Christmas

For most Americans, Christmas rivals Thanksgiving for indulgence. Unlike Thanksgiving, however, Christmas is more than a single meal. Specialty Christmas foods permeate the month-long holiday season. Titles such as Old-Fashioned Christmas Cookbook and Twelve Days of Christmas Cookbook recall Christmases past, and gingerbread men, plum puddings, and cookies are part of culinary tradition. Homemakers have covered Christmas tables in red and green since the late nineteenth century, and holiday dishes bearing the image of Santa Claus or evergreens have been marketed since the 1930s.