Christmas is a time to be around your family and friends and to celebrate being with one another. Make sure to celebrate Christmas Come and learn about one family’s Foodways and traditions and enjoy some boiled crab legs.
About The Christmas Celebration
The Leach family has been apart of Kentucky ever since they first arrived here in 1824 from Maryland. When they first arrived they had no money but they had a love for sea food. For many people who celebrate Christmas, they think of a traditional dinner that consists of turkey, mashed potatoes, and cranberry sauce. For the Leach Family they have had an annual dinner that consists of sea food. Multiple events will be available to the public such as the Christmas feast, opening of presents, watching a Christmas movie, and much more. The event is a one day celebration that occurs on December 25th Christmas Day and it starts at 9 am and concludes at 3pm
Leach Family Celebration
December 25th 9:00 am through 3:00 pm
- The First Christmas (9:00am – (9:30)
- Dinner (9:30 am – 11:30am)
- Opening Gifts (11:30am – 12:30)
- Watching a Christmas Movie (12:30 – 3:00)
History
The Leach Family Tradition
Ever since the celebrations founding in 2010, the Leach family Christmas celebration has been preserving the leach family traditions. While also exposing the people of Lexington to the family’s traditions. This holiday is meant to celebrate the ideals of Christmas while also showing others a new way to celebrate a timeless holiday with new more modern traditions and providing history about one family’s folkgroup group. Originally originating from Maryland, the Leach family left Maryland and settled here in Lexington Kentucky in 1824 and have remained a here ever since.
Every year the celebration begins with the grandparents , aunts and uncles, and cousins arriving at the Leach family home in the early morning at 9 am. While normally the leach family provides all of the food and drinks for everyone attending. Some of the family members sometimes bring over desserts such as pecan pies and cake. The parents cook the dinner with the children helping to clean the house and set the table. The mother cooks the boiled potatoes, deviled eggs, and monkey bread. While the father cooks the crab legs outside in a steam pot. In the meantime while the parents are cooking the rest of the guest sit down and listen to the story of the first Christmas from the grandmother. Once cooking is done everyone gathers at the table and everyone gets in a particular seating arrangement with the grandchildren seating near their grandma and the rest of the adults having no particular seating arrangement. The food has been prepared for the guest by the Leach family. This includes boiled crab legs with butter, shrimp cocktails, mashed and boiled potatoes, cranberry sauce, chicken, turkey, and green beans for the main course. Of all the food that has been prepared by the family the most favored is by far the boiled crab legs. Before anyone can begin eating a prayer of grace is said and everyone must bow the heads in silence while the youngest grandchild says the prayer. The prayer is used to ask for blessing of the meal and the people who have come to dine with the Leach family on Christmas Day.
Once the prayer has been given by the youngest grandchild the Christmas feast begins. Everyone is allowed to eat to their hearts content and share amongst each other. While the feast is under way everyone talks about how their lives have been going and tell stories of Christmas in their youth and family stories. After everyone is done eating desserts are brought out and shared by everyone. Dessert mainly consists of Pecan and chocolate pie and a chocolate cake. In the afternoon after all of the celebrations are over the rest of the family and guest take home the leftovers and return home to wait for the next Christmas celebration the following year.
This Year’s meal includes:
- Boiled Crab Legs with butter
- Fried Chicken
- Smoked Country Ham
- Deviled Eggs
- Cranberry Sauce
- Chocolate cake
- Chocolate pie
The Importance of Christmas
Christmas is a time when you should be spending time with your friends and family. It is a time to reconnect with your loved ones and to put aside your grudges with each other so that you can find common ground.Jack Santino describes(1994:11) Christmas as a winter celebration which represents the end of the year, and starting anew. The Christmas is symbolic with the changing of the year with the days becoming longer with it also symbolizing a fresh new start to the year. When Christmas first started back over 2000 years ago it was a time of gathering to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ to a time where your family and friends gather and have a Christmas meal. Michael Owen Jones the author of “Afterword: Discovering the Symbolism of Food Customs and Events” describes how food is important in our lives. Jones writes (1988: 242), “ Christmas to the Leach family is very important due to the family being christians and how the holiday brings unity with family members. People experience food directly and in interaction with selected others. Compelling influences, then, would seem to be found in the qualities that make eating unique and that inhere in specific situations of food preparation, service, and consumption.” During Christmas this quote becomes more true when people go out of their way to prepare the meal, setting the table to look fancy, and dressing up for your guest. The traditions that a family follow can really show what the family beliefs and ideal are during the holidays. When you join the Leach family for dinner you will see what they have in store for you when it comes to their traditions and ideals. Bernard L. Herman (2019:4) says, “We eat, therefore we are. Terroir is experience and emotion, embodiment and immediacy, custom and invention, destiny and storytelling.” When you arrive for the Leach family celebration you will see what the Leach family eats, what they cook, how they prepare the meal, watches, and how they spend their days together. By spending time in another family’s shoes you gain insight into that family traditions and beliefs and it also makes you have insight into how your family spends the holidays with your own traditions.
The Meal
With all of the Leach family and guest showing up for the family celebration, there must be a large variety of food so that everyone can have a choice of what they want to eat. Like most family dinners were the host cook most of the food the leach family cooks most of the dinner but the guests often provide desserts and other holiday treats for dessert. From the main course to all of the sides and desserts, there is much food with a huge variety for everyone involved. Let us see if we can show all of the delicious food that the Leach family has to offer for those who attend.
Main Course
Unlike most other family traditions turkey and chicken are not the official main course at the Leach family dinner. Boiled Crab legs are the official main course. The boiled crab legs have been a favorite of the family since 2010. When asked why the Leach Family makes this particular dinner every year one member of the family said “We have this meal to appease my family and to try and make Christmas more interesting.” Chicken and turkey along with a smoked ham are provided at the dinner with many enjoying the homemade meal greatly. The crab legs are made by the father every year and have become a local favorite due to the uniqueness of the dinner and its delicious taste.
The Sides
Similar to most Christmas traditions, there are stereotypical sides along with some different sides that are served for all of the guest to enjoy Some of the more traditional sides are:
- Boiled potatoes
- Corn
- Gravy
- Cranberry sauce
- Mac and Cheese
- Bread Rolls
- Green Beans
Some non traditional sides include:
- Deviled Eggs
- potato salad
- Shrimp Cocktail
Desserts
The best part of any meal is the desserts provided after the meal. There are so many desserts provided by both the Leach family and their guest. Here is a list of desserts provided by the Leach Family:
- Monkey Bread
- Pecan Pie
- Chocolate Pie
- Ice Cream
- Cookiees
Drinks
Just like any other family there are a variety of drinks offered for dinner. Here are the drinks provided at dinner:
- Sprite
- Coke
- Pepsi
- Diet Coke
- Mountain Dew
- Fanta
- Water
- Red Wine
- Sweet Tea
- Unsweet Tea
The Meaning Behind The Food
Sources
Jack Santino. 1994. “Introduction,” “Holidays in America: Ritual, Festival, and Celebration,” and “Homemade Holidays: Making Symbols, Making Meaning.” All Around the Year, xiii-46. Urbana, IL: U. of Illinois Press.
Michael Owen Jones. 1988. “Afterword: Discovering the Symbolism of Food Customs and Events.” We Gather Together: Food and Festivals in American Life, Theodore and Lin C. Humphrey, eds., 235-245. Ann Arbor, MI: U. of Michigan Press.
Bernard L. Herman. 2019. Selections from A South You Never Ate. Chapel Hill, NC: U. of North Carolina Press.
