread and/or cranberry bread. For Easter, I like to make the lime Jello with sour cream and crushed pineapple mold that my aunt introduced us to. It is such a pretty Easter pastel green.

I love my grandmother's recipe for scalloped oysters and it continues to be a tradition for all of us throughout the generations.

I don't usually cook special foods for holidays any more....although I will cook favorites during the year. I loved my mother's dressing and I always strive to get mine just like hers. We also always had fruit salad and I used to make mine like hers, but I have changed up the recipe for mine. Her recipe always started with a can of fruit salad, and I really don't care for most canned foods. Pineapple is one of the exceptions. She also cooked goose or duck sometimes for Christmas or Thanksgiving, and I don't care much at all for that, although I ate hers and it was okay but it is something I wouldn't cook myself. I am far better at roasting a turkey than she was. I don't understand the mystery of cooking a turkey that many people struggle with. Put it in the oven on a rack and roast it. Rub shortening all over the skin. Tent the breast with foil when it is brown. Don't over cook it. (My mother had a problem with over cooking everything). At every holiday or special meal, or just plain often, we had potato salad. (Also mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes.) My mother made delicious potato salad. My sister's rendition was similar but she added some stuffed olives. I make it like my sister, but I also add bacon to mine.

We make popovers to have with Christmas breakfast. They're easy to make a real treat with butter or jam in them.

Sure do. I have to make mine and my hubby's...Doesn't everyone have a sweet they HAVE TO have for it to feel like Christmas? Everyone here does and they are all recipes I grew up with. Fudge/Mexican Wedding cakes/date filled cookies/toffee/frosted fruit bars..we always try something new too. This year it was the Cranberry Fruit bread from another thread. DH's mom always made a stolen and spiced fruit. My kids were not fans so we do Caramel rolls and fresh fruit for Christmas breakfast.

We don't do sugar/decorated cookies. They are too much work and there are sooo many better sweets to consume. When the kiddos were little we decorated cookies for Thanksgiving--pumpkins/leaves/pilgrims..there was more time and they were a novelty.

As far as FOOD food we changed course and grill nice steaks every year for Christmas. The sides are a melding of both our families.

The one snack from my childhood that I have not made is popcorn balls. These are sticky and messy to make, but good to eat. (Not good for many diets.)

Imagine an old farm kitchen with a wood burning cook stove. Preparation is taking place to make popcorn balls. Its winter and cold outside, one of the requirements. There is no refrigeration, thus the need for cold weather. Night has fallen and the kitchen is lighted by the mellow glow of two kerosene lamps. The stove has been stoked to popping corn temperature. Melted bacon fat is in the big fry pan and one of the children is producing popped corn. Mother is blending the ingredients for making popcorn balls. The main ingredient is syrup, real maple syrup if available, otherwise a store bought syrup will have to do.

When a large bowl has been filled with popcorn, mother pours in the sticky stuff and massages the contents until the sticky stuff has been distributed throughout the batch. The bowl is taken outside on the side porch and several people form the popcorn balls and sets those on a wax paper sheet to cool. After the balls have cooled, those are moved back inside for everyone to enjoy. The batch production continues until there is enough popcorn balls to satisfy a threshing crew.

I make the stuffing just the way my mom did and my grandmother before her. Other than that, it's usually turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy and a veggie. Hubby is in charge of the gravy and no one makes gravy as good as his gravy. No one in my family liked sweet potatoes and hubby detests them, so they are off of the menu.

My mom was never a big baker, so we usually had a store bought pie either apple or pumpkin. I can make a pretty mean pie, but with just hubby and I, we don't want that much dessert in the house. If we decided to have a dessert, I will stop by the bakery and buy something that is one serving. My grandmother would be horrified...

jemdandy, you could have been describing popcorn ball making in the kitchen of my childhood! They were hard on baby teeth that were ready be pulled!