What Are Your Only-in-December Foods?

In December, a food cart (pictured above) parks next to the big church in the center of town. It sells crepes, gaufres (waffles), and croustillants. Croustillants are fried balls of dough, rolled in sugar, and served hot with an optional side of Nutella. (You can see them up close in the Normandy Instagram highlight if you’re curious.) This cart is a mere 35-second walk from our rental house and we have become almost daily customers. : )

We’ve only ever seen croustillants served in December and it has me thinking about seasonal holiday foods. Is there a food or recipe you ONLY eat in December? Two that come to mind for our family: Seven layer dip, and Snoball cookies. Both are Christmas Eve traditions at our house. In fact, Oscar and Betty are working on a batch up Snoball cookie dough right this minute.

Tell me your December foods!

P.S. — I asked this question on Instagram and the responses are so good! People from all over the world have special December foods. The comments are pure joy!

16 thoughts on “What Are Your Only-in-December Foods?”

  1. Buckeyes and peanut butter blossoms! Which is so silly considering they’re truly some of my favorite cookies. But they’re also so indulgent that it also makes sense to designate them to once a year.

  2. Pamela Balabuszko-Reay

    Merry Christmas to you and yours Gabrielle! Our December only food is my Great Grandma Ryan’s Butter Cookies. The second I take a bite it is Christmas. Right now making them is a three generation effort. Very special. This year, due to Covid, my mom made the dough and delivered it to our house. We cut the cookies, baked them and sent pictures back to her. Then we gave them the baked cookies. We got the recipe carved into a cutting board for our daughter this year. She won’t have to search for the recipe. There is a baking board that came from my Grandma (and possibly her mother, Grandma Ryan) that my mom uses to roll them out. It will come to me next, and then to my daughter. It is like we are all holding hands.

  3. I’m with Sarah…egg nog! Only, I add it to my chai tea. My husband is a true connoisseur, adding it to his oatmeal each morning!

  4. Potato latkes are the first food that comes to mind. I think they taste better because they’re a one-week-a-year treat. But then, there’s also all the peppermint stuff that I can’t find any other time of year, especially Williams-Sonoma bark. The only peppermint treat that isn’t December-only for us is ice cream, but only because I make it homemade: once in the winter and once in the summer.

  5. Tamales! Finding good Mexican (not Central or South American) tamales in Virginia is hard! This year, we had them shipped from Tucson, but have found a good enough local option, too!

  6. Standing Rib Roast
    Yorkshire Pudding
    Gingerbread cookies from scratch cut from new and old cookie cutters from when I was little to newer ones the kids have collected.

  7. So many different cookies that we only seem to bake around Christmas! Panettone, thanks to years working in a very Italian neighborhood. And chocolate fondue – a family New Year’s day breakfast tradition, when we splurge on out of season fresh fruit.

  8. Butter cookies! My favorite. I know I could make them year round, but that would be dangerous. Also, I make cinnamon rolls each Christmas morning…my family would be heartbroken if I did not continue with that tradition.

  9. Poppyseed rolls, kalachi cookies (apricot & poppyseed)…peanut butter blossoms…to me, those things are all the taste of Christmas! We’re a baking family :)

  10. “Grandma Katus Cookies” – a brown sugar dough rolled up with a ground raisin filling then sliced and baked. Only at Christmas!

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