In some countries, Christmas Day is the centerpiece of the celebration; in others, it’s Christmas Eve or the Twelfth Day. Here are holiday traditions that originated in French- Canada, Italy, Germany, Mexico and Spain, that may still continue in your home, across the street, through the province, or around the diverse country of Canada. Do try these traditions at home – we’ve provided recipes and wine pairings for you.

FRENCH-CANADA

Le Rèveillon, the traditional Christmas dinner celebrated by French Canadians, starts after the messe de minuit, midnight mass. In Quebec, no Christmas Eve dinner would be complete without the classic tourtière, the French-Canadian pork pie. According to Julian Armstrong, editor of A Taste of Quebec, the name of the pie has been traced to the French cooking utensil of the same name and alternatively to a passenger pigeon called the “tourte”. Tourtes were cleaned and preserved in brine for winter meals and sometimes mixed with pork, beef and seasonings to make a tourtière. Today, you can find versions of the pie with different combinations of meats, seafood, or wild mushrooms. Tourtière is served with homemade tomato ketchup, chili sauce, chutney or relish. Joyeux Noël!

ITALY

In Rome, Naples and parts of Southern Italy, it’s customary to celebrate Christmas Eve with the Feast of Seven Fishes, a seven-course festive dinner called the cenone (big supper) and consumed before the midnight mass. “The cenone may have originated in the fifth or sixth century when the Pope said three masses on Christmas Eve and the parishioners set out a banquet after every mass,” says chef and author Joyce Goldstein. But how the Dinner of the Seven Fishes came about is mysterious. In fact, this tradition seems to be more prevalent among Italian immigrant families than with Italians in the old country. Seven is a symbolic number that is supposed to bring good luck. It could refer to the seven deadly sins, the seven virtues, the seven sacraments, the seven days of the week or the seven seas.

GERMANY

Many of the Christmas carols we sing in English have their origin in Germany – “Silent Night”, “Away in a Manger” even “Deck the Halls.” Germans love to eat stuffed goose on Christmas Day and have served it since the Middle Ages, usually with potato dumplings, red cabbage and a wine-flavoured sauce. Although this noble bird is usually stuffed with apples and served with a wine-flavoured au jus, our recipe uses an orange stuffing and a traditional port wine sauce. A goose is far less meaty than turkey, so make sure you get all the meat off the bones. The leg joint is much farther down under the bird and harder to get at. The wings are constructed differently, too and must be taken off to carve the breast. (Don’t serve the wings – they have no meat on them.) Slice the drumsticks and make sure everybody has a piece of the crispy skin from this superb bird.

MEXICO

Bright right red flowers create a sea of red in the main streets of Mexico in December. The locals believe the Christmas Flower, better known here as the poinsettia, can bring you good luck for the rest of the year. They take this superstition so seriously that they cover their homes with the flowers. Christmas carols here are played by mariachi, groups of street musicians. The biggest family dinner of the year is held on Christmas Eve. A traditional dinner would include turkey, tamales, (steam-cooked corn meal dough with a filling – and lots of hot spices) and posole, a hearty hominy soup adored by Mexicans everywhere. (Hominy is maize cooked in lime water to remove the hard outer husk and germ, making it tender and easier to eat. You can find canned hominy in the ethnic section of most supermarkets.) Many Mexicans look to posole to cap the Christmas festivities. This version of posole uses oxtail.

SPAIN

In the Basque region, Spain’s gastronomic capital, where friend and cookbook author Teresa Barrenechea grew up, capons (plump 10-to-12-month-old neutered roosters) have long been traditional Christmastime fare. In Bilbao, December 21 is the day of the spectacular Santo Tomás Fair, where local farmers sell capons and late fall produce to bustling shoppers anxious to buy their food for Christmas feasts. Before Basque housewives had ovens in their homes, these ingenious cooks would cross two wooden spoons near the bottom of a large, deep clay pot, and set the bird on them. The spoons held the capon above the fat in the bottom of the pot. They would then cover the pot and cook the capon over medium heat for three hours. For Basque children, the most exciting night of the year is January 5, when they prepare for the Twelfth Night celebration of the three Wise Men by leaving them a tray of sweets, three glasses of brandy and a jug of water for their camels. When they awaken on January 6, they find their shoes filled with gifts and sweet treats. Barrenechea’s recipe from The Basque Table (Harvard Common Press $38.95) is a classic dish served on Christmas Eve.