CHRISTMAS

South India is home to one of the world's oldest Christian communitiesand distinct, delicious traditions.

- ASHA GOMEZ

DECEMBER 25

I COME FROM A TINY BEACH TOWN IN KERALA, India, where I woke up to the sounds of church bells tolling and fishermen chanting folk songs as they pulled in the haul from fishing all night. Christianity has deeper roots in this part of South India than almost anywhere else in the world-the story goes that the apostle Thomas landed in Kerala in A.D. 52-and for Christmas, my family pulled out all the stops.

The festivities started weeks ahead of time. My amma and her kitchen crew (yup, Mom had a little crew) would spend weeks making sweet treats that would be given out as gifts to all our family and friends. For the month before Christmas, our home smelled like a bakery.

The week of Christmas, my three brothers all had their birthdays, so it was an extra-special time in our home: a feast for all the senses. Our Christmas tree would be decked out with ornaments, the sound of Jim Reeves and Elvis Christmas records playing in the background. All through that week, my amma's kitchen sent out a steady stream of our favorite foods-fried chicken, biryani, and decadent desserts. Those meals are the best food memories of my life; no Michelin-star experience has ever compared to them.

But the most special of all the meals took place after midnight mass, in the very early hours of Christmas morning, when we'd gather with my aunts, uncles, and cousins in my ammachi's home, where my grandma had set a warming beef curry to braise before church. We'd sop up all of that piping-hot goodness with fresh appams while the grown-ups sipped wine, and the night would end with rum cake and trifle pudding.