1931-12-18 — Page 30

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CHINA MÁIL CHRISTMAS SUPPLEMENT, 1931.

T'S in the eating, of course, and no

The Proof

bakers has perfected the

of the

Pudding

Menu for Christmas

art of Christmas elders and youngsters alike.

I Christmas can complete this year or pudding mas mad

any other year without the Christmas pud- ding.

Tradition enters more frequently into this distinctive viand among all by way of food that spells Christmas, than into any other single item of the holiday menu, for many families, particularly the English-steamed born, hand down recipes for plum pudding, fig*or suet puddings, from generation to generation, and the majority of these rules have their origin in England.

}

Menu for Christmas."

In planning the Christmas dinner, the young housekeeper new to the more difficult kinds of cooking, may regale her few families like venture far from

to of turkey and -- “trim. lord and master and the Christmas dinner the tradition

To make it quite "real" for guests with a pudding that might never be mings." guessed to have come out of anywhere ex- them, there must be the big stuffed fowl cept a home kitchen. Heavily fruited and with sage, chestnut or oyster stuffing, there almost a day long, then packed must be cranberries, minced meat pie and away to ripen and enrich until the thickly-plum pudding, fruits and nuts and coffee. fruited mixture blends to a substance fit for It is only with these good old stock stand- the gods. The pudding is brought forth bys for a foundation in her planning, that royally and served triumphantly in glorious

ven the most modern-minded of house wives will vary her menu. One of the termination of the Christmas dinner.

smart fashion publications of the day that occasionally takes a departure into by-ways of menu-making suggests a Christmas din- ner at once old and new. Here is the menu:

"Merrie England's" Christmas celebra-

How attractive and tempting the tions back in the days of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, incorporated the Christmas pudding may be made! One's Christmas pudding, and elaborate.ceremony prettiest dish, perhaps a large, flat plate of surrounded its making and its serving. The pewter, silver or china, may hold it, and we whole household had a hand in its stirring, may wreath it with holly and decorate its round self with candied fruits and angelica. "for luck," and you will remember that in that charming Christmas classic "The Birds' If it has been moulded with a centre hole, Christmas Carol,” Mrs. Bird has the Christ- that just invites a little clump of Chrismas mas pudding brought to the bedside of the holly, surrounding a plump red candle light- little invalid Carol that she may stir it. ed before the pudding is brought to the "for luck."** To-day we like to surround its table. Or, birthday cake fashion, we may serving with pretty little rituals or cere-surround the pudding with a wreath of red monies, having it brought blazing to the table, elaborately embellished and adorned.

Pudding Making An Art.

The pudding has been made weeks be- fore in most of our homes, although culinary skill on the part of professional

JOYOUS GAIETY THIS CHRISTMAS.

E are going to have this year of 1931

tree candles and bring it in blazing in a crown of golden glory. The proof of the Dudding is indeed in the eating, but these little ornamental touches give it added flavour and contribute a little ceremonial interval in the holiday dinner that thrills

Thursday, Dec. 24. Christmas eve. Family supper and Christmas tree.. Mid- night service.

Friday, Dec. 25. Christmas Day. Stockings, and Christmas breakfast, Christ mas service at the church. Christmas din-

ing. A family day and evening.

WE are to hack-end for fun, formas service Christmas tea in early even-

Christmas falls on Friday.

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Hors d'oeuvre

Savoury Soup Lobster Chops Roast Turkey

Toast Strips Cucumber Sand. Chestnut Stuffing

Red Apple and Sausage Garnishing Mashed Potato

Puff Squash Cranberry and Orange Jelly

Celery and Olives

Egg and Asparagus Salad. Wafers. Christmas Plum Pudding

Individual Minced Pies Nits and Fruit and Candy Coffee.

scramble does rot contribute to it? And those who ring up the curtain on Christmas eve in all this excitement and flurry have a good chance at considerably more of a Christmas thrill than our more orderly and restrained friends.

There will be a whole week before us for all the fun we can find in the holiday time. There will be many parties Late breakfasts, dinners, dances and the

This means that there will be three

Saturday, Dec. 26.—A day for play. whole days to which we may abandon our- Outdoor sports for everybody in the after-morning Selves for festivity and with which we will noon. Movies in the evening. Or afternoon usual round of festivities.

tea "on tap" for callers, and an evening of bridge or dancing.

ring up the curtain on a holiday season that will not be over until we have rung the last bell welcoming in the new year. This means, too, that we will have leisure to celebrate in several ways in which we are not always able, to celebrate when Christmas day it- self, the focal point of all our merry-making,

falls in the middle of the week or at its be- ginning, with an interruption of an exten- sive programme that we may wish to carry

out.

Offering a. Varied Programme. How are we going to plan our pro- gramme for this fine, long stretch of good to include times?. How can we arrange some festivity for every age represented ir our family group? How are we going to make a time for fun outside the family, to lend our interest and our aid to the com- munity Christmas celebration, for instance, and plan so that we can share without rush or excess hurry. Such a multitude of things to divide our efforts!

Well, it's a pretty good plan to take pencil and paper and set it all down "in black on white." Let's make out a tenta- tive holidays' programme and put it down, perhaps, like this:-

I

.

Sunday, Dec. 27. A day for church- going and possibly a Sunday evening tea for family or guests.

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and dances.

Monday, Dec. 28 to Thursday, Dec. 31.-Parties, teas, supper or dinner parties

Thursday Dec. 31.

Formal dancing parties and New Year's revelry.

Friday, Jan. 1. Informal afternoon.

Family dinner party.

It will be the Day before Christmas be fore we know it, and doubtless it will be with a last-minute rush that we tie up the last parcel in silver and scarlet, place the last ornament and light on the Christmas tree and rush away to the children's carol ser- There are those who can come into vice.

this juncture serene and Christmas at calm, unhurried and unflurried.

They are those fore-handed souls who have done their Christmas shopping weeks before there was ever a sign of Christmas tinsel and green in the shops, none of the But, crush and rush of December days. after all, what makes the real Christmas time if some of this hurry, and rush and

Climax to a Gay Week,

M

The week of gaiety will have its climax, of course, on New Year's eve when every- body celebrates in the traditional manner.

LITTLE jingle written some years ago

Christmas seasons when it is once heard and remembered. It reads like this:

A rhymes repeatedly into

•

"'Tis a beautiful time when Christmas

comes,

All up the street and down,

For hearts alight make faces bright, When Christmas comes to town. “Neighbour and friend in gladness meét, There are greetings far and near, When Christmas peace bids evil cease On the holiest day of the year.

''Tis a beautiful task that Christmas brings, For young and old to share,

With the jingle of bells and silvery swells Of music in the air.

"To make the sad world merry a while, To frighten sin away,

And to bless us all, what'er befall, Is the task of Christmas“ day.” '.

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