Christmas: A multi-city guide to celebrating the season of cakes and carols

Many moons ago, Darlie Koshy, former director of the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, told me about how, during the days preceding Christmas (Advent), his Syrian Christian family would give up dairy products and meat. And then, on Christmas Day, while in his own home there would be vattayappam (steamed rice cakes), boiled plantains and jaggery halwa, his mother-in-law had established a tradition of serving meen moilee (fish curry) using fresh karimeen (pearl spot fish) and curry leaves. This, alongside her “unparalleled duck curry” and appam, remains one of his fondest memories of Christmas in Kumarakom.

For me, Christmas is an air heavy with the aroma of ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg and a dining table laden with buttered aluminium foil containers. In the days preceding Christmas, this sight meant it was best to stay clear of my mother, who’d walk around with an egg beater in hand while getting ready to mix the fruits she had soaked in dark rum for months ahead.

Alongside this baked (sometimes heady) goodness, she’d pack up rose cookies and a savoury form of sweet gujiyas, called pastul, deep-fried with minced chicken or mutton. Distributing boxes full of these to friends and family, and coming home with similar boxes, was part of the routine.

The constantly evolving nature of festivals in a multicultural scenario has added so much more to family traditions. Here’s a rough guide to enhancing those traditions: not excluding such activities as hanging out in Christmas-themed flea markets and scouting for the best gingerbread cookies going.

Baked goodies

The best plum cakes usually come from home bakers who’ve perfected the art of churning out perfectly moist cake after cake. But if you haven’t found a home baker to give you your annual quota of fruitcakes, every major Indian city has a bakery or three that you can rely on for a plum cake that’s as close to the real thing as possible.

For instance, at Kolkata’s Nahoum & Sons, in New Market, prepare to join a long queue for their legendary Christmas cakes, aka “rich fruit cake”. “There are only so many cakes we can bake. We sell 300 to 500 plum cakes a day during Christmas,” says Jagadish Halder, manager at what’s best known as Kolkata’s last Jewish bakery. While eating at Flury’s is increasingly more convention than recommendation, many believe Kolkata’s Kookie Jar also does justice to Christmas treats.

The dependables in Mumbai include the Hearsch Bakery, the American Express Bakery and Theobroma. (For some good old spiced toddy or the classic eggnog, O Pedro comes recommended.) In Delhi, the usual suspects include Wenger’s, Defence Bakery, Red Moon and The Artful Baker; there’s Theobroma outlets here, too. In Hyderabad, they’d be Labonel, Subhan Bakery and Karachi Bakery. In Bengaluru, the reliable favourites are Koshy’s Bakery, Fatima Bakery, Nilgiris and Thom’s.

See this, buy that

At the Smetacek residence in Kumaon’s Bhimtal, attached to a homestay called The Retreat, the Christmas tree is usually the creative reassembly of branches from several trees. The ornaments on this date to the 1960s, says Padmini Smetacek, a go-to cook for Anglo-Indian cuisine.

Every home has its own tree tales. At our place it’s usually a tussle between siblings for who gets to take the lead in setting up the six-foot-high, three-piece dismantlable (artificial) tree. The Christmas tree, repository of all things bright, lovely and gift-wrapped, has over the years become an object of household pride with people trying to outdo previous attempts at decking it up. At Phoenix MarketCity Bangalore, for instance, the tree was 60 feet high last year. This year, seemingly supported by five white horses shown mid-gallop in mid-air, the tree is 75 feet tall. If you haven’t got your decorations yet, about 35 pop-up stalls can solve that at Phoenix.

Delhi folks who missed the German Christmas Market, and to whom a trip to Sadar Bazaar sounds like too much effort, can head to their nearest mall to get flickering fairy lights or a giant star. Local markets sport them, too. There’s a special kids carnival at Select CityWalk, Saket, on December 22 and 23, and there’s Delhi Christmas Affair at the Akshara Theatre on December 23 (rumour has it the latter will also feature puppies).

Mumbaikars, check out Colaba’s streets, Abdul Rehman Street in Crawford Market, Hill Road in Bandra West, or IC Colony in Borivali West. People in Kolkata, you know your New Market.

