A traditional French Christmas

As this is our first Christmas in France, I thought it would be nice that we start a Christmas tradition for Lucas. It will be something constant, celebrated every year at our home and something for Lucas to look forward to even when he becomes an adult.
My MIL will host a Christmas Day lunch at her home so that Gilles can attend from Pau, and Fred & I will host Christmas Eve Dinner at our home.
In France Christmas is a time for family while the New Year is for celebrating with friends.
This year, I would have liked to have a tree, le sapin de Noël, but we opted not to have one as Lucas is at that age where he'd be tempted to pull the tree down. I can feel my resolve weakening though as we strolled through the Sunday market yesterday and there were beautiful trees on sale. Even Fred wanted to get a teeny weeny one...
We managed to buy some holly and some mistletoe to hang by the front door as the French think it brings luck throughout the year to do so. We also have the traditional Christmas Creche which is a display of a Nativity scene. The crèche is made of little clay figures called santons or "little saints". The creche depicts the event in Bethlehem, with the ox and the donkey placed close to Jesus, and Mary and Joseph in the foreground. In modern times, the figurines include everyday people of the village like the Baker, the homeless people, the priest and the Mayor.
French children put their shoes in front of the fireplace (in lieu of the Christmas sock) so that Santa ( Père Noël ) will fill the shoes with small treats and gifts. Candy, nuts and small toys will also be hung on the Christmas tree overnight for when the children wake up on Christmas Day.
The french take Santa Claus pretty seriously. In the 1960s, a law was passed that stated every letter addressed to Papa Noël will be replied. In schools, children who can write actually write letters to Santa and each of them will get a response.
My French teacher explained that the letters addressed to "Père Noël " get sent to a centralised unit in Bordeaux and each letter will be responded to with a card from Santa!
By the time I found out it was too late for us to write a letter on Lucas' behalf, but we will start doing it next year.

On the 24th, the french attend la Messe de Minuit, an important part of Christmas for many families. It is followed by a huge feast, called le Réveillon. Le Réveillon is a symbolic awakening to the meaning of Christ's birth and is the culinary high point of the season, which may be enjoyed at home or in a restaurant or café that is open all night.
While I would have liked to attend the midnight mass ( I prefer a Protestant church but can't seem to find any in my town) Lucas is not old enough to sit through the entire mass, so our Christmas dinner will start early and probably end by midnight. Normally the dinner is served after the midnight mass.

My Christmas menu for this year will be foie gras (I know my mom will be wondering why I am serving this after her lecture on how the poor goose suffers to provide us with its enlarged liver, but we were given the foie gras and since we already have it we might as well eat it right?), followed by fruits de mer (seafood platter with lobster, prawns, crabs, fresh oysters and some other shellfish that looks like "lala" and "balitung").
I wanted to serve the Chappon instead of a turkey since the turkey is so big (Chappon is between a chicken and a turkey) but maybe I will make that turkey after all and not veer from tradition.
My Christmas turkey recipe is a simple one - defrost turkey, put turkey in brine overnight, dry with paper towels. Lather inside of turkey with lemon juice and mustard. Put in yellow onions, celery, carrots, fresh parsley, cap with aluminium foil, tie legs together and the wings. Rub olive oil with pepper, add thyme and sprigs of rosemary.
The stuffing is made separately as I find that the turkey cooks more evenly without the stuffing.

I would like to buy readymade (Pepperidge Herb Stuffing if they have it) stuffing but if I cannot find any, here is my recipe :
Chestnuts, raisins, 1 green apple, walnuts, olives, mushroom, celery, onions, chicken stock, fresh parsley, salt & pepper, 1 french loaf, butter.
Toast walnuts and bread with 3 tbs butter, cook onions and celery with 3 tbs butter, add diced apples, chestnuts, raisins, olives, mushrooms, parsley with 1 cup chicken stock. Add salt and pepper.

For dessert, it is traditional to serve La bûche de Noël - Christmas log cake. I will buy an ice cream bûche and serve it with exotique fruits (its exotic here but normal for me....) - mango, lychee and pineapple.
For drinks Champagne is traditional.

Fred has reminded me to tell Lucas that all the presents are from Santa.... apparently he believed that Santa was real til he was 9 years old and still remembers what an exciting time it is for kids...

Merry Christmas everyone! Christmas dinners and traditions aside, let's celebrate the real reason for Christmas and remember that our Lord Jesus Christ was born on this day to save all mankind.