elc team
By Sofia Triantou
There are many moments in recent years when I catch myself thinking about how much Christmas has changed. I would describe this era as one of consumption frenzy; someone said to me recently: “Christmas, today, requires money in order to exist.”
Where is the homemade preparation, the kneading, the baking, the homemade sweets and the festive songs in the warmth of the house? Once, the holidays were born in the kitchen; today we mostly seek them outside the home, in a constant movement that often replaces domestic preparation with consumption.
I try to strip away all these new images – the unbelievable queues at shops, patisseries, catering orders, the overloaded lights and decorated trees. What might remain as the most enduring memory of the Greek Christmas is its aroma: a composition of honey, olive oil, walnut shell, citrus peel, and spices that still preserves an older winter culture.
This scent is not merely part of gastronomy; it is part of the history of the Greek family, the warmth of the home, the tradition that shaped December long before the holiday became urbanized.
Once, in the agrarian world, December was not a month of abundance. It was a month of managing the household reserves: the olive oil had just arrived from the mill, the honey was stored for the winter, the walnuts had been gathered and dried, and the quinces waited to be simmered. Winter demanded ingredients that could withstand time, and that endurance came to define the aroma of the holidays.
Honey, for example, did not always belong to sweets. In older households, honey was a preservative: it kept nuts, fruits, even herbal preparations from spoiling. Walnuts stored in honey during the winter are not simply a recipe; they are a necessity. One of the oldest preservation methods in the Eastern Mediterranean, long before the widespread use of sugar.
Olive oil played a similar role: the new December oil, thick and green, was the most important ingredient of the winter. It was used for the first frying, the winter stews, the month’s syrups. In 19th-century journals, olive oil appears almost always in Christmas recipes — not for religious reasons, but because it was the safest fat in an era without refrigeration.
Spices perhaps follow the most interesting historical path. Cinnamon, clove, and nutmeg arrived in Greek ports via Venice and Marseille, and by the 19th century they had already become an essential part of “winter aromas.” Notably, the first Greek urban cookbooks placed these spices almost exclusively in winter dishes: in quinces, honeyed fruits, walnuts, and syrups. Not so much for their taste, but for their ability to warm the home in a time when heating was far from guaranteed.
This old habit of gathering whatever withstands winter has been etched into today’s holiday cuisine, even if we do not always recognize it. Walnuts, raisins, dried figs, honey, olive oil, and spices have remained constant, even as the forms of sweets have changed.
At every Christmas table the same logic still holds: the aroma precedes the image; it is the memory that creates the feeling of celebration. And if someone today were to seek a truly old, humble winter sweet — one that predates modern recipes and survived thanks to its simplicity — they would find honeyed walnuts. They were never a “festive sweet” in today’s sense. They were a family’s way of bringing the first fruits of winter to the table: walnut for strength, honey for preservation, cinnamon and lemon for fragrance.
A small homemade treat carrying a long history.
For those who want to taste this small tradition:
Honeyed Walnuts
Winter sweet in urban and rural kitchens (19th–early 20th century)
Ingredients
• 250 g walnuts (whole or roughly chopped)
• 200 g honey
• 100 ml water
• 1 small cinnamon stick
• 1 strip of lemon peel
Method
- Warm the honey, water, cinnamon, and lemon peel in a small saucepan.
- Simmer until the syrup thickens slightly.
- Add the walnuts and let them boil gently for 2–3 minutes.
- Remove from heat and spread them on a platter to cool.
Note
According to folkloric records, honeyed walnuts were among the first sweets to appear on the winter table before today’s Christmas treats became widespread. They belong to the family of “honeyed” preparations, along with quinces, raisins, and dried figs.
