The REAL reason we eat mince pies at Christmas (2025)

FAQs

Why do we only eat mince pies at Christmas? ›

Why do we eat mince pies at Christmas? Mince pies were originally made to celebrate Jesus. They were oblong in shape to represent the manger that Jesus slept in as a baby and have a 'pastry baby Jesus' carved into the pastry. Traditionally one mince pie is eaten for the Twelve days of Christmas.

They were made from 13 ingredients to represent Jesus and his disciples and were all symbolic to the Christmas story. As well as dried fruit such as raisins, prunes and figs, they included lamb or mutton to represent the shepherds and spices (cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg) for the Wise Men.

Mincemeat originally came about as a good way of preserving meat, without salting, curing, smoking or drying it. In 1413, King Henry V served a mincemeat pie at his coronation. Henry the VII was fond of the meaty Christmas pie as a main dish, filled with minced meat and fruit.

They became a popular treat around the festive period thanks to a tradition from the middle ages, which saw people eat a mince pie for 12 days from Christmas day to Twelfth Night. Doing this was believed to bring you happiness for the next 12 months.

Enveloped in tasty pastry, succulent mince pies were the automatic choice for Santa. After all, they were just enough for one or two bites and he had a lot of houses to visit overnight, so there were a lot of mince pies to eat!

In the US, there are no laws regulating what foods fictional characters can consume, transport or distribute. Mince pies are not commonly consumed in the US outside of the New England region. Perhaps if more Americans were familiar with them they would be banned.

The tradition comes from the time of Oliver Cromwell in the 1650s, when mince pies were banned at Christmas, along with other tasty treats. Cromwell wanted to tackle gluttony in England.

In any case, meat and fruit were invariably included among the ingredients. Going back even further, however, there are some who believe mincemeat pie is based on an ancient pagan tradition of serving coffin-shaped cakes representing Osiris—the Egyptian god who, according to legend, died and was resurrected each year.

The idea behind Operation Mincemeat was taken from the Trout Memo, written in 1939. This document compared the deception of an enemy in wartime with fly fishing and was issued under the name of Admiral John Godfrey, Britain's director of naval intelligence.

Mince pies, at Christmas time, were traditionally shaped in an oblong shape, to resemble a manger and were often topped with a depiction of the Christ Child. The early mince pie was known by several names, including "mutton pie", "shrid pie" and "Christmas pie".

Is it real mincemeat in mince pies? ›

Nowadays, it's easy to find mincemeat pies still made with beef suet and a small amount of minced meats (usually beef). All-vegetarian mincemeat pies are readily available as well, especially if you purchase a premade jar of mincemeat filling.

Mincemeat is a combination of chopped dried fruits, spices, sugar, nuts, distilled spirits, a fat of some type and sometimes meat. The name is a carryover from 15th century England when mincemeat did indeed have meat in the mix; in fact, the whole point of mincemeat was to preserve meat with sugar and alcohol.

According to reports, medieval people believed that if you ate a mince pie every day between Christmas and Twelfth Night, you'd be brimming with luck and happiness for the next 12 months. While there may not be any truth in the old myth, the tradition of eating mince pies every Christmas has certainly stuck.

It was originally known as a Christmas Pye. The oblong or square shape was said to resemble Jesus' cradle. A small doll made from pastry was placed on the top in the centre of the pie where the hollow indentation would be. These were known as Crib Pies.

'Tis the season for a Mince Pie and the peak is still to come. Are you appropriately stocked? Mince pies are one of the staples of the UK Christmas. According to Good Housekeeping, we eat around 800 million of them each year.

Some speculation has it that mince pies were illegal to eat on the day of Christmas. However, the only Christmas Day where eating mince pies was illegal was 1644 due to December falling on a day of fasting. Eat all of the mince pies to your heart's desires!

Christmas in numbers

Brits eat approximately 175 million mince pies over Christmas, using 175 tonnes of aluminium packaging. The UK uses 227,000 miles of wrapping paper each year.

Mince pies are individual pastry pies filled with sweet mince meat. This is a combination of currants, sultanas, and cherries. In the olden days, real minced meat was used. Christmas pudding is a large steamed dessert filled with dried fruits spices and brandy/rum.

There's a definite meaty taste, which I really liked, with an ever-so-slight sweet flavor. Mincemeat developed as a way of preserving meat without salting or smoking some 500 years ago in England, where mince pies are still considered an essential accompaniment to holiday dinners just like the traditional plum pudding.