The food we have now we can get all year round, want a turkey for Sunday lunch? Sure! Go to the supermarket and buy one any day of the year. Want the trimmings? Go ahead! Also available 24/7/365!
When I was little there were foodstuffs that were ONLY available at Christmas time; juicy, sweet clementines, bitter sweet cranberry sauce, Quality Street chocolates, Roses chocolates, turkish delight covered in icing sugar, that created sweet clouds when you pressed the lid down, dates, syrupy and sticky, with a strange fork in the middle, tins of Cheesy Balls, cheese paste surrounded by wafer and shaped into a football, chocolate coins in net bags, tubes of Jelly Tots, Fruit Pastilles or Smarties, the list goes on.... Nowadays most of this stuff is there. All. The. Time.
For me, being in France, I get to revisit my childhood to a certain extent, because my memories of Christmas fare are not available here, so I can source them in the UK and either persuade my son or another willing victim to bring them over. The lack of ready availability has re-elevated seasonal fare to its rightful position on top of the list of preparations and all things Noël.
