Smithsonian Center for Folklife & Cultural Heritage

Two women decorate a large array of cookies laid out on a table.

Celebrate National Cookie Day With This Scottish Treat

In our family, Christmas would not be complete without our cookie-baking and decorating tradition

A clear bowl filled with Italian seafood pasta sits on a table with red and green placemats.

Fra Diavolo Is a Devilish Dish for an Italian American Christmas

Fra diavolo is a spicy tomato sauce served over linguine and shellfish that roughly translates to “among the devil.

Freshly backed, round, golden brown tortas sit to cool in their crinkled metal baking tins.

Torta—Filipino Christmas Cake, I Think

For the majority of the year, I am half Filipina. But during Christmas, I try to embrace this identity fully through a few small rituals.

Bright lights and large crowds were ever-present at the Weihnachtsmarkt in Dresden, Germany, 2014. (Photo by Pete Reiniger)

A Taste of the German Christmas Market at Home: Glühwein mit Schuss

Normally at this time of year, the German-speaking lands of Central Europe would be bustling with Weihnachtsmärkte (Christmas markets) or Christkindlmärkte (Christ Child markets), filled with food, drink, good cheer, and other longstanding traditional activities. But nothing seems to be normal in 2020, so almost all of those markets never opened.

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