The Christmas Day Classic That 20% Of People Would Never Drink Again
Christmas, as befits one of the nation's biggest holidays, has a plethora of food traditions. Not only are there Christmas-specific candies (candy canes, peppermint bark, and whatever the heck sugarplums are supposed to be, which we're betting is nothing like this Dunkin' version) and Christmas cookies (gingerbread, rum balls, and those weird sugar pretzel thingies that come in fancy holiday tins and taste of disappointment), but there are also time-honored holiday main dishes (ham, turkey, tamales, or roast goose if you're feeling particularly Dickensian).
What's more, there are some very specific holiday drinks. Sure, you name a holiday (or just make one up), and some clever bartender or liquor company rep will create a whole range of Halloween/Easter/Fourth of July/Arbor Day/Richard Simmons' birthday cocktails to help you celebrate, while holiday mocktails are also a thing if you're on the proverbial wagon or just planning to drive home. Christmas, though, is one of the few holidays that actually has a few time-honored beverages associated with it, ranging from the nobody-drinks-it-we-just-sing-about-it wassail to the probably-invented-by-Starbucks peppermint mocha.
In order to find out which of these allegedly beloved holiday foods and drinks are things that some of us are perhaps only pretending to like (shhh! don't tell Great Aunt Wilgefortis!), Mashed conducted an informal online poll of 656 people.
The second-least popular holiday food was actually a drink
The one thing we do know for sure about our survey respondents -– in what came as a complete shock to absolutely no one -– is that by and large, they really, really did not care for fruitcake. An unsurprising 34.91 percent of those surveyed (229 people in all) chose this doorstop-masquerading-as dessert as their absolute least favorite holiday food, which begs the question, why are they still making these things, anyway, and who on earth is buying them? People who absolutely hate their Secret Santa giftees?
Back to the survey results: Slightly more surprising was the fact that 20.88 percent, or 137 people, are not fans of eggnog. It is a pretty divisive beverage, after all, particularly if it is made the traditional raw egg way (aka cream of salmonella). You can pour in a bunch of alcohol to kill any germs that may be lurking, but we did not quiz our survey respondents to find out whether it's the alcohol, the eggs, or something else that puts them off this drink (the nutmeg, perhaps? it's not to everyone's taste, after all), but be aware that if you want to be the holiday host with the most, you may want to have a few different drinks on hand, like maybe some holiday Mountain Dew.
The other less-than-beloved holiday foods
Peppermint bark is a type of candy that even peppermint and chocolate lovers may find to be too much of a good thing. Of our respondents, 11.74 percent — 77 people in all — said they preferred to pass on this sugar overload, bringing it in at #3 on our least-wanted list. Candy canes, which admittedly are a lot less exciting than heart-shaped boxes of chocolate or hollow milk chocolate bunnies, came in fourth, with 71 people, 10.82 percent of our (virtual) studio audience, prepared to forego them. We're assuming they meant the regular peppermint kind, though it would be interesting to get their take on ketchup, Froot Loops, or other nonstandard flavors available this season. In fifth place was ham, something 61 people (9.3 percent of respondents) didn't want to see on their plates –- too bad, since it's a lot cheaper than goose.
The Yule log, otherwise known as bûche de Noël, was something that 45 people (6.86 percent) did not want to deal with, possibly terrified that they'd be asked to spell the word, or worse, type it out with all those special characters. (Little Asterisk Musk will probably love the stuff once he's old enough to grow teeth.) And believe it or not, 31 people (4.73 percent) of the people we queried said they didn't like Christmas cookies. All the more for Santa, then.
The few non-answer answers
Five people in all (0.76 percent of respondents) chose "other" from the provided list of foods, and for once, all of them were more-or-less cooperative enough to follow the directive to "please specify." One person said they didn't eat or drink any of these things, while another pointed out that all of the items were non-vegan, although that needn't necessarily apply in the case of the baked goods and candies. In fact, when it comes to candy canes, Cruelty-Free Reviews points out that most major candy cane brands are, in fact, 100 percent vegan. Yet another person said that their least favorite holiday treats included all alcoholic beverages (perhaps they've endured one too many epically awful office Christmas parties).
A few of the answers were a bit head-scratchy, though. We're still puzzling over just what "n/a" means –- you did or did not like all of the above? And as far as "done celebrate Christmas" goes, does that mean you gave it up, or have never celebrated the holiday in the first place? Well, never mind. We wish you all –- survey respondents, and those we've yet to bug (just wait, your turn may be coming) –- a happy whatever holiday or non-holiday you choose to celebrate, with plenty of your own preferred foods and beverages with which to do so.