Christmas Is Clebrated With A Wide Variety Of Foods In Different Places In The World

Christmas is often a time of indulgence. You get out the family recipes and make foods that you don't normally eat the rest of the year: eggnog, spritz cookies, Buche de Noel or Yule Log and fruit cake. If you are lactose intolerant or have an outright milk allergy, however, everything on that list but the fruit cake is off the menu. There are strategies to help you enjoy Christmas without dairy products.
Rice, almond or soy milk can stand in for cow's milk in many recipes. These milks may have sweetening added, especially rice milk, so adjust the sugar in your recipe as necessary. Shortening can take the place of butter in cookies. You may need to experiment with the original recipe, as the texture may be different with these substitutes. Butter is about 20% water and can make cookies less crumbly. Butter also melts at a lower temperature; the faster the melting, the quicker the cookie will spread. If you use shortening you may want to press down on each cookie slightly for a thin, crisp cookie.
You tried the eggnog recipe without cow's milk, but it just doesn't taste right. Consider a completely different beverage that is still traditional. Hot mulled cider is a classic Christmas drink in many parts of the world and very easy to make. You can keep it warm in a slow cooker, which makes it a good choice for a buffet dinner. Wassail, a fruit punch with cinnamon added, is another popular choice. Wassail can be made with cranberry juice to give it a beautiful color as well as sprightly taste. Either of these drinks may be made with or without alcohol. Serve a Christmas pudding instead of the Buche de Noel. Also called plum pudding, even though it may not contain plums, this traditional English dish can be steamed well ahead of serving time and then reheated - a boon to the busy holiday cook.
Christmas is celebrated with a wide variety of foods in different places in the world. Perhaps there are ethic traditions several generations back that you have never explored. Your great-grandmother came from Mexico - think about tamales and enchiladas with soy cheese as a Christmas Eve dinner, followed by chocolate shortbread cookies for dessert. In the Czech Republic, a fish chowder and fried fish are traditional Christmas Eve fare, with a special potato salad and a variety of Christmas cookies for dessert.