Photo courtesy of Balsam Hill

"At Christmas, there are four courses," Mar from Andalucia, Spain told Balsam Hill. "For the appetizer, a bottle of red wine and a mixture of Iberian dishes can be found on the table, including cured ham, salchichon [Spanish sausage], manchego and prawns. Then it's noodle soup, followed by a main course of sirloin steak marinated in orange juice and served with blue cheese rolls. For dessert, we typically eat mantecados (a crumbly shortbread), marzipan and turrón (a type of nougat)."

Photo courtesy of Balsam Hill

"It is customary to eat ham, Finnish swede, and a carrot and potato casserole," Saana from Tampere, Finland said. "Our joulupöytä also features rosolli salad (a colorful dish made from diced beetroot, carrots, apple, and potato mixed with cream), gravlax (dill-cured salmon), and a leafy green salad. We drink milk, water, red wine and glögg (mulled wine)."

Photo courtesy of Balsam Hill

Christmas in England usually features roast beef with potatoes and vegetables. Leonie's family does things a little different since her parents don't eat meat.

"Our main dish is a nut roast, made from bread, apricots, and marmite," Leonie said. "The best part of Christmas dinner is the pigs in blankets, which I love to dip in the bread sauce. We also have carrots, stuffing, mashed swede [rutabaga], sprouts, cranberry sauce, roast parsnips and potatoes. My parents are pescatarians, but my mum still roasts a turkey for my grandparents, my brother, and I."

Photo courtesy of Balsam Hill

"It is too hot here for a roast," Charlotte, from Sydney, Australia, said. "We always have steak, sausages, chicken skewers, and sweet potato as part of a traditional Aussie barbecue."

Photo courtesy of Balsam Hill

A traditional Montenegro Christmas dinner has to be Lenten (i.e. no meat, dairy, or animal fat until the next day).

"The main dish on Christmas day is kutia, which is cooked wheat combined with honey, ground poppy seeds, raisins and chopped nuts to symbolize unity," said Tonya, who celebrates Christmas in Herceg Novi, Montenegro, with her family. "We also eat dumplings called varenyky, beans, legumes, cabbage, and sauerkraut. Pickled whitefish or herring with onion, pickled mushrooms, freshwater fish, a special filled doughnut called pampushky, and a homemade soft drink called uzvar made from dried and fresh fruits, will also be on the table. The meal is made up of twelve dishes, in honor of the Apostles."

Photo courtesy of Balsam Hill

"We eat a chester, which is a special kind of poultry that looks like an overgrown chicken," Nathalie explained about her Christmas family traditions. "At Christmas we also eat Parmesan rice pastéis (which are deep-fried parcels of crispy pastry that are filled with melted cheese), minced beef, or creamed heart of palm. For dessert, we have cake and rabanadas, which is made from day-old bread dipped in a bath of eggs and milk that we then fry and serve with a sweet syrup."

Photo courtesy of Balsam Hill

"The dumplings we have for our main dish are served with a mushroom soup, a compote, and kutia, which is a Lenten dish made from different types of cooked wheat," Denys from Kharkiv, Ukraine said. "Traditionally there should be 12 dishes on the table, one candle, and a sprig from the Christmas tree. However, during the famine people modified this tradition to have 12 ingredients on the table, which makes it more convenient for smaller families who cannot eat that much in one sitting."

Photo courtesy of Balsam Hill

"Our Christmas meal begins with a bottle of Champagne, which we share along with various canapes," Laurene from Tallinn, Estonia said. "The starter tends to be a seafood platter, served with wholemeal bread, butter, homemade mayonnaise and shallot vinegar served with a dry white wine. Then we move onto the red wine to go with our next course, which is turkey or a capon [castrated rooster], and a mixture of winter vegetables. For dessert, we have a yule log, a huge quantity of chocolate, and then we return to the Champagne. The meal ends with a cheese board, alongside plates of nuts, fruits, chocolates and more wine, naturally."

Photo courtesy of Balsam Hill

"A central feature of the main course are the various types of pickled vegetables," Janis from Riga, Latvia, said. "We always eat several fish dishes at Christmas since I live in a small fishing village by the sea, along with pork and lamb, potatoes, sauerkraut, various salads, and peas. It is traditional to serve smoked meat and fish, which is my favorite part of the meal because I just love the taste! We drink juice, beer, or occasionally wine, and for dessert, there will be gingerbread cookies and tangerines."

