Multicultural Holidays 101
The holidays came early this year! Halloween ended, and the next thing you know, turkeys and Christmas decorations were everywhere! Now that Thanksgiving is over, it’s time for more celebrating. Along with Christmas, December is filled with many multicultural celebrations, including Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and New Year’s Eve. All these holidays are celebrated nationwide with family gatherings and traditional foods.
Make Melissas.com your first stop for all your holiday gifts and recipe ingredients. Our one-stop-shop website offers recipe ideas and easy-to-prepare foods, including Ethnic foods and vegetarian ideas. Try some of our fan-favorite recipes and serve some holiday traditions, like black-eyed peas, to ring in 2024 with good luck.
Hanukkah
Hanukkah? Christmas? What? They are both on December 25th this year! Hanukkah begins at sundown on the 25th and ends on January 2, 2025. Hanukkah lasts 8 nights. Hanukkah translates to the word “dedication” and is celebrated with the Festival of Lights. Each evening, the family gathers for a candle lighting ceremony where one candle of the menorah, an eight-branched candlestick, is lit each night until all eight candles are burning. The festive evenings are filled with games of dreidel, an ancient ancestor to today’s spinning top, and Hanukkah gifts are exchanged. The feasts of Hanukkah are abundant with Jewish specialties such as brisket, matzo ball soup and potato latkes. Check out our Hanukkah menu.
Winter
Winter is not really a celebrated holiday, but winter really validates that the holidays are here! Each year, winter begins on December 21st. Home-cooked winter meals are often welcomed with hard squash, soups, and stews.
Melissa’s offers several convenient ingredients for your favorite winter recipes. Our steamed line of products is the perfect ingredient to keep on hand for last-minute meals.
Christmas
Christmas falls in the middle of the week on a Wednesday this year. Families will gather to celebrate with their favorite foods, possibly attend Church and often exchange gifts. The night before Christmas, Christmas Eve, is also very popular for families to participate in these traditions.
Christmas is the most celebrated holiday of the season and celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ. There are lights and trees everywhere, along with decorations and festive gatherings. Christmas Eve is often spent with families and friends exchanging gifts, leading into Christmas day where everyone enjoys gifts, family, friends, and a delicious feast.
You cannot go wrong using fresh fruits and vegetables for holiday cooking. Traditional recipes, trendy recipes and even vegetarian or vegan recipes have become streamlined for today’s holiday meals. Some popular ingredients for preparing a Christmas feast are: fresh and dried cranberries, mashed Dutch Yellow® potatoes, sweet potatoes, pearl onions, fresh herbs, mushrooms and plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables. Create a fruit platter using our Pinkglow® Pineapples, fresh cherimoya, grapes, papaya, and more. Charcuterie boards have become very popular for gatherings; add some colorful grapes, some sliced baby beets and some fresh edible flowers for garnish.
Kwanzaa
Kwanzaa begins every year the day after Christmas on December 26th and ends on January 1, 2025. There are many traditions for Kwanzaa from food to beliefs. There are 7 principles upon which Kwanzaa is based:
New Year’s Eve
Ring in the new year with Melissa’s Black-Eyed Peas! Considered a traditional “good luck” food, southern tradition states that eating black-eyed peas on the first day of the New Year will bring you good luck in the following year. Melissa's makes it easy with our ready-to-eat, steamed black-eyed peas or our convenient tubs. Enjoy them in soups, stews, or dips.
Happy New Year from Melissa’s!
Make Melissas.com your first stop for all your holiday gifts and recipe ingredients. Our one-stop-shop website offers recipe ideas and easy-to-prepare foods, including Ethnic foods and vegetarian ideas. Try some of our fan-favorite recipes and serve some holiday traditions, like black-eyed peas, to ring in 2024 with good luck.
Hanukkah? Christmas? What? They are both on December 25th this year! Hanukkah begins at sundown on the 25th and ends on January 2, 2025. Hanukkah lasts 8 nights. Hanukkah translates to the word “dedication” and is celebrated with the Festival of Lights. Each evening, the family gathers for a candle lighting ceremony where one candle of the menorah, an eight-branched candlestick, is lit each night until all eight candles are burning. The festive evenings are filled with games of dreidel, an ancient ancestor to today’s spinning top, and Hanukkah gifts are exchanged. The feasts of Hanukkah are abundant with Jewish specialties such as brisket, matzo ball soup and potato latkes. Check out our Hanukkah menu.
Winter is not really a celebrated holiday, but winter really validates that the holidays are here! Each year, winter begins on December 21st. Home-cooked winter meals are often welcomed with hard squash, soups, and stews.
Melissa’s offers several convenient ingredients for your favorite winter recipes. Our steamed line of products is the perfect ingredient to keep on hand for last-minute meals.
Christmas falls in the middle of the week on a Wednesday this year. Families will gather to celebrate with their favorite foods, possibly attend Church and often exchange gifts. The night before Christmas, Christmas Eve, is also very popular for families to participate in these traditions.
Christmas is the most celebrated holiday of the season and celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ. There are lights and trees everywhere, along with decorations and festive gatherings. Christmas Eve is often spent with families and friends exchanging gifts, leading into Christmas day where everyone enjoys gifts, family, friends, and a delicious feast.
You cannot go wrong using fresh fruits and vegetables for holiday cooking. Traditional recipes, trendy recipes and even vegetarian or vegan recipes have become streamlined for today’s holiday meals. Some popular ingredients for preparing a Christmas feast are: fresh and dried cranberries, mashed Dutch Yellow® potatoes, sweet potatoes, pearl onions, fresh herbs, mushrooms and plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables. Create a fruit platter using our Pinkglow® Pineapples, fresh cherimoya, grapes, papaya, and more. Charcuterie boards have become very popular for gatherings; add some colorful grapes, some sliced baby beets and some fresh edible flowers for garnish.
Kwanzaa begins every year the day after Christmas on December 26th and ends on January 1, 2025. There are many traditions for Kwanzaa from food to beliefs. There are 7 principles upon which Kwanzaa is based:
- Umoja (Unity): To strive for and maintain unity in the family, community, nation and race.
- Kujichagulia (Self-Determination): To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves and speak for ourselves.
- Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility): To build and maintain our community together and make our brother's and sister's problems our problems and to solve them together.
- Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics): To build and maintain our own stores, shops and other businesses and to profit from them together.
- Nia (Purpose): To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.
- Kuumba (Creativity): To do always as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it.
- Imani (Faith): To believe with all our heart in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.
Ring in the new year with Melissa’s Black-Eyed Peas! Considered a traditional “good luck” food, southern tradition states that eating black-eyed peas on the first day of the New Year will bring you good luck in the following year. Melissa's makes it easy with our ready-to-eat, steamed black-eyed peas or our convenient tubs. Enjoy them in soups, stews, or dips.
Happy New Year from Melissa’s!