Join the chorus

For those in Delhi, bilingual (Hindi and English) midnight mass at the Sacred Heart Cathedral starts at 11.45 pm at St Columba’s School on December 24. You could also pop into the Vatican Embassy Chapel in Chanakyapuri by 8 pm on December 24 to find a good spot before the carols begin; or just attend the carol concert that starts at noon in the Galleria Market in Gurugram on December 22 and 23. Bengaluru has a host of Churches offering special Christmas services, from St Patrick’s Church to Infant Jesus Church and St Mary’s Basilica, and the same goes for Mumbai with Mount Mary’s Basilica and St Andrew’s, both in Bandra.

While in Mumbai, we also recommend taking out an hour on December 22 to explore the 200-year-old village of Matharpacady in Mazagaon, courtesy a Christmas-special heritage walk organised by No Footprints Mumbai (Rs 799; www.nfpexplore.com). Matharpacady, a historical locality that boasts a mango tree that bears fruit twice a year, becomes especially festive thanks to its East Indian settlement. The walk ends at a home built in 1880, with the homeowner, chef Hansel Baptista, handing out marzipan and guava cheese treats. If you happen to be at St Anne’s Church, Byculla, for midnight mass, you’ll catch Baptista as part of the choir, too.

New old traditions

Cochin Carnival in Fort Kochi

Four long-tailed stars would hang in Darlie Koshy’s Gurugram home till about four years ago. Then, in 2014, when his daughter-in-law spent her first Christmas with them, they added a fifth star to guide the carol singers to their home. Elsewhere, in Kerala, traditions have evolved, too — Christmas celebrations now coincide with the Kochi-Muziris Biennale. And specifically in Fort Kochi, revellers take to the streets in the last two weeks of December as part of the Cochin Carnival, a Christmas-time celebration that began in 1984. It ends with the burning of the effigy of an old man as one enters the New Year. 

“The burning of the old man is just a culmination of all the festivals that the Dutch, Portuguese and the British left behind,” says K J Sohan, an organiser of the festival. The mention of an old man at Christmas time brings to mind good old jolly Santa, but Sohan assures us that the burning of the Pappanji effigy is really a secular celebration of letting go of the past and welcoming the future. Merry Christmas to all.

Bonus recipe roast chicken with rosemary-garlic potatoes

At Padmini Smetacek’s Bhimtal residence, a Christmas meal comprises roast chicken with rosemary-garlic potatoes. Here’s her recipe:

Ingredients

• For roast chicken
• 700 gm whole chicken
• 50 gm butter, melted
• A small onion, with a clove stuck in it
• A wedge of lemon or lime

For marinade

• 3 tbsp lemon juice
• 2 tbsp minced garlic 
• salt
• pepper
• 2 tsp honey 

For gravy

• Lemon juice
• A little wine
• Salt and pepper
• Sugar or honey

Method

Preheat oven to 200°C. Mix marinade and rub on chicken, inside and out, and place in baking tray. Leave for 45 minutes. Put onion and lemon wedge into the abdomen cavity of chicken. Tie up chicken with cotton string to make a tidy shape. Brush some melted butter onto chicken and place in hot oven. Bake for 45 minutes, basting every 10 minutes with butter, turning it round halfway through to attain a nice golden-brown colour. Remove baking tray and lift chicken onto a board. Let it rest. Pour some hot water, chicken stock and wine into baking tray and heat up over flame, moving it around to get even heat. Scrape with a spatula to dissolve all the drippings. Strain gravy into a pan. Heat and adjust seasoning, adding salt, pepper, sugar and lemon juice to taste. To serve, remove string from chicken, carve and serve on a platter, garnished with lemon slices and parsley sprigs. Serve the hot gravy with it.

Rosemary-Garlic Potatoes

Ingredients

• 500 gm small (1.5-inch) whole potatoes
• 6–7 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 2 sprigs (4-inch) rosemary
• ½ tbsp cooking oil
• 25 gm butter
• Salt and pepper to taste

Method

Peel the potatoes and boil 1 litre water and 1 teaspoon salt in an open pan, till done but not soft. In a non-stick pan, heat oil and butter. Add garlic and stir. When it turns pale golden add rosemary. Stir for 30 seconds. Add potatoes and mix well. Season to taste. Cook on medium heat, stirring gently and turning potatoes till they get a light golden crust (10–15 minutes).