This is why we eat mince pies at Christmas (2025)

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This is why we eat mince pies at Christmas? ›

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.

However, the mince pie was originally a savoury pie – and not even round! In the Tudor period they were rectangular, shaped like a manger and often had a pastry baby Jesus on the lid. They were made from 13 ingredients to represent Jesus and his disciples and were all symbolic to the Christmas story.

The original mince pies were oblong crib shapes decorated with a baby Jesus on top. The contents represent the gifts of the Magi to the Christ child, spices and plump middle eastern fruits.

A mince pie (also mincemeat pie in North America, and fruit mince pie in Australia and New Zealand) is a sweet pie of English origin filled with mincemeat, being a mixture of fruit, spices and suet. The pies are traditionally served during the Christmas season in much of the English-speaking world.

There is a tradition of eating one mince pie each day over the 12 days of Christmas from Christmas Eve to 5 January.

It has been claimed that eating the snack is illegal in England if done so on Christmas Day. 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 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. Or perhaps not, who can know.

One superstition from the middle ages suggests that if you eat a mince pie every day from Christmas day to Twelfth Night (evening of the 5th January) you will be guaranteed happiness for the next 12 months mmmm!

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.

The Early Origins. The history of mince pies can be traced back to the Middle Ages. During this time, mince pies were known as "Christmas pies" and were filled with a mixture of minced meat, fruits, and spices. These pies were often shaped like a manger to symbolize the birth of Jesus.

Why do they call it mincemeat? ›

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.

Historically, mincemeat pie did contain meat, such as mutton, beef, or even game meats, alongside fruits and spices. However, modern versions focus on a delectable, sweet blend of dried fruits, spices, and sometimes rum or brandy.

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.

Going on to how one should formally eat a mince pie, she explains: 'One would pick up the mince pie with a thumb and first finger, and lift [it] away from the plate. 'The mince pie is crumbly, so make sure anything that falls from the mince pie falls onto your plate.

Thankfully Santa starts off his trek with some actual food. Appropriately combining sweet fruits and spices with savory minced meat, mince pies are a hearty British classic that should fill his jolly belly while the snifter of sherry is the reason his nose gets so red.

So all traditions come from somewhere, right? And the tradition of leaving mince pies and milk for Santa actually originated in the Netherlands. In the Netherlands, December 6th is Festival of St. Nicholas, with children all over the country leaving food offerings for the Saint, in exchange for presents.

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.

Soon dough effigies of the baby Jesus were placed on top of the pies to reinforce the religious connection. It's a myth that Christmas and mince pies were banned by Oliver Cromwell and reinstated at the Restoration, but some seventeenth century Puritans did frown on any such 'idolatrous' depictions of sacred figures.

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.