Though steeped in Victorian tradition, Boxing Day is now a fully modern holiday in England, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The holiday has its roots in the old English custom of boxing up food and clothing for the needy, but now the day is full of shopping and sports. In Canada, Boxing Day is as big a shopping day as Black Friday is in the United States and in England some stores even extend it to “Boxing Week”.

            Boxing Day is also a time to tip the service workers that keep things running all through the year, such as postal workers and newspaper delivery folks. This tradition probably comes from the Middle Ages, when the lord and ladies gave Christmas presents to their servants on Dec. 26. 

Also known as Christmastide, the Twelve Days of Christmas begin on the evening of Christmas (Dec. 25) and continues through the morning of Jan. 6, which is known as the Epiphany or Three Kings Day (more on that when we get to Jan 6).
There are many traditions associated with the Twelve Days of Christmas, though none involve a partridge in a pear tree! In the Middle Ages, folks lit a huge tree trunk on fire and called it the Yule Log. They kept the fire burning for 12 days. In Colonial America the Christmas wreath tradition was born. Folks would make a wreath from fresh greens and incorporate fruit. The wreath would hang from Christmas night until the Epiphany, when they would eat what was left of the fruit. Many traditions include food, such as the traditional English plum pudding. This can be a tedious dish to make, and hundreds of years ago it was standard to make it a year in advance, with everyone in the family getting good luck if they took a turn stirring the mix. I’ve found a recipe for a less time-consuming pudding, and no there are no plums in it. Back in the merry old days of Dicken’s England, raisins were also called plums.
INGREDIENTS
1/4 cup butter
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 cup milk
12 dates, pitted and chopped
1/2 cup raisins
1/4 cup dried currants
1/4 cup candied mixed fruit peel, chopped
1 orange, zested
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup self-rising flour
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 pinch salt

Directions

Grease a pudding mold.
In a large saucepan combine butter, sugar, milk, dates, raisins, currants, mixed fruit peel and zest of the orange; bring to a boil. Remove from heat and stir in baking soda. Sift in the flour, cinnamon and salt; mix gently until blended. Pour into prepared pudding mold.
Cover with a double layer of greased wax paper and steam for 2 hours.

A wonderful thing happens in Finland every Christmas Eve. The officials of Christmas City in that country proclaim a Christmas Peace. The tradition dates back to about 1320, when in the Old Great Square of Turku a statement – or wish- for peace is read from a parchment roll. These days it is also broadcat on Finnish radio and television.

The declaration ceremony begins with the hymn Jumala ompi linnamme (Martin Luther’s Ein` feste Burg ist unser Gott) and continues with the Declaration of Christmas Peace:
“Tomorrow, God willing, is the graceful celebration of the birth of our Lord and Saviour; and thus is declared a peaceful Christmas time to all, by advising devotion and to behave otherwise quietly and peacefully, because he who breaks this peace and violates the peace of Christmas by any illegal or improper behaviour shall under aggravating circumstances be guilty and punished according to what the law and statutes prescribe for each and every offence separately. Finally, a joyous Christmas feast is wished to all inhabitants of the city.”

Food can be art, and the Mexican tradition of Night of the Radishes shows us why. On the night of Dec. 23 the most humble of vegetables is transformed into unique sculptures in the city of Oaxaca, Mexico. Using local radishes that can grow to 2 feet in length artists use their magic to carve the root vegetables into saints, animals, dancers and military heroes. The city awards a prize to the best display.No one knows the exact origin of this holiday, but it is speculated that the tradition began when food vendors looking to attract the attention of holiday shoppers began to make radish figures, working to make the biggest and best to outdo each other. The crowds shopping for their holiday meal started to purchase the figures to display at their Christmas Eve table, and a tradition was born. In 1897 the Mayor of Oaxaca designated Night of the rashes as an official holiday.

