Growing up in central Alabama and celebrating in Montgomery and Jackson, Mississippi, we always had a traditional Thanksgiving dinner of at least these things: turkey, dressing, okra, peas (sweet and some form of black eye or field) rice and gravy, possibly mashed potatoes, too, cranberry sauce from a can, fried corn, green bean casserole, broccoli casserole, pecan pie, and whatever new thing someone wanted to try out.

I know some people like a Christmas ham, and we ate a lot of ham, usually for Sunday dinner throughout the year, but never recall a Christmas dinner that varied much from the Thanksgiving dinner.

In a Christmas Carol, he buys the Cratchits a goose, but I have never eaten goose except pate (love it!). These days, because my wife’s family tradition was mama don’t cook on Christmas, and because we tend to cook lots of food in the month between Thanksgiving and Christmas, is we probably eat some good left overs or I get up with a notion to fix something, from tacos the cornbread or cornbread dressing, and I do, or my bens rice and jimmy dean sausage concoction.

My questions are:
1)How many people grew up eating Thanksgiving dinner repeat for Christmas?
2)How many had a “mama don’t cook”?
3)Who had something different from either of these approaches?
4)And how did these traditions impact what you do today, or this Christmas?