Share your holiday food traditions!

[Bakersdozen]

Now is the time we(or our spouses)  are all starting to get serious about our holiday baking.  Tell us what dish defines Thanksgiving or Christmas for you.  Is there something that completes the holiday?  If possible, share the recipe.
I'll start.  My grandmother used to make a Jello dish she called Ice Box Cake.  It wasn't a cake and it wasn't a salad.  It certainly was a dessert.  We loved it. 
Ice Box Cake
1 small package lemon jello
1/2 cup mini marshmallows
1 cup whipping cream
20 vanilla wafers, approximately, crushed
1 small can pineapple, drained well.

Prepare Jello according to package directions.  While warm, add marshmallows.  Semi-set.  Meanwhile, whip the cream and then whip into Jello.  Add drained pineapple and vanilla wafer crumbs.  Reserve a few crumbs to sprinkle on top.  Refrigerate until firmly set up.   
Grandma always served this in a square glass refrigerator dish.  I usually double this because then it fits perfectly into a square glass refrigerator dish that I have.

[riverbee]

hmmmm, will have to dig out some recipes...........
thanksgiving, i grill the turkey in a spice rub every year, and for christmas, prime rib in the oven.  my mothers sage dressing, it's the best and a staple.  we mix the fixings up a little every year, maybe mashed potatoes with gravy or cheesy hash brown potatoes or sweet potato pie; always a seven layer salad, one of my favs. home made buns/rolls.  pumpkin pie made from our own pie pumpkins. sometimes i will whip up a pecan pie. (love pecan pie) when i was a kid growing up my mom would get fresh pecans from my grandmother (father's mother, she had pecan trees). loved her fried okra and cornbread, deep fried gizzards and giblets (gotta love southern cooking!); mmmm, mmm (loved her cooking!).  might bake up some pumpkin bread with pecans or walnuts during the season, or biscotti.

no matter how cold it is here, i do enjoy putting the bird on the grill. the other staple is my mothers dressing, thanksgiving and christmas. this year for thanksgiving, might have to mix up some sweet potato pie/casserole.  this recipe was given to me from a good friend of mine from georgia. it was his mother's recipe and has been a dish that disappears when i fix it up; family and friends, even those who don't like sweet potatoes or don't think they like sweet potatoes;
 
3 cups of cooked sweet potato ( canned sweet potato works) i use store bought and cook them up, better flavor!
1 cup of sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup of milk
1/2 cup butter

combine the above items and place in a casserole dish.  in a separate bowl, mix the following ingredients; 3/4 cup flour, 1 cup chopped pecans, 1/3 cup of softened butter, i cup light brown sugar. 

top the sweet potatoes with the above mixture and bake at 350 for 30 to 40 minutes.

[Jen]

Holy Cow! That sweet potato pie/cass sounds extra good, gonna try that one.

Baker- Just give me that whole cake and a spoon! Nuff Said!
 

[Bakersdozen]

Hey riverbee, I have made sweet potatoes in a similar fashion.  It's really good.
The same grandmother, that made Ice Box Cake, always took canned yams (or swt potatoes) and put them whole into a casserole dish.  On the stove she would make a sauce by melting butter and some milk and brown sugar to taste.  She blended this until smooth and poured over the sweet potatoes.  Into the oven until heated through.  Add marshmallows on top and return to the oven to brown the marshmallows.  The marshmallows aren't absolutely necessary.  If I am lucky, I get it just right.
There are a lot of folks who don't like sweet potatoes.  The reason may be they have been fixed too sweet or the texture is all wrong for them.  I know I can't stand sweet potato fries or tots.  My brain can't get past the different taste.  The government school lunch program
pushes sweet potatoes over white potatoes.  At work, even fried, we see a lot go in the trash.

[brooksbeefarm]

One item you girls left out that my mother and wife uses when baking sweet potato(from the garden) casserole, BACON, put strips of bacon on under the marshmallows. Try it and see what you've been missing.   Jack

[Papakeith]

I only have one duty for baking at the holidays.  I have to make Butter Bright Pastries. 
The tradition started with my mother who got the recipe from a mid 60s edition of The Farmer's Wife and tried it out. Her efforts were met with great enthusiasm 

I don't remember ever not having them at our Christmas breakfast.  the full Christmas breakfast menu includes; bacon, eggs (scrambled and eggs benedict) Butter Bright pastries, and Apricot Nectar. 

[riverbee]

"The reason may be they have been fixed too sweet or the texture is all wrong for them.  I know I can't stand sweet potato fries or tots.  My brain can't get past the different taste."

baker's i think it's the texture, and maybe too sweet.   lots of folks don't care for sweet potatos but they will eat the sp pie.  i love sweet potato fries.  and jack, no marshmallows on my sweet tators, i really don't care for them 

pk those pastries look good!  and LOVE eggs benedict!

[Slowmodem]

Here's a tradition that goes back nearly 60 (can it really be that many?   ) years:  Every Thanksgiving we have deviled eggs.  I always raid the eggs (and mashed potatoes and rolls).  I always feel like Cool Hand Luke eating the eggs.   

[Papakeith]

the eggs benedict were strictly for Grandma and my Mother.  These days they are omitted. 

Now that I think on it.  Maybe they will make an appearance this year.  I don't care for them, but someone might.

[riverbee]

"Maybe they will make an appearance this year.  I don't care for them, but someone might."

............
been there done that, think we all have, family dysfunction is fun isn't it?........... i just tend to have a little more champagne.........

the champagne, mixed with a little oj and strawberries can start with the 'mad scramble' for breakfast.........
then i move on to something stiffer......