Those chocolate covered cherries with the cordial inside. I love them, but they are Christmas-exclusive.

Christmas candy. Ribbon candy, filled candy, candy canes, crumbly peppermint sticks, those thin chocolate covered candy sticks that come individually wrapped. Pretty much all pure sugar Christmas candy. No white chocolate, ever.

This
is what I wish someone would send me but I'm not too hopeful.

Yup, all those things. Please. I'll wait here.

One of my most vivid early Christmas memories is of cutting my tongue on a shard of ribbon candy.

Those puffy-soft meltaway peppermints. Sugar cookies. Homemade toffee.

Also, slow-cooked scrambled eggs. One Christmas morning I made them, and every Christmas after that, Mom requested them: eggs and cream mixed gently, then cooked over the lowest possible heat until they're fully cooked but still tender and lusciously soft. A big family gathering is a great time to make them because 20+ eggs over lowest heat take a lot longer (and provide a lot more leeway during which the cook is peeking out and watching kids play with stocking goodies) than a few eggs.

We used to get petits fours every year: each kid would get a whole box! In retrospect, they were kinda horrible, but I still love the notion of them.

Fruitcake! Dad loved good fruitcake; I haven't had fruitcake since he died. Also cheesecake: I always made him a cheesecake at Christmas.

My sister's bakery used to make tortiere, a pork pie, at Christmastime. I looooove that stuff and haven't had it since she stopped making it.

I have a new love for the holiday season: chocolate covered pretzels, dipped in crushed candy canes. I purchased a bag on a whim a few weeks back, and consumed the whole thing in one sitting. I went back to the store for six more bags. The intention is to share them with family and friends, but so far, it has just been me, hovering over the bag, croaking, "Precious". I should get tired of them soon, I hope.

Clementines! I love fruit and December is always a sad time to be a fruit eater, until clementines show up in the grocery store!

Grapefruit! Every year, my mother shares a shipment of oranges and grapefruit with me and my local sister. The grapefruit is much more flavorful and sweet than any I can buy in the stores, so this is the only time I eat grapefruit. Last year, I candied the rind, too, and used the candying syrup in drinks and cakes. SOOOO GOOD.

And yes, clementines! I keep a bowl of them on my table and sometimes eat three or four a day.

Grar, my supermarket was selling mini tangerines along with the clementines and I grabbed the wrong bag. Mini tangerines don't peel as neatly, aren't as reliably sweet, and have seeds.

Oh, so many food traditions!

When my grandparents were alive, they used to send us 2 wonderful things at Christams: a big box of inshell pecans my grandfather picked up from under his pecan trees, and a big box of homemade Christmas candy made by my grandmother: a few kinds of fudge, chocolate turtles, butterscotch haystacks, buckeyes, divinity, bourbon balls, and date-nut log. I still make some of these recipes on occasion but not the the incredible extent that she did. It must have taken her a month and cost hundreds of dollars - she sent it to everyone in the family.

My mom has a cinnamon yeast bread we call "Christmas bread" that she bakes on Christmas morning to eat with breakfast. It's delectable and Christmas-only.

Other non-homemade seasonal food...Christmas is the only time I drink eggnog. It's delicious, but don't read the nutrition information. My brother used to drink it regularly in high school to gain weight. Based on my personal experience, it works great.

Clementines, oh yes.

Panettone - the cheap kind from the store. Good to eat, and good to make bread pudding or French toast with!

Hershey's candy cane kisses. The secret ingredient is clearly crack.

Candies, cookies, ( I have almost no sweet tooth EXCEPT during the christmas season ) gingerbread, mulled wine, peppermint anything, chestnuts are more seasonal but Christmas hits peak chestnut, and nutmeg as a major spice.

I know theoretically I can make mulled wine at any time in winter but it only feel right at Christmas.

Oh and those big puffy Italian cookies from NJ bakeries, those scream Christmas to me.

Egg nog --- how could I forget it? I love egg nog.

CHEX MIX! Not the bagged kind, the homemade kind where some bits are light and crispy and some are glistening with butter from the bottom of the pan, and a few peanuts and pretzels develop a touch of delicious char.

A few years ago I made a giant (and expensive!) batch of Chex Mix, packed it up in bags, then into pretty decorated tins, and gave it to The Fella's family with their Christmas presents, which is how I learned that some people do not care about Chex Mix, no matter how politely enthusiastic they are.

This year, I'm going to make a giant batch and eat it all myself.

Ice tea absolutely LOADED with sugar, and then only when I'm at my mother's house.

I love egg nog but it is only available at Christmas. I have tried multiple recipes to make it myself, but nothing I do comes close to what a commercial dairy can produce.

Egg Nog is the thing I'm glad is only around at Christmas because I would lie in the gutter drinking myself to a creamy grave otherwise.

