
My dad and his siblings are grandchildren of Polish immigrants, and when we all get together as an extended family, especially for Christmas, we still eat traditional Polish foods. We typically have two types of kielbasa along with a couple of types of pierogi (and don't forget the beet horseradish!). For dessert, we have kruschiki, which is a flaky pastry covered with powdered sugar, and kolache, which are Eastern European pastry rolls with sweet fruit fillings.
Introduce Ethnic Foods to Your Family
How?
Since we're in the season of large family gatherings, Try to get everyone involved! Arrange a friendly competition among your extended family members to each bring a new-to-the-family 'heritage' dish as part of a pot luck holiday event. Ask the kids to help judge the food and then be sure to swap those recipes with each other, and maybe suggest ways in which to improve the recipes.
Why?
Whatever type of food traditions your family enjoys, it is important to talk about those traditions together, especially when the kids are around. Kids so often think of a tradition as something you DO, not necessarily something you EAT. It's up to us adults to show them that a family traditions can involve actions, things, people, foods, etc. I created this worksheet a couple of years ago for a program in which we talked about different cultural holiday traditions. It's been on the Printables page for awhile, but I thought this was a perfect time to highlight it, in the hopes someone out there might find it useful during this holiday season.
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©2017 Emily Kowalski Schroeder