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Chef James

“The duty of a good Cuisinier is to transmit to the next generation everything he has learned and experienced.”
 
Fernand Point, 1941

FEATURED FOR DECEMBER

Updated: Over 9,000 Food Festivals

Football Food  ---  Turkey Recipes

Christmas Articles  ---  Ham Recipes

Christmas Food Trivia

Christmas Tree Trivia

Other Christmas Trivia

Holiday Recipes

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus

The Christmas Goose

NORAD SANTA TRACKER

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FEATURED RECIPES & TIPS

· Guacamole & Avocado Dips

· Original Frank's Redhot Wings

· Ultimate Party Wings

· More Appetizer Recipes

· Deep Fried Turkey

· White Castle Turkey Stuffing

· Turkey Stuffings & Dressings

· Classic Green Bean Casserole

· Fresh Cranberry Relish

· Turducken Recipe

· Candied Sweet Potatoes

· Christmas Wreath Cake

· English Mince Meat (1896)

· Cranberry Cheese Bars

· Perfect Gingerbread Men

· Gingerbread Whoopie Pies

· Pfeffernusse Cookies

· Texas State Fair Pecan Pie

· Florida Pecan Pie

· Pumpkin Pie

· Southern Sweet Potato Pie

· Virginia Sweet Potato Pie

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December Food Holidays:

For Details, History and more DAY, WEEK and MONTH Food Holiday designations, including LINKS to Holiday Origins and Additional Information:
SEE Detailed DECEMBER Food Calendar

DECEMBER is:

• Grain of the Month: Buckwheat
  · Buckwheat Trivia & Facts

• National Egg Nog Month
  · Eggnog Trivia & Facts
  · Egg Nog Recipes

• National Fruit Cake Month
  · Holiday Fruit Cake Recipe
  · Fruitcake Trivia

• Root Vegetables Month
  · Root Vegetable Articles

• National Pear Month: Many fruits are out of season during the winter months. Pears are available fresh during this time.  · Pear Trivia    · Pear Quotes

•  Worldwide Food Service Safety Month
created in 1994 by the National Restaurant Association

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DID YOU KNOW?

Christmas Food Customs
Netherlands: The Dutch eat chicken stuffed with sauerkraut at Christmas to mark the end the year and celebrate the beginning of the New Year. The reason for chicken?  Because the animal scratches the ground, it symbolizes scratching the earth over the old year.

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Monday, December 22, 2025

Daily Trivia Questions are below

TODAY’S FOOD QUOTE

“Christmas, children, is not a date. It is a state of mind.”
Mary Ellen Chase (1887-1973)
 

FOOD HOLIDAYS - TODAY IS:

• National Date Nut Bread Day (also Sept 8)
  (Bread Recipes  ---  Bread Quotes)

• National Cookie Exchange Day. Bake and share cookies with friends and family.

• Hanukkah (Chanukah) ends Dec 14 - 22, 2025)
  (El Al Hanukkah Recipes)

• Dec 17-23: Saturnalia - Ancient Roman festival honoring Saturn, the god of agriculture and harvest.
 

TODAY IN FOOD HISTORY

1850 Constantin Fahlberg was born (died Aug 15, 1910).  Russian chemist, codiscoverer in 1879 (with Ira Remsen) of the artificial sweetener, Saccharin.
(Saccharin Trivia)  (See also Feb 27, 1879).

1864 Union Civil War General William T. Sherman sent a message to President Abraham Lincoln from Georgia, "I beg to present you as a Christmas gift the city of Savannah."

1882 Edward H. Johnson, vice-president of Thomas Edison's electric company, created the first electric Christmas tree lights. He displayed the walnut-sized bulbs on a large Christmas tree at his home in New York.

1884 John Simpson Chisum died.  An American cattle rancher, in 1867 he blazed the Chisum Trail from Paris, Texas to New Mexico.  He developed the largest cattle herd in the United States.

1885 La Marcus Thompson of Coney Island, New York was issued a second patent for a gravity switchback railway.  This was an improvement on his previous patent issued January 20 the same year.  The "Father of the Gravity Ride" had opened a 600 foot roller coaster the previous year.  Stomachs would never be the same again.

1888 Joseph V. Horn and Frank Hardart opened Horn & Hardart, a 15-stool lunchroom, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (see also June 9, 1902).
(Automat Trivia and Facts)

1922 The 1,046 room Mount Royal Hotel opened in Montreal, Canada.

1937 The Lincoln Tunnel (originally the Midtown Hudson Tunnel) between Midtown Manhattan and Weehawken, New Jersey opened to traffic.