Photo courtesy of Balsam Hill

"We eat a cold dish called vitel toné made from slices of veal in a creamy tuna sauce," Miguel from Mendoza, Argentina, said. "This Christmas, we're eating two sorts of stuffed chicken. The first one is stuffed with ham, cheese and eggs, while the second one is made from vegetables instead of eggs. We serve the chicken with Russian salad, which is made of potatoes, carrots and peas with mayonnaise [...] Last but not least, we have empanadas."

Photo courtesy of Balsam Hill

"The main dish is pork or duck meat with cabbage rolls," Mara from Lyon, France, said. "Our first course is a selection of cheeses served with tomatoes and a variety of cold meats. The most festive parts of our meal are the salted jelly and cabbage rolls filled with minced pork meats. After the pork or duck main course, we'll have a bowl of soup. At the end of the meal we eat a special cake that is similar to panettone."

Photo courtesy of Balsam Hill

"We often eat omo tuo, or rice balls, with chicken and fish in a palm nut soup," Isaac from Accra, Ghana said. "Our Christmas meal is special because it takes a lot of effort to make, as the rice balls have to be pounded for a long time. In other years, we have eaten fufu, a staple food made from cassava and plantain, with a chicken or goat soup. [...] We often open our doors to those in the community who have less than us."

Photo courtesy of Balsam Hill

"For the main course we eat roast chicken, served with baked potatoes, onions, and carrots," Drazen from Vinkovci, Croatia, said. "The main course is served with sarma, a special delicacy made from cabbage rolls stuffed with meat. We have vegetable soup as a starter. Finally, for dessert, we eat cake and lots of donuts: one is called krafne, which is usually filled with jam, chocolate, or marmalade; and the other fruitule, flavored with rum and lemon."

Photo courtesy of Balsam Hill

"Our main dish is always fried carp, a traditional Christmas meal in Poland," Mateusz from Zabrze, Poland, said. "Alongside this are two kinds of dumpling — pierogi ruskie (with cottage cheese and potatoes), and pierogi with mushrooms and cabbage. We also eat borscht (a sour beetroot soup that we serve with little mushroom dumplings), and mushroom soup with noodles. For dessert there is dried fruit compote, a poppy-seed dessert known as makowiec, gingerbread, walnuts, and sunflower seeds."

Photo courtesy of Balsam Hill

"We have eaten pumpkin, called ghapama, at Christmas for centuries," Narek, from Yerevan, Armenia said. "Christmas is special because it is the only time we eat pumpkin. We stuff it with plav, a mixture of rice and raisins, and honey. This is then served with turkey."

Photo courtesy of Balsam Hill

"The king of our Christmas dinner table is baked codfish, a tradition dating back to the Middle Ages," Bruno from Estarreja, Portugal, said. "Our main dish is cod because our Catholic ancestors were once required to fast and not eat meat during major religious festivals, so many started eating salted cod instead. The cod is served with eggs, potatoes, and greens. Alongside this dish are various desserts such as the bolo rei (fruit cake), pão de Lló (sponge cake), cheeses and sausages, rabanadas (similar to French toast), and bilharacos (pumpkin dumplings). These are accompanied by a good port wine."

Photo courtesy of Balsam Hill

"The buffet will include pasta with pork, cheese, tomato, salad, and sausage," Yuri from Krasnodar, Russia, said. "Other dishes include salted fish and grilled chicken with mashed potatoes, and we drink Champagne. Olivier salad and dressed herring are the two traditional festive dishes you can find on every table in Russia."

Photo courtesy of Balsam Hill

"We have an array of dishes on our table: fish, baked beans, and potato salad with onions," Milos from Pozarevac, Serbia, said. "The homemade bread is the most traditional part because we bake it with a coin inside and the older people in the family break the bread into pieces while no one is watching. After this, we search through our piece to try and find the coin."

Photo courtesy of Balsam Hill

"Our main dish is usually fried carp with potato salad," Tomas from Sekule, Slovakia, said. "We begin by eating a special sort of wafer, not like the ones from Belgium but a bigger and thinner one that we eat with honey and poppy seed. We eat a special sour cabbage soup called sauerkraut that is cooked with vegetables and sausage."

Photo courtesy of Balsam Hill

"For our starter we eat borscht, a sour beetroot soup served with meatballs," Alexandra from Bucarest, Romania, said. "We eat sarmale for our second course, which is pickled cabbage stuffed with meat. The main dish is usually meat and sometimes fish. But mainly it's sausages, pork, and chicken. It is more traditional for Romanian families to eat pork for their main dish. For dessert, we usually eat a variety of sponge cakes."

SEE ALSO:Here's how the royal family spends Christmas every year