stIll lookIng where to order your chrIstmas dInner?

“Lechoneras” 101: a roadmap to your Christmas dinner

Juan A. Hernández, The Weekly Journal

Unlike a homemade Thanksgiving dinner, which we characterized in November as a “daunting task,” a homemade Christmas dinner –beyond roasting a pork leg (which is equally daunting)– is nearly impossible for mere mortals to make.

As you have already noticed, in Puerto Rico pork is king. So, turkey for Christmas –even if it is “pavochón”– is for the weak of heart. Nevertheless, just thinking about the sheer size of a pork carcass on your kitchen table is enough to make the blood curdle in the veins of a grown man.

In Puerto Rico, pork is roasted “a la vara” (literally in a hardwood pole over an open pit). Roasting is a slow process that usually takes anywhere between six and eight hours, depending on the size of the pig, and a serious amount of elbow grease to hand turn that “vara”.

Then, how in the world the non-initiated are going to roast a 100-pound, five-foot long pork at home? Long story short, even if you own a small mansion with a huge backyard, and an equally huge fire pit, it is impossible. This is something your average weekend BBQ master better leave to the professionals.

Of course, you can always decide to embrace at least part of the Christmas tradition and home cook all, or some, of the traditional dishes of the holiday meal –rice with pigeon peas (“arroz con gandules”), “pasteles,” boiled and/or pickled green bananas (“guineítos en escabeche”), blood sausages (“morcillas”), and sweet rice pudding (“arroz con dulce”) for dessert. And while this is a somewhat intimidating project, if you manage to get the necessary ingredients it is certainly doable.

But who are these so-called pork roasting professionals, and where can they be found, you might ask? Enter the “lechoneras,” the quintessential roasting establishments that enjoy a Christmas long “Black Friday” windfall thanks to Puerto Ricans’ love for everything pork.

These quaint businesses can be found just about everywhere throughout the island, all of them sticking to their tried-and-true menu of “lechón,” sausages, green bananas, rice and “pasteles.” The menu may include one or two additional delicacies, depending on the “lechonera,” but it is basically the same for most.

There you can order your roasted pork by the pound, and all the complementary dishes for your dinner. And, depending on the size of your Christmas shindig, you can even order the whole pig. Below is a list of some “lechoneras” you can find within the San Juan Metroplex, so you don’t have to go far to procure your family’s Christmas dinner.

Bayamón

Lechonera El Piterre – On Road 167, this is certainly one of the best “lechonera” on the island. It opens Friday through Sunday, from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. They serve “lechón,” rice and beans, pickled bananas, pork feet and even “pavochón.”

Guaynabo

Lechonera El Paso – On Road 173, Km. 29.5. The specialty here is stuffed roasted pork. It is usually stuffed with rice with pigeon peas or beans, but it can be stuffed with root vegetables (sweet potatoes, yucca, yams, taro, etc.) among other things. They also offer “pastelillos” (turnovers) stuffed with sausage. This “lechonera” has been doing business for more than 70 years, and three generations of the López family have been at its helm. Opens Friday through Sunday.

San Juan

Lechonera El Cuerito Tostao – 243 Eleanor Roosevelt Ave. in Hato Rey. Aside from the regular fare of any “lechonera,” their specialty is the pork stuffed “alcapurria” (a delicacy of their own invention), and pork rennet, which they only offer on weekends. They also have an impressive variety of custards for dessert. Opens seven days a week, from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.

Trujillo Alto

Angelito’s Place – On Road 175, Km. 4.8 in Barrio Carraízo, this “lechonera” has been known for its delicious pork accompanied by rice with pigeon peas and “pasteles,” and sweet potatoes. Opens seven days a week, from 8:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

If you’d like to tread the less traveled path, you can always embark on the classic road trip across the island in search for the best “lechonera”. A word of advice though; try to get to the lechonera the earliest in the day because “lechón” sells fast and if you get there a little after 12:00 p.m., you might only get the pig’s “rabito tostao” (crunchy tail).

