With Christmas approaching fast, so are the cooler temperatures, sparkling lights, and an abundance of delicious holiday foods. You probably already have a whole variety of Christmas treats and sweets such as cookies, cakes, and candies.  However, these traditions are old in America, but they are popular around the world. Each country has a set of it’s own traditional foods. Here’s a look at the top ten holiday foods around the world.

Speculaas

 Speculaas is a gentle, lightly-spiced, shortcrust biscuit that comes from the Netherlands and Belgium. They are traditionally baked for Sint Nicolasfeest (St. Nicholas Day) on the 6th of December. They also are usually molded into windmill shapes, but nowadays people just use regular cookie molds like symbols or characters.

Stollen

Stollen is an product of Germany. It is a sweet bread, spiced and sprinkled with candied fruit, nuts, and sometimes marzipan. Marzipan is a confection consisting primarily of sugar, and honey and almond meal, almost similar to fondant.

Leaf Bread

Leaf bread comes from Iceland, or specifically, north Iceland and it has now filtered down to the rest of the country. Leaf bread is made of thin, wafer like dough. This crisp flatbread is an holiday tradition for many icelanders. It’s first cut into intricate geometric patterns, then deep-fried and saved to be eaten during christmas dinner.

Pavlova

Pavlova is a meringue based dessert named after the Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova. It is an meringue dessert with an crisp crust and soft light inside and is usually topped with fruits and whipped cream. In Australia it is common to have this dessert on Christmas Day, as its origin is New Zealand.   

Buche De Noel

Buche De Noel (also known as Yule Log Cake) is originated from France. This mouthwatering dessert is made of sponge cake and chocolate whipped cream. After the cake is rolled into like a log, it is iced with chocolate icing or whipped cream, to give it an bark like effect. People also can take an fork and drag it through the icing and sprinkle powdered sugar to resemble snow. It is often cut at the end of the cake to resemble a “chopped off branch”.

Minced Pies

A mince pie is a British origin, it’s sweet pie is stuffed with an mixture of dried fruits and spices called “mincemeat.” The beginning of minced pies goes all the way back to the 11th century in Britain. This is traditionally served during Christmas season in much of the English-speaking world.

Puto Bumbong

Puto Bumbong originates from The Philippines. This is a sort of rice dish that is made with a sticky purple-colored rice. The rice is usually decorated with a ball of butter and a heap of sugary, shredded coconut. This is universally popular during Christmas time.

Carp

Carp originates from Poland. Carp on Christmas Eve is a tradition that goes back to World War II. There is also carp farming in Poland which is at least 700 years old. Carp is a deep-bodied freshwater fish and has barbels around the mouth. Carp is usually accompanied by sauerkraut and potatoes, that are prepared a day in advance.

Latkes

Since the Middle Ages, latkes have been an important part of Hanukkah tradition. Latkes are fried potato pancakes that are cooked in oil. They are often flavored with grated garlic or onion and seasoning. This portrays the Second Temple keeping the Menorah burning with oil for eight days.

Rugelach

Rugelach is a Jewish pastry of Ashkenazic origin. This dessert is very common in Israel. Rugelach is crisp, flaky dough that holds a sweet filling, with a buttery, crescent-shaped dough wrapped around some more sweet filling. There are fillings such as chocolate-raspberry, walnut cinnamon, sour cherry, strawberry-raspberry, etc.