We want to hear about your holiday mealtime traditions. And for sharing, you'll be entered to win a Homemaker for the Holidays!
See contest rules for details. CONTEST RULES TERMS OF USE
Congratulations to Julie Nusbaum of Hamilton, Ind. who won a Homemaker + 8 Set.
Two additional winners, Curtis Empson of Cambridge Springs, Pa. and Julie Pripps of Rockford, Ill., each won a Carving Set.
"Everyone gets to pick a knife out of the block and the one with the small piece of paper taped to it- gets to go first through the food line- and doesn't have to do dishes."
Heather Hentz-Yeates
"No thanksgiving meal, in the past 12 years has been prepared without a cutco knife. Our meal always includes a family favorite, cranberry relish. Cutting and grinding the ingredients is a must and my cutco products prove to be a real necessity as I prepare one of my family's favorite side dishes"
"favorite traditions is we have a soup party in October where everyone brings a crock of their favorite soup! We then vote on the best soup of the season."
"...dinner at mom and dad's house was always special. I remember my dad carving the turkey and ham and serving it up for the family. I remember one day dad was stuck in a blizzard and couldn't make it home for dinner. I carved the meat under mom's careful instruction. Every year since, I have been carving the meat. Once I was married, I bought myself a good set of Cutco knifes and am now starting a tradition with my own kids."
"A big part of the holidays is the home cooking and we like to cook! Cutco really makes working in the kitchen more like playing in the kitchen. I really like my paring knife but the whole family loves the scissors! Especially on those hard to open Christmas packages"
"A meal prepared by Grandma and TWO full platefulls of food the only time of the year this happens, grandma is SUCH a good cook; including deviled eggs, stuffed celery, and cranberry sauce. Also turkey gravy, yams, and green bean caserol ! CUTCO cuts the bird."
"A tradition is to have fresh orange slices at the end of the meal."
"Every Thanksgiving the family travels to my aunt's house, the house my grandfather built, and celebrates the holiday. It's the one time a year we see the whole family."
"Although I've not yet had the pleasure of using CUTCO cutlery, my favorite holiday mealtime traditions are: returning to my boyhood home for Thanksgiving, going hiking early in the morning and watching wildlife, then returning to the house with a ravenous appetite and carving the turkey for my family
"Every year at Christmas someone drops the oven mitts in the sink and gets them wet. To dry them out we place them in the warm oven while we eat. Every time this sets off the smoke alarm."
"Always letting the grandkids stuff the turkey. and help with whatever they desire. It's all about family."
"Around the holidays, my family spends a lot of time in the kitchen. As a little girl, I always enjoyed chopping up vegetables for the relish tray and peeling potatoes for homemade mashed and twice baked potatoes. Thanksgiving brings hunting season and the whole family gets involved in the processing of the venison. Christmas means having several international or poor couples over for a Christmas Eve dinner, and on New Year's, we always have a big dinner. It's the three times during the year that we really "do" a meal big time. We all enjoy the togetherness around the food."
"As a pastor's wife, we invite families and singles for Thanksgiving and Christmas who do not have a place to go for the holidays. As these friends are of all backgrounds, we often eat our turkey with unusual sides such as sushi or Korean beef with vegetables. With our own nine children four of them adopted and their families, the celebrations are on a grand scale and we all have a wonderful time. We carve our turkey with our Cutco carver and serve everything with Cutco serving spoons."
"As time goes on and our family becomes scattered, it seems difficult to uphold all of our usual holiday mealtime traditions. Christmas seems to be the one holiday that we still manage to celebrate together, and our Christmas mealtime tradition is our family prayer of blessings and thanks spoken from each member of our family."
"Being the man of the house means I carve the turkey so a good sharp knife means nicely sliced meat. Of course the other tools for chopping and cutting for preparation means never having to stop and sharpen a cheap tool."
