Christmas Eve

As a child, on Christmas Eve, way into the early hours of Christmas morn, my mother and father would awake us to open our gifts. "Santa has come" they would tell us, as we sprung from our beds and ran for the living room. What we did not realize, until we were older, was our parents were at the end of their evening - usually my Aunt Ethel and Uncle Ralph, as well as my Grandmother - would be around the dining room table, not long having finished a traditional Christmas Eve dinner.

The tradition of staying up most of the night has ended, but Christmas Eve dinners still live on. Some of the items served include:

• Fried Smelts
• Savoy Cabbage
• Baccala with Tomatoes & Potatoes
• White Baccala
• Spaghetti Alege