The Brief Histories Of 15 Iconic Holiday Foods

As the classic Christmas song "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" says, "Bring us some figgy pudding." We know the song, but many on this side of the pond don't know what figgy pudding is, let alone why it is included in one of our favorite holiday songs. Figgy pudding, also known as plum or Christmas pudding, is a British Christmas tradition. It is not a pudding in the American sense but a steamed cake filled with dried fruit and alcohol. To make matters slightly more confusing, it does not necessarily contain figs or plums, instead getting its name from the Victorian use of the term "plum" to mean dried fruit in general.

History Today notes that plum pudding dates back to at least the 1400s. Back then, sweet meat pies and pottages were used as a way of preserving meat. With a healthy dose of both sugar and alcohol, they were naturally used for preservation and became a staple celebration food. Over time, meat was dropped from the equation in favor of dried fruits. By the 1800s, celebration puddings took on their traditional round shape and were associated with Christmas, showing up in Victorian Christmas portraits and in Charles Dickens's "A Christmas Carol," and taking on the moniker "Christmas pudding." Traditional recipes now include 13 ingredients — representing Jesus and the 12 apostles — and are decorated with a sprig of holly for the crown of thorns.

Creamy Christmas beverages can be found worldwide, from the Puerto Rican coconut-based coquito to egg- and milk-based eggnog. The origins of eggnog are unclear. However, early Medieval Britain had what is thought to be a precursor to the drink with an eggnog-like drink called "posset," which was a warm milk and ale drink (via Time). Eggs and milk were considered rich people's foods and may have been enjoyed in the winter by the wealthy British.

The name, too, is under debate. The "egg" part comes from one of the primary ingredients, but "nog" could refer to anything from "grog," an alcoholic beverage, or "noggin," a wooden cup. Either way, by the 1700s, colonizers brought warm drinks to America and began adding alcohol to them — typically rum, which was readily available. The drink evolved from a general wintertime drink to a specifically Christmas drink. And by the 1800s, eggnog became responsible for starting a drunken Christmas riot at West Point University, per Smithsonian Magazine. By the mid-1960s, non-alcoholic eggnog came on the market, and eggnog sales in America have only continued to rise over the past half-century (via Forbes).

It doesn't get much better than doughnuts for the holidays. From Polish pączki for Fat Tuesday to Berliners for New Year's in Germany to the classic Hanukkah sufganiyot — a jelly-filled doughnut, doughnuts basically rule as holiday treats. But you may be wondering how they became associated with holidays. For sufganiyot, doughnuts are a natural extension of the Hanukkah story.

As part of the celebration of the rededication of the Second Temple thanks to the Maccabees, Hanukkah celebrates the miracle of the oil used to light the menorah — while the oil should have only lasted one night, it lasted eight nights. Oil is an integral part of the Hanukkah story. However, as Time magazine points out, doughnuts were not part of the diet at the time of Hanukkah. Instead, the tradition of donuts started with North African Jews who ate fried dough balls for the holiday.

Centuries later in Europe, the sugar trade allowed the fried dough to transform from a savory treat filled with meat to a sweet one filled with jam. When Jews fled to Isreal to escape anti-Semitism, both African and European groups brought doughnut love with them.

However, what sealed the deal for sufganiyot was the Histadrut, a trade group trying to create skilled jobs in the area (via Jewish Virtual Library). Since jelly doughnuts are more challenging to make at home than other Hanukkah foods, they promoted them to create jobs. It was incredibly successful, and now sufganiyot is part of the Hanukkah tradition.

The New Year's pretzel is a regional tradition that finds its roots in Germany. In the 17th century, German children wore pretzel necklaces on New Year to bring luck in the coming year. Since then, the tradition has evolved to eat not just any pretzel on New Year, but large soft pretzels typically finished with sweet toppings such as glaze. Lora Wiley-Lennartz notes in her food blog that she was first introduced to them by her German mother-in-law. She points out that in Germany, they are eaten either at midnight on New Year's Eve or for breakfast on New Year's Day.

