Christmas cake, for example, used to be part of the Twelfth Night celebrations. Christmas puddings appeared in the 17th Century. It is meant lucky to help make the pudding - so often families will take it in turn to stir the mixture and make a wish. The pudding should be stirred clockwise. The cooks may put coins into the mixture and whoever finds them is meant to get good luck.
Mince pies are older in origin.
The early mince pies were made with meat in the filling and were shaped to look like Christ's manger. It is meant to be lucky to eat twelve different mince pies made by twelve different cooks. The ancient festival of Yule celebrated the winter solstice. One old custom is that of the yule log which had to be found, not cut from the tree. The householders brought the log indoors on Christmas Eve.