Many cultures celebrate the Winter Solstice to mark the longest night of the year – and the beginning of the lengthening of days. In China they call their holiday Dongzhi or Tang Yuen. It is a tradition to serve glutinous rice dumpling balls, also called tangyuan in broth. Tang stands for reunion and yuan means round or complete.
Tangyuan are sweet, sticky glutinous balls made by sweet rice and served with hot sugar water. Because they could be hard for children to swallow, it became tradition to color them with food dye. Other varieties of tangyuan are filled with different ingredients inside such as red bean paste, creamy peanut or sesame paste. Also, tangyuan can be served with whole red bean or whole peanut soup and become a tasty dessert.

Eating tangyuan on the Winter Solstice is a required custom. All children are told that people can add one year for their age after eating tangyuan. Try this sweet version, which can be time consuming to make, but a lot of fun to eat! You can find much of the ingredients in the Asian aisle of your supermarket.
Ingredients
For the glutinous rice balls:
3 Tb peanut butter
2 Tb instant sesame powder
2 Tb icing or confectioners sugar
3 Tb roasted sesame seeds
1 ¾ cups glutinous rice flour
For the syrup:
1 piece ginger
½ cup brown sugar
1 piece mandarin orange peel
Instructions
Mix up peanut butter, instant sesame powder and icing sugar and form into 20 small pieces. Roll the smalls pieces into balls and then roll it on the sesame seed so that it’s all coated. This is the filling for the rice ball. It’s recommended that you chill this filling so that it is easier to handle as it is very soft.
To make the glutinous rice ball coating you make one layer at a time until the size of the ball is double the filling size. You need to make sure that there are no cracks on the surface.
Put the glutinous rice flour in a bowl. Add a filling, swirl it around the flour to coat it. Take the coated balls and dip it into cold water for a second and then put it back into the flour for further coating. Repeat this until the size of the ball is double the size of the filling. You might repeat these steps at least ten times for each ball.
Boil the rice balls until they float to the top of the pot.
To prepare the syrup, boil the ginger, brown sugar and mandarin orange peel together until the sugar is dissolved. To serve, put in the rice balls into the syrup.

This may be the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, but remember that from here on in the days will be getting just a little bit longer. Before christianity ruled the world, this day was celebrated as Yule, a time for feasting and preparing for winter. After missionaries began to convert people, they found it easy to transfer Yule to Christmas. Many pagan traditions carried over to Christmas, such as burning of the Yule log, the decorating of Christmas trees, holly and mistletoe. These were all historically practices associated with Yule, as was eating ham, which is thought to have come from the practice of sacrificing boars to the god Freyr at the Yule celebrations.
Celebrate with a traditional winter treat, the Yule Log. This chocolate version is easy and fun to make with the family.
INGREDIENTS:
Cake:
2/3 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
3 squares unsweetened chocolate
2 tablespoons water

Filling:
1/2 pint whipped cream
2 tablespoons icing (confectioners’) sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Icing:
1/3 cup butter
2 cups icing (confectioners’) sugar
1/4 cup cocoa
2 tablespoons milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

DIRECTIONS:
Cake
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 15 x 10 inch jelly roll pan, and line with waxed paper. Grease waxed paper.
Mix flour, soda, and salt together. Beat eggs in a small mixer bowl at high speed, until thick and light - about 5 minutes. Gradually add the sugar, and beat until thick. Melt the chocolate and water together, and add to the egg mixture. Fold in the dry ingredients, and mix gently but thoroughly.
Spread in prepared pan, and bake for 15 - 17 minutes, until the cake springs back when lightly touched. Remove from oven and turn out immediately onto a tea towel that has been sprinkled generously with icing sugar. Remove waxed paper, and trim of any crisp edges of the cake. Begin at the narrow end, and roll up the cake and the tea towel together. Allow to cool.

Filling:
Whip cream until soft peaks form. Stir in icing sugar and vanilla and whip until stiff.
Unroll the cake when cool, and spread the top with the whip cream. Re-roll, without the towel. Trim ends

Icing:
Soften butter. Combine all ingredients and beat until smooth and of good spreading consistency. Use the centers of the ends you sliced off the cake to make "bumps on the log": Use a little of the icing to affix the bump to the side of the cake - one on each side.Ice the entire cake with the icing, including the ends and the bumps. Run a fork along the icing so that it resembles tree bark.

Sprinkle with icing sugar, and decorate with holly or other Christmas decoration leaves.
Store in refrigerator.

