I know, I know, Christmas is still over a month away. However, this year I'm facing a rite of passage in that I'm hosting Christmas for my in-laws in Switzerland.

Slight problem: I'm not really sure what a "Swiss Christmas" is. As this will be their first Christmas spent outside of England, I'd like to show them as many unique and different Christmas traditions as possible. For a start, they're flying into Basel and will visit the Christmas market, but after that I'm not sure how to proceed. (Years ago I spent a Christmas in Switzerland with a host family, but they took me to an English carol sing and served turkey with stuffing for Christmas dinner, so I didn't pick up on anything new!)

My question for forum users is: what makes a Swiss Christmas? Should I buy some of those hazelnut-based biscuits, serve some Chinese fondue and leave it at that? Or are there other Christmas foods or traditions that I should include in our holiday? I know a lot of you are Swiss, or are married to a Swissie, or have spent enough time here to know more about this than I do. Any advice or suggestions would be most welcome.

Cheers,

HeatherM

hi

For christmas my mum always baked christmas biscuits out of swiss betty bossi recipes. We put tangerines on the tables with the biscuits, peanuts and we ate next to the already decorated tree. We also had a warm meal which was mostly something typically european. (something swiss would be great though). We opened the presents at the end.

My experience is that there isn't really a traditional meal at Christmas. I was married to a Swiss woman and the meals that we had with her family were usually of the Raclette or Fondu variety.

Christmas cookies as very traditional over here. I usually get bucket loads early in December and have to throw most of them away. They are the English equivalent of Mince Pies I suppose.

The other big thing is to have the Christmas meal on 24th December and to unwrap presents afterwards. At least that way you don't have a problem getting the kids to sleep on Christmas Eve.

Michelle has the Christmas dinner menu sorted
http://www.geocities.com/mastakapow/Swissfood.html

Must admit the prospect of another fondue chinois this lifetime makes me queasy. I told the relatives last year that I'd gone vegetarian to avoid it. Got caught out eating wurst a few days later though