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Do you have your very own holiday tradition? Something uniquely yours – perhaps it’s a themed meal or a religious ceremony or just a bouquet of annual depression – something you do each year to commemorate the season. My mother once started a tradition of serving ham hocks on Christmas Eve and then upon realizing we were not cavemen, abandoned it – a tradition of one year and a story for many.

The hamhocks were hung by the chimney with care. Photo courtesy of the kitchn.

My family has a quirky Christmas tradition that started with a book and a classroom assignment. A few years back, I picked up Christmas: A Cooks Tour from a sale rack at Barnes and Nobel. The chapters, divided by country, featured Christmas traditions and menus from around the world and it flashed me back to a pivotal second grade activity of coloring in scenes of Christmas celebrations from different countries. Imagine my shock to learn that my Santa wasn’t the only Santa, my Christmas wasn’t the only Christmas, my religion wasn’t the only…and so on. You mean there are other people outside of Green Lake, Wisconsin? Thus began my Columbus need to venture out; to travel and explore – maybe that’s what brought me to Los Angeles, one of the most diverse cities in the world – or it could have been Tito’s Tacos – we’re not sure.

Back to tradition. The book sparked an idea one year to celebrate traditions of a country other than our own in the U.S. of A. My husband and I, not yet married and living in Chicago, would be alone that Christmas Eve, so we selected Japan out of the twenty two countries featured in the book.Japan was exotic and faraway, a country that would be of great contrast to our own celebrations, even though only one percent of the population celebrated Christmas. Our nod to Japan that year was nothing more than miso soup, rolling our own sushi, and getting drunk on sake while we admired our lilliputian centerpiece, a small tomato carved into a rose by a waitress at Kyoto Restaurant. Had we researched beyond the book, we might have celebrated the authentic way most Japanese celebrate Christmas – with a reserved KFC chicken dinner.

Twenty years and twenty countries later, we celebrated the Christmas traditions from yet another country this year. Having repurposed our trip to Kenya this summer by sharing safari inspired foods hereto our holiday cards there, it only made sense to use the country for our Christmas tradition too. My sister and her family were on board to share in the festivities.

Our effort becamemore an amalgam of traditions from various countries in Africa which was untraditional for our tradition, but we’ve learned over the years, that as much as we strive for authenticity, we still need to provide a welcome dinner for our family and children (don’t get me started on Russia), so we adjusted where appropriate. We didn’t roast a goat, but cheese made from the goat’s milk found it’s way in.

Like most countries outside of the U.S., the religious experience of Christmas is the central focus in Africa. Door-to-doorChristmas caroling is also a lively holiday tradition in Kenya. The most common Christmas fare includes nyama choma (roasted meat, such as cow or goat) and a popular flat bread, chapati. In Ghana, Christmas dinner includes fufu (yam balls) and okra soup, and in Liberia, rice, beef, and biscuits are on the menu. Zimbabweans have plenty of bread, jam, and tea to eat along with their goat meat.

Our meal included griddle roasted spiced nuts and goat cheese baked in vine leaves with roasted tomatoes for appetizers. Our main meal included nyama choma beef, chaptis, okra soup, cucumber and fennel salad, and fruit salad with lime cream and peanuts for dessert.

Many of these dishes called for traditional African spices and, as luck would have it, we had African spices aplenty from our trip – yes the trip I won’t shut up about.

Okra, for the uninitiated, is a mysterious vegetable -er herb -er starch and often used for gumbo. It’s green and because of that, confusing – the little round white balls inside all that green are like miniature thickening agents with gummy textures. Forgive me okra lovers, but I had to blend the crap out of that vegetable to get beyond the sticky to a pleasingly blendy place. I was A-okay with the okra taste and the soup became dense with flavors and consistency. All of the foods were robust and delicious, but I was especially fond of the beef that was charmed by my brother-in-law’s deft grilling hand – the mixture of spices catapulted the flavor and formed a tinged crust that sealed in the juices.

We sang carols, listened to recordings from authentic African Christmas performers, and the kids made mmos (moors – masks for an ancestral dance).

Now that I’ve given you my long-winded rant and deets about our Christmas traditions – please share yours with us. We lurve Christmas and celebrations and food.