Fun and different Christmas traditions and presents

Hello, my Life Lover family! I can’t believe the end of the year is here, and with that, the silly season, as some people call it, is upon us. Mariah Carey and Michael Bublé are starting to sound on the speakers, and we start thinking about what to give and how to celebrate with our loved ones. It is for that reason that today I bring you a few ideas on how to celebrate in a non-traditional way during this special time.

By Pat Aguilar

@Pataguilar_

When we talk about presents, it can be difficult to think about how to give something meaningful, but our friends in Canada have a very lovely tradition: they get together on Christmas Eve to bake cookies. Everyone will bring their favourite recipe to share with everyone else, and they spend hours baking these different recipes, and at the end, everyone goes home with a batch of mixed cookies from these different recipes. How fun!

If you fancy celebrating with a flourish worthy of Robert Caldwell, Christmas is the perfect excuse to go all out. But before visions of hours in the kitchen send you reaching for the takeaway menu, here’s a delightfully simple — and rather charming — alternative. In China, a quietly growing Christmas tradition involves giving apples on Christmas Eve. Yes, apples. No roasting trays, no frantic last-minute gravy disasters — just a piece of fruit with a story.

In the run-up to Christmas, shops across China fill with apples wrapped in beautiful, colourful paper, ready to be gifted. They’re elegant, thoughtful and refreshingly low-effort (a festive win for busy women everywhere). Of course, you can wrap them yourself at home for an extra personal touch — a ribbon here, a bit of sparkle there, and suddenly your humble apple is looking rather glamorous.

The reason behind it is wonderfully simple. The Chinese phrase for Christmas Eve, Ping An Ye, sounds very similar to the word for apple, Ping Guo. Over time, the two became linked, and the apple turned into a symbol of peace and good wishes on Christmas Eve. Proof, perhaps, that sometimes the most meaningful gifts are also the simplest — and that a little creativity can go a long way, even if you’ve sworn off cooking this year. 🍎

In Germany, it is common to eat stollen or Christstollen, which is a fruit bread made with marzipan and dried fruit in the middle. This tradition started in the 15th century when they used to give this for Christmas presents. Our Irish friends do something similar. Each person in the house will receive a round cake full of caraway seeds on Christmas Day.

What to be more playful? In Denmark, it is common to have for dessert a risalamande, which is a special rice pudding. What makes it special is that whoever gets the almond inside the pudding gets a little present.

In Mexico, they don’t celebrate Christmas officially until the 6th of January, which is the Dia de Reyes, Epiphany Day, or “Day of the Three Kings,” and they celebrate this by eating a Three Kings Cake. Similar to our Danish friends, they hide a small baby Jesus inside the cake, and whoever finds it gets to be baby Jesus’s godfather for the year.

From all of these, I think my favourite is the surprise pudding from Denmark or the apples in China. For that reason, I am bringing you two recipes for Christmas dessert: roasted apples and Christmas pudding.

Roasted Apples

Ingredients:

• 4 eating apples, cored
  • Tip to choose apples: Try using either Gala, Golden Delicious or Honeycrisp variety of apples for the perfect sweet/tart balance

• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 2 tbsp raisins or sultanas
• 25g vegan butter
• 1 tbsp cinnamon
• 200ml apple juice
• 1 tbsp maple syrup
• 200g blackberries
• 50g flaked almonds.

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas mark 4. Cut the top off each apple (but do not discard), and core each fruit.

Put the raisins, sugar, butter, and cinnamon into a food processor and pulse several times to produce a coarse, textured mixture.

Fill each apple cavity with the mixture and add the tops. Arrange the apples in a shallow, ovenproof dish and pour the apple juice over them.

Bake for 30 mins or until tender. Sprinkle the almonds and the blackberries over them, and serve immediately, piping hot.

Clotted Cream Christmas Rice Pudding

Ingredients

600ml oat milk (you can use a different alternative)

227g clotted cream: to make this, you will need vegan butter, icing sugar and vegan cream. You can always buy the alternative already made in the supermarket.

50g caster sugar

100g short-grain pudding rice

Nutmeg

1 litre (1¾ pint) ovenproof dish, buttered.

Almonds  

Instructions:

Let’s start with making the clotted cream: put the vegan butter and the sugar in a bowl and beat until it is fluffy and pale. Then add the cream and mix for around 2 minutes or until the mix forms stiff peaks. 

Set the oven to 150°C/275°F/Gas mark 2. Pour the milk into a pan and add the cream. Bring to a boil, stirring until the cream melts. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the sugar. Tip the rice into the buttered dish and pour the hot oat milk over it.

Grate lots of nutmeg over the top. Place the dish on a baking tray in the oven and cook for about two hours, or until the rice is tender. Serve hot or cold.

Don’t forget to add your mystery almond to any area of the pudding!

Tip: Sprinkle the top of the rice pudding with cinnamon or sugar for an even tastier skin on top.

Let me know how you go with this recipe and any other new traditions for this season. Don’t forget to tag us @lifelovermagazine. 

Have a merry, wonderful Christmas!

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