A look back at a classic

“It’s a Wonderful Life” was released Dec. 20, 1946

The Associated Press

It was just another job for child actor Karolyn Grimes. She was 6 and had already done four movies by the summer of 1946 when filming began on “It’s a Wonderful Life.” The only thing she recalls about the biggest movie of her

In fact,

career was being delighted to play in snow on the set. That single job would become very memorable to a lot of other people. “It’s a Wonderful Life,” which marks its 75th anniversary this year, is now a beloved holiday tradition across the globe. “It’s a once-a-year pick-meup for the humanity of America and the world,” Grimes told

The Associated Press. “It’s a good impetus to really keep us going in a positive direction.”

film his scenes. “I have vivid memories of The film wasn’t initially intended to be released over the holidays. doing that film,” he says. “On the set, Capra would squat down, eye-to-eye, tell me what he wanted me to do and did I understand it. I said, ‘Oh, yes, sir.’” Grimes and Hawkins are among the last surviving members of the cast and have chosen to represent the film’s legacy and spread its lesson of doing good.

An Everlasting Story

“It’s a Wonderful Life” was released in late 1946, produced and directed by Frank Capra and starring Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed. It takes place on Christmas Eve in a small town. The film centers on the character of George Bailey, played by Stewart, who considers suicide until his guardian angel intervenes and shows him all the people whose lives he has touched and the difference he has made in the community.

One memorable character is Zuzu, played by Grimes. She gets to say, “Every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings.” And the petals from Zuzu’s rose — stuffed into a pants pocket by Stewart’s Bailey as he comforts his sickly daughter — become a symbol of life. If Grimes is sort of fuzzy on the filming details, Jimmy Hawkins, another former child actor who played Tommy in the film, is the opposite. He recalls as a 4-year-old getting up while it was dark and taking buses and streetcars to Culver City to

New Limited Edition Release

Paramount Home Entertainment has released a limited-edition two-disc Blu-ray set with a colorized version of the film in high definition as well as the original, digitally remastered black-and-white movie in high definition. The set includes over 45 minutes of bonus content. The movie was nominated for five Oscars and has been recognized by the American Film Institute as one of the 100 best American films ever made. The movie also earned first place for most inspirational American Film of All Time by the AFI. “It gives us such an optimistic view of what our lives can be. And we have the power to make that. We can make a difference, and we can make things happen,” said Grimes. Hawkins recalls Capra with a strong vision for the film — faith, hope and life renewed. The movie he made might be sentimental, but on the set, the director was not at all. The film — now closely associated with

“It’s a Wonderful Life” is celebrating its 75th anniversary. >Paramount Home Entertainment via AP Christmas — wasn’t initially intended to be released over the holidays. But RKO’s scheduled Christmas movie in 1946 — “Sinbad the Sailor” — wasn’t ready, so the studio asked Capra to rush production of “It’s a Wonderful Life.” It was released Dec. 20 at the Globe Theatre in New York, a little late for a traditional Christmas rollout.

It gives us such an optimistic view of what our lives can be. And we have the power to make that. We can make a difference, and we can make things happen.

- Karolyn Grimes, Actress

“They did a beautiful job of getting it out there, and then it bombed more or less. It was not a hit,” says Grimes. “But then in the early ‘70s, it became public domain, and it was on every channel every year.” Grimes still gets letters from all over the globe and from generations of viewers. “I get a lot of fan mail from Great Britain and even the Mideast and all kinds of places,” she says. “It’s reaching a lot of people, and I think people will want to make a difference.”

How Christmas became an American holiday tradition

With a Santa Claus, gifts and a tree

Thomas Adam, University of Arkansas

Each season, the celebration of Christmas has religious leaders and conservatives publicly complaining about the commercialization of the holiday and the growing lack of Christian sentiment. Many people seem to believe that there was once a way to celebrate the birth of Christ in a more spiritual way.

Such perceptions about Christmas celebrations have, however, little basis in history. As a scholar of transnational and global history, I have studied the emergence of Christmas celebrations in German towns around 1800 and the global spread of this holiday ritual.

While Europeans participated in church services and religious ceremonies to celebrate the birth of Jesus for centuries, they did not commemorate it as we do today. Christmas trees and gift-giving on Dec. 24 in Germany did not spread to other European Christian cultures until the end of the 18th century and did not come to North America until the 1830s.