Ever since I was young, I've made fudge every year for the holiday. I love the stuff.

It's been the one thing I cannot do without and it makes such a large batch that there's plenty for gifting. (I've failed to make any this year so far and am hopeful that I'll find energy to do it ....maybe tomorrow.)

My step-grandma makes huge batches of peanut brittle at Christmas every year. Hers is the best and most distinctive I have ever had in my life and puts all other peanut brittle to shame. She can only make it when the outside temps are just right, because it has to cool and set outside to get the crunch just right.

"Little Smokies" in with a BBQ sauce mix. Yum.

I like those chocolate-covered cherries, eggnog, and I love chex mix. Elsa, the fella's family has defective tastes in food. We made enough chex mix to put a baggie of it into each of 37 stockings, shipped to my son's platoon in Afghanistan. I am a chex purist; no peanuts, pretzels, cheezy things, etc. Just corn, rice, wheat, and some bran chex(increased to make up for the ommissions), and the oil, salt & seasonings. I think I need to make more. It's like human kibble.

and lil smokies in a sauce made of jelly & tomato sauce. Chex-n-lil smokies; sounds like a healthy supper. I'll have to add some veg, though, Santa's still watching.

We made enough chex mix to put a baggie of it into each of 37 stockings, shipped to my son's platoon in Afghanistan

Aw, that's such a sweet touch! A little taste of something homemade can be so comforting and cozy!

I do adore Chex Mix. My mom's mix always had pretzels and peanuts so mine does too, but I'm a purist of different sort. A few years ago, it took some searching to find the traditional recipe online; everything on the Chex site was lower-fat and had telltale modern ingredients like bagel chips. NOPE, that does not appease my nostalgia! NO DICE.

Elsa, the fella's family has defective tastes in food.

It is kinda weird to suddenly have a whole gaggle of new family members with such different tastes. It's perfectly okay (if surprising) to realize that they don't have a nostalgic yen for Chex mix, but a tiny part of me wishes they'd outright spurned it so I could take it home and eat it all in one sitting. Instead, they were all very polite and appreciative. Why must my in-laws be so darned thoughtful? CURSES.

I'll have to add some veg, though, Santa's still watching.

That tomato sauce should do it.

Egg nog, which yes, is only available at Christmas. And Christmas bread made from my mother's recipe, which I could make any time but just make at Christmas because I don't want to dilute its awesomeness.

some people do not care about Chex Mix, no matter how politely enthusiastic they are.

PHILISTINES. This stuff is so good. My grandmother made this, too, though her recipe contained Worcestershire, chili powder and extra butter and was called "Texas Trash."

some people do not care about Chex Mix, no matter how politely enthusiastic they are.

PHILISTINES. This stuff is so good. My grandmother made this, too, though her recipe contained Worcestershire, chili powder and extra butter and was called "Texas Trash."

I lean both ways with chex mix, strictly chex or full-blown deluxe, and anywhere in between. Cheerios make a nice addition.

"Little Smokies" in with a BBQ sauce mix. Yum.

Little Smokies here too. Though I haven't had them in a BBQ sauce. Sounds good. We have them with eggs and other breakfast stuff on Christmas morning. :)

and lil smokies in a sauce made of jelly & tomato sauce.

Also delicious: meatballs in red currant jelly and chili sauce. Because I can never leave anything alone, I also reduce a cup of white wine to a sticky base with a clove of garlic and add it to the sauce. I've tried this with regular meatballs and with vegan "meat"balls from Trader Joe's: both delicious.

Guests will stand over these and eat until every last one is gone; I imagine it's the same with Lil Smokies.

Egg nog. And not even then, most of the time, as I don't have the gumption to make my own, and the bottled/carton stuff is usually chock-full of HFCS these days.

...some people do not care about Chex Mix, no matter how politely enthusiastic they are.

They have never had my dear wife's Chex mix. I could run a highly profitable bar, as long as that stuff was in bowls on the tables.

I think I need to spend Christmas in the US one of these days. I'll bring mince pies.

My great aunt's eggnog was a cross between custard and whipped cream, fluffy and laced with bourbon. My grandmother said it would harden all your arteries before it would get you drunk. She was wrong.

Peppermint stick ice cream with hot fudge sauce. Mmmm.

I love Xmas pudding - but really it's too hot here to want to eat anything outside of salad! We often eat Xmas dinner on Xmas Eve when it's a bit cooler.

I might make sushi, and probably do some pancakes for breakfast.

Oh boy. Xmas cookies. Fudge. Peppermint schnapps (only in the Xmas eve hot chocolatae, ever.)

I'm not much of a nutritarian around Xmas time, at least as to those items. I have eaten LESS of all of the above this year, though.