"As a really strange Thanksgiving tradition, I have to put one of those paper turkey fan like things on my table. I'm not sure why but it just makes it so cutesy after all of the adult type of decorations that makes it more family-like for the whole family, especially being a mother of four."
"Every year at Thanksgiving my mom would always cut the turkey with her Cutco knives which she absolutely loves. Then, she would get the wishbone and snap it with someone always wishing for a grandchild. Well, every year it would snap perfectly down the center and no one would get their wish. However, last Thanksgiving it snapped in her favor and sure enough my sister got pregnant a few months later. So this year for Thanksgiving my mom can be thankful for her new grandson, Makai."
"It is simple, we turn off the TV and don't answer the phone. We talk about the day and what went on. Sometimes we discuss a problem and try to come up with a solution as a family. For example, my daughter was having a problem at school, I brought it up and we all discussed the problem and came up with a solution that made her happy. My kids know, no TV, phones or toys at the dinner table."
"Food has always been the center of our holiday celebrations. For Thanksgiving there were two cherished traditions, firstly the oyster stuffing made only for the Thanksgiving bird and secondly the 3 jars of mincemeat my grandmother made in September were opened for pies. At Christmas the 5 foot tall step cookie server which my grandfather made from 2 swing arm plant stands was brought and filled with as many cookies as my Mom and grandmother could make. Always, of course the set of Cutco knives which were kept in their own special drawer were use for food prep not only on holidays but every day and the food that came out of that kitchen would rival cordon bleu."
"For all the major family holidays, I get to use best knives ever. I use the paring knife to peel potatoes and scale carrots. I use my carving fork and the carver to cut the meats. I also set out the table knives for the adults. Everytime I cook, I get compliments on my cooking utensils and table knives. Thanks Cutco!"
"For Christmas we start with homemade cinnamon rolls and sticky buns for breakfast, and then have a English dinner of beef roast, yorkshire pudding and plum pudding for dinner."
"Honestly my mother had her traditions of lasagna at christmas time. she would make everything from scratch and make additional trays and freeze them due to the hard work and all the family wanting to savor the moment. mom never had this written down all by memory and never duplicated."
"I am just happy when the whole family and friends are with us doring the holidays."
"I just love getting together with my big family at my grandma's and eating all the dishes each family member has brought."
"I make 3 Turkeys for ThanksGiving.......each cooked in some different way from the other...I love to see the people try to figure out witch one they like best."
"Every Thanksgiving we make a apple stuffing which goes great with our roasted garlic chicken. We use CUTCO knives to chop up the apples which makes our work 10 times easier compared to old kitchen knives we used to have. It also saves us time to prepare our pecan pie and mashed potatoes and gravy so that our family can sit down and have a healthy and hot meal together."
"Our family traditions have evolved over time -- for MY parents' family, with six kids and ten grandkids, holiday meals involved lots of cooking and groaning sideboards -- and the honor of cutting the turkey went to one or another of the fathers' of the family. My wife's parents' family, on the other hand, usually entertained, parties of fifteen-twenty people with hors d'oeuvres and drinks, and the carving usually went to one of the inlaws who had a particularly deft hand with a blade. We, here in MY home, tend to small gatherings, and ~I~ cut the turkey. Mostly to prevent chaos and mayhem!! My favorite element of all the varied traditions?? The flaming plum pudding!"
"Our holiday mealtime traditions go back for generations in our families. We do it the old-fashioned, movie family way of having all the "sides" on the table when everyone's seated, and carrying in the whole meat on a large, decorated platter or tray, setting it by that year's designated carver we try to honor someone in the family who's reached a milestone. In my home, Cutco played a part in our carving tradition from 1990 until two years ago. I had a long Cutco carving knife that somehow got misplaced when we moved."
"We are not like most families that make a traditional Christmas meal. Instead, we make a huge variety of food on Christmas Eve and have an "open house" party with everyone and anyone who would like to stop over at any time and visit. The leftovers are usually our Christmas dinner."
Make memories with these helpful tips and recipes for a great Thanksgiving meal.