Older, Wiser and Thinking About the Family Christmas Jello Salad
Most of us can look back upon our childhood and remember a few of the standard family staples that graced the Christmas dinner table.
Maybe it was your Aunt Sue’s turnip casserole? Or your Mom’s delicious turkey gravy? Or any iteration of a dessert bar that contained coconut, chocolate chips and a can of sweetened condensed milk that sat atop a graham crumb base? I ate so many of those that I’m lucky to have survived my childhood.
But the one staple that united and grounded our family around the Christmas table was a unanimously loved, three-layer jello salad.
The roots of said jello salad likely beckoned back to the 1950s, when the makers of Jello offered households a variety creative ways to enjoy their jello. As far back as I can remember, that jello salad was on our Christmas dinner table every single year. There would be a mutiny if it wasn’t.
To call it a ‘salad’ is being somewhat generous. Yes, it’s a cold dish concocted of a mix ingredients but there is nary a green leaf or vegetable in sight. Not that we minded…
The bottom layer is made with green lime jello, mixed with pineapple tidbits. The middle layer is yellow jello mixed with cream cheese and a bit of mayonnaise. Perhaps the addition of mayo meets the requirements of the International Convention of Salad Standards? The top layer is red jello, raspberry or strawberry, mixed with sliced banana.
The end result is this festive looking gelatin structure that delights taste buds from ages 5 - 90+:
Our family tradition was to pass the jello salad around the table after we’d finished our turkey, stuffing and all the trimmings. This news shocks and confuses any friends I tell about our jello salad.
“You ate it with the main course? It’s not the dessert?!!!”
No, that jello salad had status and a starring role around our table. It was the Taylor Swift of jello salads and we were all big fans. That salad was a bond we shared, a loyalty that could not be broken, a salad that was about fun, love and joy.
Our family has gotten smaller and more dispersed over the years. Some have moved, others have passed. We no longer have the big family dinner with aunts, uncles, cousins and siblings.
But as I sit here on Christmas Eve, just thinking about that jello salad takes me right back to our Christmas dinner table, filled with all those memories made with family.
Whether you’re having jello salad or not on your table this year, I wish you a most Merry Christmas and hope it’s one that gives you many wonderful memories, gelatinous or otherwise, for years to come.
Heather
p.s. what was one of your family’s Christmas menu staples?
p.s.2 also, no judgement about the jello salad. *lol* It’s delicious, honest!!