Christmas Food

Whatever you’re planning for Christmas dinner, our libraries have plenty of resources to help you prepare festive food.

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• Christmas cooking
• Gingerbread houses

Traditional Christmas fare

When Thomas Edmonds published the Edmond’s Cookbook in 1907 he created the most successful New Zealand cookbook ever. So it’s a great place to go for recipes for the most traditional of Christmas fare. An online version of the 1914 cookbook is available at the New Zealand Electronic Text Centre. It contains a simple recipe for Christmas cake — including brandy — and a Christmas plum pudding.

The informative note to young people assures readers that careful practice will bring you success.

Pavlova

Australia and New Zealand squabble over who created the pavlova. The idea of a large cake-sized meringue topped with fruit and cream first appears in a 1926 cookbook — Futter’s Home Cookery for New Zealand — simply called Meringue Cake. Famous Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova visited New Zealand that same year.

Celebrity chefs at Christmas

• Cooking for Christmas Alison and Simon Holst
• Best-ever Christmas cookbook Annabelle White
• Delia’s happy Christmas Delia Smith
• Nigella Christmas Nigella Lawson
• Christmas: simple recipes, menu planners Donna Hay
• Elizabeth David’s Christmas
• Maggie’s Christmas Maggie Beer
• Christmas with Gordon Gordon Ramsay

For more fun and inspiration, try our Internet Gateway Food, wine and cooking section.

Related resources

• Christmas Parades in Christchurch
• Christmas
• Christmas page for Kids