Ten Edible Christmas Memories

By Todd Langwell

Christmas was the most magical of times when I was young. Somewhere along the line, however, the magic got replaced with practical, needful things - so many things to do. Living in the city, wrangling active kids and racing from place to place, I often forget the simple pleasures of my childhood growing up in a small mountain town.

But it's during the Holidays I start to get nostalgic and long to remember the simpler days. Not just for myself, but for my children as well - that I might somehow pass down a small piece of the magic to them.

When I try to recall those things I held dear, it's amazing to me how many of them revolve around taste and smell. Upon further probing, it seems as if the majority of my beloved Christmas memories are actually of edible treats. Peanut brittle, pumpkin pie, eggnog: these holiday favorites are not just food and drink; they are powerful icons of tradition.

It is in this light that I present my ten favorite edible Christmas memories:

10) Hot apple cider with cinnamon sticks.
I always thought it was so cool when my mom would crack out the rolled sticks of cinnamon. Who knew it was tree bark? We'd chew on them until our tongues were sore.

9) Mixed nuts.
I guess winter is the traditional time of nuts. I remember sitting around the tree on the nights preceding Christmas, cracking nuts by the light of the fire while we all stared into the hypnotizing dance of the tree lights.

8) Roasted pumpkin seeds.
Perhaps it's because my dad often preferred to make pumpkin pie out of real pumpkins for Thanksgiving and Christmas, but roasted and salted pumpkin seeds became part of our holiday tradition. My mom would bake them on cooking sheets on a low heat for hours. The whole house would fill up with that sweet, nutty, toasted aroma.

7) Gingerbread cookies.
I would eat all the way around the poor gingerbread man's head, pretending I was a ravenous dinosaur. We would use Red Hots candy for the buttons of his coat and white icing for his features. Making them was so much a part of the fun.

6) Port wine cheese.
Port wine cheese, some crackers, and a few visiting cousins and you've got yourself a family holiday party. My first exposure to the water cracker was during holiday parties where port wine cheese was offered. The crackers were extra bland so none of the sweet, cheesy goodness would be masked.

5) Dark Chocolate.
Dark orange chocolate was my favorite. We would keep an assortment of dark chocolates for special occasions during the holidays. So much warmer and richer than milk chocolate, dark chocolate always reminds me of home and hearth.

4) Hot cocoa with marshmallows.
The little-bitty marshmallows were a must. What's better on a cold day than warm cocoa? For pure nostalgia, it's hard to beat.

3) Party mix.
Toasted cereals, nuts, butter and love go into this perennial favorite. We would receive bushels of the stuff from friends, relatives and neighbors, yet we would always seem to finish it.

2) Baked apples.
Core and peel tart green apples. Add brown sugar, butter and cinnamon. Bake. Yummy. For an extra twist, drizzle hot caramel on top before serving. I would beg my mom to make these.

1) Tamales.
How Christmas tamales became a tradition in my non-Hispanic home, I am not quite sure - probably just because my mother loved them. Every year, usually on Christmas Eve, we would all take part in making the tamales. They were a lot of work, but boy, were they ever worth it! Just thinking of unwrapping those cornhusks and finding that delectable, steamy corn meal and beef delicacy makes me long for Christmas time.

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