The centerpiece Christmas dinner of Black households across the South and the migration cities: a brown-sugar-and-pineapple-glazed baked ham surrounded by greens, mac and cheese, candied yams, dressing, and rolls. The whole table built around the ham that fed the family and the company that came calling.
The Christmas ham is a marker of provision — for generations, being able to set a whole glazed ham on the table at Christmas meant the family had made it through the year. It feeds the household and every relative and church member who stops by, the open-door abundance that defines Black holiday hospitality.
The Christmas ham itself is a high-sodium cured meat made richer by a sugar glaze — it is the indulgent crown, not the nutrition. The nutrition lives in the sides, if they're built right: greens for potassium and folate, candied yams that started as a beta-carotene powerhouse, beans or peas for fiber. The honest rehab is portion and balance: a modest slice of ham, a heavy hand on the greens, candied yams made with less sugar (or roasted instead), and water instead of sweet punch. The ham is sacred once a year; the sodium and sugar around it are where the health cost hides, and those are the adjustable parts.
Bone-in ham scored and baked with a glaze of brown sugar, pineapple, cloves, and sometimes mustard or honey; sides of collards, mac and cheese, candied yams, cornbread dressing, dinner rolls, and a dessert spread.
Free, no account needed to ask.