The New Year's Pretzel is not just a German food anymore. During the 20th century, the tradition became popular in parts of the country with large German immigrant populations, such as Sandusky, Ohio, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The pretzels are supposed to bring luck and a sweet new year.

A whopping 87% of all pie consumed in the United States is consumed between Thanksgiving and Christmas, with nearly half of all pie consumed during the year being eaten on Thanksgiving (via The Sentinel-Record). With those numbers, it is not surprising that pumpkin pie has become so synonymous with Thanksgiving. But it begs the question: Why pumpkin?

Pumpkins originated in central America (via History). By the mid-1500s, squash was taken and grown in Europe, where it began to be used in cooking. While pumpkins were almost certainly around for the first Thanksgiving, they likely did not appear on the table as a modern-day pumpkin pie.

Over the years, pumpkin pie recipes have taken many forms, from a stewed pumpkin pie with almonds in 1650s France to a sliced pumpkin pie mixed with savory herbs or dried fruits in 1670s England. But finally, in 1796, "American Cookery," by Amelia Simmons, published a recipe for pumpkin pie that greatly resembles the one on today's tables.

After the recipe was published, pumpkin pie began to gain popularity during Thanksgiving and was included in the 1827 novel "Northwood" as part of a Thanksgiving celebration (via NHPR). The pie has only grown in popularity, and it is hard to imagine the holidays without it.

Candy corn is one derisive Halloween treat. Perhaps some of the unpleasant feelings towards the candy come from the fact it wasn't initially created to taste good but to look good and appeal to children.

According to History, in the late 1800s, molded mallow creme candy was made and marketed to children. These candies were produced year-round. As a way to utilize and showcase the then innovative technique of triple layering colors, George Renninger created candy corn. Originally, the candy was marketed as "chicken feed" as Americans did not consider corn to be food for humans.

In the 20th century, candy corn was typically sold in bulk to children. While originally candy corn was found year-round, as candy became more popular for Halloween in the 1950s, candy companies specifically advertised it as a Halloween candy. While it can still be found throughout the year, it remains most popular at the end of October.

Charoset is one of the traditional foods on the Seder plate for Passover. However, despite being a food most people cannot go without on the holiday, it is one of the only items not explicitly mentioned in the Torah or in the prayer book for Passover, the Haggadah (via Jewish Magazine). It is first mentioned in the Jewish text Mishna, hundreds of years later, as part of a debate about whether it must be eaten at Seder or not (via Reform Judaism). No conclusion is reached in the text.

Despite this, charoset has become a food to start the Seder. Typically eaten with matzah, the dish symbolizes the clay the enslaved Israelites were forced to build with and the apple trees, "which, according to the midrash, the Israelite women seduced their husbands" beneath (via Forward). The mixture is usually made of ground fruit, spices, and nuts but can vary in texture and ingredients across the world. Ashkenazi charoset, for example, typically uses chopped apples mixed with fruit and nuts, whereas one Italian charoset can utilize pears and is cooked. Another uses chestnuts and is ground to a fine paste (via the Jewish Museum of Maryland).

What do chocolate and bunnies have to do with the resurrection of Jesus? Bunnies, in general, do not have any direct relation to Easter. There is some thought that the bunny started as just a general symbol of spring and rebirth, per Readers Digest. However, the first "Easter bunny" dates back to at least the 1700s in German folklore, where an egg-laying bunny brought colored eggs to children (via History).

Eventually, the custom developed to include baskets of treats. This all came to a head in 1890 when Robert L. Strohecker created a 5-foot-tall chocolate easter bunny (via Slate). Strohecker is now remembered as "the father of chocolate Easter bunny." Then in the early 1900s, the Bortz Chocolate Company in Reading, Pennsylvania, began mass-producing chocolate Easter bunnies. Now it is practically impossible to imagine the holiday without chocolate bunnies, and companies such as R.M Palmer West Reading, Pennsylvania, make over 25 million of them each year (via Smithsonian Magazine).