In South Africa, Dec. 16 is celebrated as Reconciliation Day, national holiday centering on racial harmony. Reconciliation Day was originally known as the Day of the Vow, but changed in light of the end of Apartheid in 1994. The Day of the Vow was a religious holiday commemorating the Afrikaner, or Voortrekker victory over the indigenous Zulus at the Battle of Blood River in 1838. The groups clashed over the influx of the Voortrekkers into the inland part of South Africa, where they wanted to settle and farm. In preparing for battle, the Voortrekkers took a vow before God that they would build a church if they were victorious in battle.
The holiday was celebrated as a thanksgiving for their victory but after Apartheid and the minority white rule ended, the day was changed to encourage the ending of conflict between all racial groups. This is no easy task, and many people are working to make this happen, including the filmmakers who produced “Long Nights Journey Into Day.”

After years of experimenting in their home state of Ohio, Wilbur and Orville Wright traveled to the Outer Banks of North Carolina for a test that would propel them into history. On December 17, 1903, at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, the Wright Flyer became the first powered, heavier-than-air machine to achieve controlled, sustained flight with a pilot. Every year the day is celebrated in the United States by Presidential Proclamation.
The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia has a fantastic Wright Brother exhibit that rivals any in the world. The centerpiece of the exhibit is the Institute’s newly restored 1911 Wright Model B Flyer, which was returned to the museum in the summer of 2003 after undergoing restoration at Aeroplane Works in Dayton, Ohio.

Zamenhof Day is the birthday of the creator of the international language Esperanto. It was created by Dr. Ludwig L. Zamenhof, a Polish physician, who published it in 1887. This is a unique language not of any country or ethnic group.  it is a neutral, and is supposedly very easy to learn. Visit lernu.com to try your hand at mastering a few words.

December holds many holidays that highlight cultural celebrations. In Sweden, one such holiday centers on light and the beginning of the advent, or Christmas, season. St. Lucia’s Day (also known as St. Lucy’s Day) honors a young Christian girl who was martyred in ancient Rome. She was killed for her devotion to God and her refusal to be married to a man she did not love. Legend has it that her eyes were gouged out, so sometimes painting of her show a young woman holding a tray with eyes placed on it.St. Lucia is most often portrayed with her head encircled by a halo of lights. In many Scandinavia countries the youngest daughter dresses in a white gown with lights on her head and delivers baked goods to the family. In the old days they used candles for the head wreath – nowadays they use electric candles for safety sake. The candles symbolize the fire that refused to take St. Lucy’s life when she was sentenced to be burned. The name Lucia also means light.St. Lucia is the patron saint of Siciliy, Italy where she was born and her feast day is celebrated there. But St. Lucia’s Day is most associated with Scandinavia, where Dec. 13 is the longest night of the year. Since this a part of the world where nights are long and cold, celebrating light is important.

Celebrate with a traditional swedish treat, Lussekatter or St. Lucia Saffron Buns.
INGREDIENTS:
2 packages active dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water
2/3 cup lukewarm milk
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup margarine, softened
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon cardamom, ground
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon powdered saffron
5 to 5 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup raisins
Margarine, softened
1 egg, slightly beaten
1 Tablespoon water
2 Tablespoons sugar

DIRECTIONS:

Dissolve the yeast in warm water.
Stir in the milk, 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup margarine, 2 eggs, cardamom, salt, saffron, and 3 cups of the flour. Beat until smooth.
Stir in enough of remaining flour to make dough easy to handle.
Turn dough onto lightly floured surface; knead until smooth (about 8 minutes).
Place in a greased bowl, cover, and let rise until doubled (about 1 hour).
Punch down on dough; divide into 24 parts.
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Shape each piece into rope, and form an S-shape, tucking the ends into a coil.
Place a raisin in the center of each end coil. Place rolls on greased cookie sheet.
Brush the tops lightly with margarine and let rise until doubled (about 30 minutes).
Mix 1 egg and 1 Tablespoon water and brush the buns lightly. Sprinkle with 2 Tablespoons of sugar.
Bake for 15–20 minutes.