Author Archives: Lynn

Creole Christmas

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Going green for Christmas in Louisiana? Sure. We add lots of cute green alligators to our Christmas decorations! We eat mustard and collard greens as our Christmas day dinner. Oh, and don’t forget those years that we’re wearing short sleeves because it’s so warm, and the grass and leaves are still green. Yeah, it’s going green Louisiana style. Cut the lights? Uh… No. Possible. Way. We might change them to energy efficient LEDs, but we ain’t ditching our Christmas lights.

Natchitoches (nack-a-tosh), Louisiana is the oldest French Settlement in the state, founded in 1714. So no, it wasn’t New Orleans like a lot of you probably thought. The location where the movie Steel Magnolias was shot, Natchitoches is a beautiful little town steeped in history as you can imagine. The annual Christmas Festival of Lights is amazing. Y’all are officially invited to come on down along with the thousands of others who come from around the country, even the world, to enjoy them.

In the River Parishes bonfires are lit on Christmas Eve as a decades long tradition. We’re not going to give ol’ Santa any excuses for messing up and skipping over our state. Uh-uh. Elaborate wooden structures are lovingly constructed so they can be set aflame on Christmas Eve and get Papa Noel’s attention. Naturally there’s a festival that goes on before. What? You really thought we weren’t going to party until Christmas Eve? Get real, cher!

 

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In case you haven’t noticed we tend to do holidays a little bit different down here in Louisiana. We stick huge syringes in our main dish meats, and we’ll have gumbo or a crawfish boil while other folks are eating more traditional holiday meals. So big surprise we created a whole new Thanksgiving tradition. No routine turkey for us. Uh, uh, baby. We got to have a turducken, a turkey stuffed with a duck. Don’t laugh, that Frankenstein sounding creation is tasty. Apologies to all the vegans out there. But the majority of us down here are still confirmed carnivores. Okay, open your minds to some diversity when it comes to good eating!

Happy Fall Harvest and Thanksgiving! Turducken Recipe!

Another tradition in Louisiana is seeing the big trucks loaded with piles of sugar cane. Harvesting of the sweet stalks begin in October. For me that has always signaled the fall holiday season. As a kid I remember chewing the sugary goodness out of those stalks. Delicious. Sugar cane stalks lining rural highways from the huge trucks is a common sight.  Read the History of Sugarcane in Louisiana. We even have a Sugar Cane Festival – yeah, darlin’. This is Louisiana, we gonna have a band and parades for anything! Rockin’ Dopsie and the Zydeco Twisters, and,  boat and street parade floats. Mais oui, cher!

 

Images from Past Sugar Cane Festivals. A party, y'all!

 

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Tur What????

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In case you haven’t noticed we tend to do holidays a little bit different down here in Louisiana. We stick huge syringes in our main dish meats and we’ll have gumbo or a crawfish boil while other folks are eating more traditional holiday meals. So big surprise we created a whole new Thanksgiving tradition. No routine turkey for us. Uh, uh, baby. We got to have a turducken. That’s a turkey stuffed with a duck. Don’t laugh, that Frankenstein sounding creation is tasty. Apologies to all the vegans out there. But the majority of us down here are still confirmed carnivores. Okay, open you minds to some diversity when it comes to good eating!

 

Happy Fall Harvest and Thanksgiving! Turducken Recipe!

 

Another tradition in Louisiana is seeing the big trucks loaded with piles of sugar cane. Harvesting of the sweet stalks begin in October. For me that has always signaled the fall holiday season. As a kid I remember chewing the sugary goodness out of those stalks. Delicious. Sugar cane stalks lining rural highways from the huge trucks is a common sight.  Read the History of Sugarcane in Louisiana. We even have a Sugar Cane Festival – yeah, darlin’. This is Louisiana, we gonna have a band and parades for anything! Rockin’ Dopsie and the Zydeco Twisters, and,  boat and street parade floats. Mais oui, cher!

 

Images from Past Sugar Cane Festivals. A party, y'all!

 

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