It does not matter whether we call our favorite holiday Christmas, Weihnacht, Noel, Christmas, or Navidad Vanoce, everywhere it is celebrated in the most beautiful way, by forgiving, exchanging presents and celebrating at the table with people we love.  On Christmas Day, 25th December or 7th January, families gather at the festive table where the finest dishes are served, many of them prepared according to modified old recipes.

It is interesting that a number of hearty festive meals, no matter whether they are prepared according to the old recipes our grandmothers used in their kitchens or  if they are found in culinary web-pages, they all are enriched with Vegeta, a favorite blend of spices, indispensable at any list of holiday dishes. 

Of course, with traditional Christmas menus there come many beautiful and interesting Christmas customs, which both derive from ancient times.

Some parts of Croatia maintained the old Christmas custom - festive dining ceremony begins with extinguishing a candle with a piece of bread soaked in wine which a host gives to everyone at the table to be shared. Menu consists of roasted poultry, most often turkey with "mlinci" (pasta tatters), just like in old times (according to ancient belief, poultry throws scratched earth behind, so symbolically all bad things go to past and belong to past). Turkey often stuffed with chestnuts is favorite Christmas baking in Slovenia, served with steamed red cabbage, apples or plums, and sweet cranberry, and inevitably, on the table there is "potica", cake made of puff pastry filled with poppy seeds, walnuts and buckwheat porridge and "čvarci" (pork rinds).  In Serbia, besides inevitable "paprikaš" and rolled cabbage rich Christmas table often contains "česnica", ancient Christmas cake made of thin pastry with a filling in which a silver coin is placed, and Christmas bread richly decorated with figures made of dough. In Czech Republic the number of people at the table must be even, otherwise the one who is redundant will not live long enough to welcome the following Christmas. Czech traditional Christmas menu consists of fish soup, carp (prepared in a hundred different ways), potato salads, and meals of mushrooms and sour cabbage,  apple strudel and Christmas bread which is so popular that it can be bought all over the year. Menu in Poland must contain meals from forest, fields, gardens and water; thus they serve fish, most often carp or herrings, soups (such as beetroot and almond soup), side dishes (sour dish with mushrooms), desserts and pastries. There is an empty place at the table, waiting for an unexpected guest. Dining ceremony starts with breaking and sharing a piece of thin and fine wafer, which symbolizes love and harmony. In Russia it is customary that Christmas table contains 12 meals (one meal for each apostle). Most popular Christmas meals in Russia are fish in aspic, roast pork stuffed with buckwheat porridge, chicken or duck with sautéed apples, roasted lamb or rabbit, ham, sausage, pates, and inevitable "blini", pancakes made from dough with yeast and "pirogi", filled dough cake. In Spain children are given Christmas presents by Biblical Magi, and Spanish Christmas menu consists of finest seafood dishes, fish and lamb, stuffed turkey and desserts, including the "turron", sticky sweets made ​​from almonds, honey, sugar and egg whites.

In some parts of France children put their boots in the window on Christmas Eve and their Christmas table there is a traditional "buche de Noel", the goose stuffed with chestnuts and liver, goose pate, and dishes of fish and shellfish. 

In England Christmas celebration cannot be imagined without a turkey stuffed with bread and minced meat or apples and prunes, and a traditional pudding (plumpudding) with dried fruit and spices which is prepared even three weeks before Christmas. In the turkey there is a coin who will bring luck and wealth to the one who bites it. Germany is the homeland of the Advent calendar and wreath, decorated trees and a barn, and German Christmas table contains roasted meat, goose or carp with various side dishes and salads, and various cakes and pastries including the traditional "Stollen" cake with dried fruit. And...on the festive table in Italy you will find baked poultry, pork, lamb or game, and some of the traditional Christmas cakes like Bundt cakes with dried fruit ("panettone"), cookies in the snake shape (Il Serpent) or small round doughnut covered with sugar ("struffoli") as dessert.

We could suggest you recepies for croatian holiday menu with Vegeta recepies. Recepies for Christmas Eve are:

• Fish a la Lisabon
  
• Cod with vegetables
• Conger aal pâté   
• Seafood salad

And for Christmas suggestion is:

• Mediterranean duck  
• Turkey Dijonnaise
• Roast duck in orange sauce
• Capon in wine 

Vegeta wish you happy holidays!