St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-12-24
DAINTY EDIBLES
FOR CHRISTMAS.
The Dinner One of the Most Important
Features Of the Day.
Christine Terhune Herrick Gives Some Timely
Directions as to How the Dining Room Should
be Decked and How the Dishes Should be Pre-
pared and Served-A Varied and Delicious
Array of Good Things to Eat

The dinner is one Of the most important fea-
lures of Christmas day. Perhaps it might even
be called the most important For while we
could imagine Christmas without snow, with
out Church, without tree. even without pres
ents or hanging up stockings, although the
last requires powerful effort of the magma
tion.-it is almost impossible to make a mental
picture of Christmas without dinner.
The dinner must be of certain sort, too. No
make-shifts will serve to-day. The best of
everything is hardly good enough, and due
respect must be observed for tradition. There
are dishse which must appear, if all precedent
is not to be violated, and everything connected
with the feast must be brilliant with jubila-
tions and good cheer.
To begin with, the dining-room should be
decked out with evergreens, holly and mistle-
toe. The table will probably be drawn to its
full length, for this is not day for small
parties. If the family is not large enough to
make an imposing array, the number should be
swelled by the presence of guests who have no
homes of their own.
Only the finest damask must be used to-day
The pure white of the table-cloth should be
frightened by centre-piece of flowers or of
holly, and breastknot or bo,ttonniere of the
same should lie at each plate. Pretty, fancy
dishes of candies, olives, radishes, celery,
pickles, jellies, sailed nuts, etc., are placed
here and there with judicious eye to the eff
feet. At each place is plate, to the left is an
array of forks, one for each course. To the
right should be the knives to match, and the
folded napkin wit a piece of bread upon it.
The water-glass is between these and the mid
die of the table. The soup spoon is laid at right
angles to the knives and forks, the butter or
ad-and-butter plate is at the left hand and
the salt cellar is near the glass.
But all this is the mere skeleton of the feast.
What we are to eat is of more Importance than
the fashion in which it is served, but yet the
enjoyment of even the best cooked meal is
heightened if it is eaten from pretty china and
amid pleasant surroundings.
The dinner begins, of cMlrse. with soup, and
as to some people, a ceremonious repast of
many courses is out of place on Christmas
Day; the first and the second courses may be
merged into one by serving an oyster bisque.
This does away with the necessity for fish
course, and we go on from that directly to the
main part of the meal, the turkey and its adj
junct. On such an occasion half the aroma of
the feast is lost if the turkey is carved on the
sideboard or in the pantry. Every one desires to
witness the operation and encourage the carver
with praise or confuse him with banter. The
big, beautifully Drowned bird is placed in
front of the head of the house and kept in
countenance at the other end of the table by a
mighty Christmas pie. No one will be critical
to-day if the usual custom of passing the vege-
tables from the sideboard is omitted and if
sweet potatoes, white potatoes, oyster-plant
boiled rice and other vegetables take their
place on the table along with the cranberry and
the celery. The only advantage gained by their
absence is more room for the articles already
On the table.
After so substantial a course as this, and in
anticipation of the sweets that must follow,
nothing heavier is desirable for a salad course
than lettuce with French dressing. All the
other eatables are cleared from the table, except
the dishes of bon-bons and sailed nuts and the
olives or radishes that are to be eaten with the
salad, crackers and cheese. A further clear
ance of dishes and the brushing off of crumbs
precede the appearance of the mince-pie and
plum-pudding of honored memory. To some
feasters, the dinner would be incomplete without
ice-cream, and this is excellent for the children
who are not permitted to eat the richer dainties
with which their elders tempt Providence and
torture their digestions. A great Christmas
cake may, also accompany the ices. When all
this is finally eaten, the Event of the Day
| may be concluded by fruit, nuts raisins, bon
bons and the small cup of black coffee that is
| often a saving clause as settler" after a
| heavy dinner.
| The hour for the dinner is to be determined
| by circumstances. If children are admitted to
it. it is better to have the meal near the middle
of the day, or at least, not later than two or
| three o'clock. But where grown people only
are to be considered, their preference is usually
| for six, six-thirty or seven o'clock, when they
| can feel that they may devote the concluding
| hours Of the holiday to repose and digestion.
MENU.
Oyster Bisque.
Roast Turkey.
Chicken Pie
White Potato Puff. Baked Sweet Potatoes.
Boiled Rice. Stewed Oyster Plant.
Dreamed Spinach.
Celery. Cranberry Jelly.
Lettuce with French Dressing.
Water Crackers. Cream Cheese.
Olives. Sailed Almonds. Radishes.
| Mince Pie. Plum Pudding.
| Ice Cream.
Christmas Cake.
Fruit. Nuts. Raisins. Bon bons.
Coffee.