What the French eat at Christmas - Taste of Savoie (2024)

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What the French eat at Christmas - Taste of Savoie? ›

The French Christmas Meal

Christmas Dinner

Dishes might include roast turkey with chestnuts or roast goose, oysters, foie gras, lobster, venison and cheeses. For dessert, a chocolate sponge cake log called a bûche de Noël is normally eaten. Another celebration, in some parts of France, is that 13 different desserts are eaten!

Réveillon: The French Christmas Feast

It is the main French Christmas Meal and usually starts after the midnight mass, which can be as late as 2 am, but in modern times, families begin at 8 pm till after midnight. They gather for a late-night feast featuring oysters, foie gras, and perfectly roasted meats.

Le Réveillon is a traditional late-night feast or party held when families return from la Messe de Minuit (Midnight Mass) on Christmas Eve. While the food tradition varies from region to region, the meal is full of lavish delicacies including oysters, foie gras, escargot, and roasted fowl.

Families usually kick things off by opening a bottle of fine Champagne, like the Champagne Paul Michel. Others may choose to begin with a traditional method French Crémant from the Loire, Limoux or Burgundy and bring out the Champagne later in the meal.

Many French families will serve roast turkey or capon (a castrated rooster) stuffed with chestnuts as the main dish at Christmas. However, don't expect to see enormous 10 kg turkeys for sale in France. As there is so much other food served before the bird, turkeys tend to be reared to a much more reasonable size.

France's Christmas breakfast is full of sweet pastries. Many families will partake in pain au chocolat, croissants and brioche doughnuts.

In Southern and Central Italy, baked pasta is a must. In Northern Italy, Lasagne Bolognese and filled pasta like manicotti and ravioli are traditional Christmas fare. Next comes the main event, the meat. Roasted veal, baked chicken, sausages or braised beef are common Natale entrées worth celebrating.

A French Christmas dinner takes place on Christmas Eve and not Christmas day. This 1st of 5 courses is given to get everyone in the festive mood and give your guests a taste of what's to come throughout the night.

While in France, Père Noël munches on some tasty biscuits as his ultimate snack, while his reindeer refuel on carrots.

What do the French eat for dessert on Christmas? ›

Bûche de Noël

It is probably the most common dessert you'll find for a Christmas dinner, and for good reason — it's seriously delicious. It consists of a roulade of chocolate sponge wrapped around a chocolate buttercream filling, and decorated with berries, ornaments and powdered sugar to look like snow.

Kir Royale (crème de cassis topped with champagne) or Kir Breton in my home region of Brittany (crème de cassis topped with cider) are also very popular. Kids are often served apple juice or “Champomy” – a popular French brand of non-alcoholic champagne made for kids.

Though cracker-pioneer Tom Smith found his 19th-century inspiration in Paris (with bonbons in paper twists), crackers themselves remain virtually unknown in France.

The tradition of a seafood dinner on December 24th actually stems from a time when seafood and particularly oysters were the food of the poor, so having a few dozen oysters for dinner was seen as a 'fasting' day before the major Christmas feast.