1938 A coelacanth was caught off the coast of South Africa.  The coelacanth is a primitive fish thought to have been extinct for more than 80 million years.  Since then another coelacanth population has been discovered in Indonesia.

1943 Beatrix Potter died.  English author of children's books, her first and most famous story is 'The Tale of Peter Rabbit,' originally written as an illustrated letter to a sick child.

1958 'The Chipmunk Song' by The Chipmunks, Alvin, Simon and Theodore (David Seville) was #1 on the music charts.

1960 Aluminum Christmas trees go on sale in Canada.  (Aluminum Trivia and Facts)

1985 A record grouper caught with rod and reel weighed over 436 pounds.  It was caught in Destin, Florida.  (Grouper Trivia & Facts))

1997 The British government announced an inquiry into the BSE "disaster" (Bovine spongiform encephalopathy or Mad Cow Disease) that devastated British farming.
 

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A FEW FEATURED FOOD FESTIVALS
(See All 9,000 Food, Wine & Beer Festivals)

Nov 18, 2025-Jan 4, 2026  National Gingerbread House Competition & Display - Asheville, N. Carolina

December 1-31, 2025  55th Annual Christmas in Newport - Newport, Rhode Island

December 20-29, 2025  NOLA Christmasfest
New Orleans, Louisiana

December 30-31, 2025  PeepsFest & Peeps Chick Drop - Bethlehem, Pennsylvania

NEW YEARS EVE EVENTS

(SEE ALL FOOD FESTIVALS and OTHER FOOD EVENTS)
 

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FOOD TRIVIA QUIZ    (new DAILY questions)

SPECIAL CHRISTMAS QUIZZES

1) In what two movies did Bing Crosby sing 'White Christmas'?

2) How does St. Nicholas traditionally travel in the Netherlands?

3) In what year did English businessman Sir Henry Cole commissioned artist John Calcott Horsley to produce the first printed Christmas Cards?

4) Who created Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, in what year and for what department store?

5) When did the Coca-Cola company commission artist Haddon Sundblom to show Santa drinking a Coke?

Click Here for Today’s Quiz Answers

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Read an article about Chef James and the FoodReference.com website published in the Winona Daily News, Minneapolis StarTribune, and numerous other newspapers: Click here for the Article
 

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Dedication
This website is dedicated to:
· Gladys Ehler, my mother, who taught me patience and how to make Sauerbraten (it is still my favorite)
· Edward Ehler, my father, who taught me a love of books and history.
· Barbara Saba, my sister, who taught me how to dance.
· Cpl. Thomas E. Saba, my nephew.  Died in action on Feb. 7, 2007 in Iraq.  He was 30 yrs. young.

          Chef James
 

TOP

DID YOU KNOW

· Mashed Potato Tips

· Turkey Tips

· Cranberry Tips

· Sweet Potato Tips

· Stringy Sweet Potatoes

· Pecan Tips

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A FOOD LIFE

"There are those who say that a life devoted to food -- cooking it, eating it, writing about it, even dreaming about it -- is a frivolous life, an indulgent life.  I would disagree.  If we do not care what we eat, we do not care for ourselves, and if we do not care for ourselves, how can we care for others?"
Fictional cookery writer Hilary Small, in episode 6, series 2 of 'Pie In the Sky'

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Click Here for
Food Emergency
Websites, Phone #s, E-mails, etc.

 

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Classic Fish and Seafood Recipes
 

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DID YOU KNOW?

On Christmas eve or Christmas day 2006 in the Chicago suburb of Villa Park, thieves stole a semi tractor trailer filled with broccoli. It was valued at $50,000.

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IN SEASON FOR WINTER

VEGETABLES
(Recipes  --  Tips)
Avocados
Beets
Brussels Sprouts
Cabbage
Carrots
Celery
Collard Greens
Kale
Leeks
Onions
Parsnips
Plantains
Potatoes
Pumpkin
Rutabagas
Sweet Potatoes & Yams
Swiss Chard
Turnips
Winter Squash

FRUITS (Tips)
Apples
Bananas
Grapefruit
Grapes
Kiwifruit
Lemons
Limes
Oranges
Pears
Pomegranates

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DID YOU KNOW?

President Coolidge started the National Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony on the White House lawn in 1923.

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Website last updated on Monday, December 22, 2025