Christmas Eve, spaetzle and wursts. Christmas Day dinner, roast pork. I'm usually mostly vegetarian, but my spiritual beliefs require meat at Christmas!
🌟 🎄 🎅 The UnOfficial Official 2025 PM Secret Santa Thread 🎅 🎄 🌟
- Thread starter mikethompson
- Start date
PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor
Site Sponsors
PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor
PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor
PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor
PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor
The family eats big time for Christmas. On the Eve we all gather at my grandma's house and we have a big spaghetti dinner and an assortment of cookies and other bite sized sweets. After that the grandkids help prep the breakfast cheese and ham casserole for the brunch.
Christmas Day brunch is like getting thrown back on the line cause we bake the casseroles, cook pancakes, Mom makes a coffee cake and we generally fry up between five to ten pounds of bacon, usually with different flavors because variety is the spice of life. At this point the Bloody Mary's and Mimosas have started to flow as well.
Dinner is a collaboration, me and my dad and cousins will work on some kind of smoked meat main dish and everyone else brings various veggies sides and desserts. I'll also break out my yearly homemade Christmas Ale to get folks in the Christmas spirit. I think the menu this year is a smoked brisket and I'm talking about doing a crab boil too but that's still in the planning phase. There's a lot of us so we have to have a good deal of food and drink but that's all part of the fun.
Tortiere is tradition for my family and my wife’s family. Does your wife make conton pork spread? Some call it creton. It is excellent on buttered toast for breakfast.
Red Eye Gravy is just coffee and country ham fat with a smidge, and I mean smidge of brown sugar.. It takes things like grits and egg to the next most gooder level. I'll try and remember to take a pic this year and send it along.
Dang! I should have thought of that LOL
I used to be a professional chef so I made traditional Thanksgiving and Christmas meals for the masses. One year we cooked 1,500 turkeys, 1,000 hams and 700 Prime Rib Roasts.
After I left that gig I swore off traditional meals. My family knows and expects it.
This year I made an elk pot roast for thanksgiving and we’re having TBone steaks (from a small ranch here in Nevada) for Christmas.
The only thing I consistently make for both holidays is Biscuits and Gravy.
usually a big ham
My wife is the most wonderful person in my world. She is beautiful and smart and funny. How I scored such a partner is a daily mystery to me.
She is also very traditional in her holiday meals. Turkey and that whole spread on Thanksgiving and Ham and that whole spread at Christmas. There is a lot of overlap in the spreads, but the meat choices are set in stone with her family.
So the one year I did a prime rib and oyster stew Christmas dinner about blew her parents' minds when they came over. lol
This year we will have a ham and a smoked brisket for Christmas. And I will work in cheesy jalapeno bacon grits to the spread.
She is also very traditional in her holiday meals. Turkey and that whole spread on Thanksgiving and Ham and that whole spread at Christmas. There is a lot of overlap in the spreads, but the meat choices are set in stone with her family.
So the one year I did a prime rib and oyster stew Christmas dinner about blew her parents' minds when they came over. lol
This year we will have a ham and a smoked brisket for Christmas. And I will work in cheesy jalapeno bacon grits to the spread.
I have a greyhound! All she does is sleep and fart
Our Secret Santa swap is now halfway along,
With tin lids clacking their merry tin song.
There are flakes folded neatly and coins in a swirl,
Burleys that bite and VaPers that curl.
But presents are due! yes, the deadline is near,
Most boxes have landed with puff worthy cheer.
Yet some empty porches hold nothing in view…
And those without packages are feeling quite blue.
Still, pipe nerds keep puffing in fragrant delight,
Debating dry times and packing just right.
So load up your briar with something anew
This smoky Secret Santa will see us all through!
With tin lids clacking their merry tin song.
There are flakes folded neatly and coins in a swirl,
Burleys that bite and VaPers that curl.
But presents are due! yes, the deadline is near,
Most boxes have landed with puff worthy cheer.
Yet some empty porches hold nothing in view…
And those without packages are feeling quite blue.
Still, pipe nerds keep puffing in fragrant delight,
Debating dry times and packing just right.
So load up your briar with something anew
This smoky Secret Santa will see us all through!
The only variable in our tradition is what species of bird - goose, turkey, brace of pheasants, several quail, etc - goes on the table. That depends on a) wanting something different from last year, and b) whether or not we have guests on the day. This year, it's just me and Mrs. Badger, so we're having a capon.
The rest is unvarying - pigs in blankets, bread sauce, sprouts, family recipe spiced buttered red cabbage, onion and apple cooked in white wine vinegar and Muscovado sugar and a stuffing of minced salami and dried apricot, roast honey-glazed parsnips, boiled chestnuts and roast potatoes done in goose fat. This is normally accompanied by a white Burgundy or a Macon.
This is followed by your standard English Christmas pudding, served flambe in brandy or rum and accompanied by a white rum-flavoured custard and a glass of Tokaji Aszu.
“This is followed by your standard English Christmas pudding, served flambe in brandy or rum and accompanied by a white rum-flavoured custard and a glass of Tokaji Aszu.”
That sounds amazing!
I was going to refrain from opening my PMSS largesse from the anonymous @cosmicfolklore until Christmas, but since he's already opened his and Som Besths is a moveable and elastic feast anyway, my curiosity got the better of my inner child and WOW! "Stuff that may not be easy to get on your side of the pond", he says - never mind hard to get, two of them completely unheard-of, which is great. And one of them well-aged, at that. And as if that weren't handsome enough, a silver tamper and ashdigger set with garnets and citrines... I am absolutely blown away. Mille Grazie, Cosmic. Domo Arigato. Vielen Dank. Merci Beaucoup. Diolch Yn Fawr Iawn. Etc. 
Last edited:
That's right! Cosmic had to send to Britain and it was recieved already. Bottom Listers what are you waiting for?
