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Around the Table: Christmas

December is a month where we gather with friends and families to celebrate the holidays. If there’s one thing this month’s holidays all have in common…it’s delicious food. Every culture has its quintessential dishes—as well as traditions—to commemorate each special occasion.

We asked Grubhub employees to tell us about their favorite holiday traditions…whether they’ve been taking place since childhood or just started last year amongst friends.

This week, we’re taking a look at how our employees celebrate Christmas with their loved ones.

First, let’s take a look at some of the traditional Christmas foods our employees love…

Well, it looks like on Christmas, all bets are off! Sure, there is the quintessential oven-roasted ham you see in the movies…but at Grubhub, our employees each have their own food-oriented traditions.

From the Italian “Feast of the Seven Fishes” to a Korean BBQ-style spread, the tables look different in every household.

And let’s find out more about their holiday traditions….

Brian, Manager of Growth Marketing and Mass Media:

My mom is one of nine (yes, nine) children and they are all super close. Everyone still lives in the same area and spends a lot of time together. We barely fit in one single home or space when we get together for a celebration. So imagine when my mom, aunts, uncles, and cousins embark upon our annual cookie swap for Christmas each year. That’s when each person makes 26 dozen cookies (312 total) and brings them to a family holiday cookie exchange party. We’ve done the math…and the amount of cookies is more than 8,000.

Yong, Data Scientist on the CRM Team:

Growing up, my family would have a Korean-infused Christmas, which would basically be a crazy conglomeration of all the meats. We’d have a big traditional Korean BBQ-style feast with our family and relatives on Christmas Eve, where we would grill the usual suspects (galbi, pork belly, bulgogi, amongst others). And then the next day, we’d follow it up with another round of over-eating…this time switching it up to a more ‘western’ style, with some surf-and-turf and more traditional sides with a dessert or two. I’ve always liked the two different meals we’d have around the holidays–it keeps things fresh (and me, overfed)!

Luciano, Senior Analyst on the Data Analytics Team:

When I was younger, we used to celebrate the Italian Christmas Eve celebration of the “Feast of the Seven Fishes.” We would eat all kinds of seafood — from grilled fish to fried calamari. As my family got bigger and bigger, we decided to switch things up a bit. Now, I fly out to San Diego to visit my family for the holidays, but there’s one thing that remains constant: great food. My dad–a former pastry chef–whips up all kinds of baked goods for dessert. But don’t let the pastry chef title fool you, he also knows how to make a mean prime rib, which is a big highlight of our Christmas celebration.

Are you now craving seafood, bulgogi or cookies?