Charles Haswell, an engineer and chronicler of everyday life in New York City, wrote in his “Reminiscences of an Octoganarian” that in the 1830s German families living in Brooklyn dressed up Christmas trees with lights and ornaments. Haswell was so curious about this novel custom that he went to Brooklyn in a very stormy and wet night just to see these Christmas trees through the windows of private homes.

Thomas Nast, the creator of the image of Santa Claus as we know it today, drew this sketch in 1881. >Courtesy tree in a German household when he reported in 1799 about having seen such a tree in a private home in Ratzeburg in northwestern Germany. In 1816 German poet E.T.A. Hoffmann published his famous story “Nutcracker and Mouse King.” This story contains the very first literary record of a Christmas tree decorated with apples, sweets and lights. From the onset, all family members, including children, were expected to participate in the giftgiving. Gifts were not brought by a mystical figure, but openly exchanged among In fact, family members – symbolizing the new middle-class culture of egalitarianism.

The First Christmas Trees In Germany

Only in the late 1790s did the new custom of putting up a Christmas tree decorated with wax candles and ornaments and exchanging gifts emerge in Germany. This new holiday practice was completely outside and independent of Christian religious practices.

The idea of putting wax candles on an evergreen was inspired by the pagan tradition of celebrating the winter solstice with bonfires on Dec. 21. These bonfires on the darkest day of the year were intended to recall the sun and show her the way home. The lit Christmas tree was essentially a domesticated version of these bonfires.

The English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge gave the very first description of a decorated Christmas

The tradition of Christmas trees and gift-giving on Dec. 24 was born in Germany in the late 1790s. From German Roots To American Soil American visitors to Germany in the first half of the 19th century realized the potential of this celebration for nation building. In 1835 Harvard professor George Ticknor was the first American to observe and participate in this type of Christmas celebration and to praise its usefulness for creating a national culture. That year, Ticknor and his 12-year-old daughter Anna joined the family of Count von Ungern-Sternberg in Dresden for a memorable Christmas celebration. Other American visitors to Germany – such as Charles Loring Brace, who witnessed a Christmas celebration in Berlin nearly 20 years later – considered it a specific German festival with the potential to pull people together.

For both Ticknor and Brace, this holiday tradition provided the emotional glue that could bring families and members of a nation together. In 1843 Ticknor invited several prominent friends to join him in a Christmas celebration with a Christmas tree and gift-giving in his Boston home. Ticknor’s holiday party was not the first Christmas celebration in the United States that featured a Christmas tree. German-American families had brought the custom with them and put up Christmas trees before. However, it was Ticknor’s social influence that secured the spread and social acceptance of the alien custom to put up a Christmas tree and to exchange gifts in American society.

The Introduction Of Santa Claus

For most of the 19th century, the celebration of Christmas with Christmas trees and gift-giving remained a marginal phenomenon in American society. Most Americans remained skeptical about this new custom. Some felt that they had to choose between older English customs such as hanging stockings for presents on the fireplace and the Christmas tree as proper space for the placing of gifts. It was also hard to find the necessary ingredients for this German custom. Christmas tree farms had first to be created. And ornaments needed to be produced. The most significant steps toward integrating Christmas into popular American culture came in the context of the American Civil War. In January 1863 Harper’s Weekly published on its front page the image of Santa Claus visiting the Union Army in 1862. This image, which was produced by the German-American cartoonist Thomas Nast, represents the very first image of Santa Claus.

In the following years, Nast developed the image of Santa Claus into the jolly old man with a big belly and long white beard as we know it today. In 1866 Nast produced “Santa Claus and His Works,” an elaborate drawing of Santa Claus’ tasks, from making gifts to recording children’s behavior. This sketch also introduced the idea that Santa Claus traveled by a sledge drawn by reindeer.

Declaring Christmas a federal holiday and putting up the first Christmas tree in the White House marked the final steps in making Christmas an American holiday. On June 28, 1870, Congress passed the law that turned Christmas Day, New Year’s Day, Independence Day, and Thanksgiving Day into holidays for federal employees.

And in December 1889 President Benjamin Harrison began the tradition of setting up a Christmas tree at the White House. Christmas had finally become an American holiday tradition.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.