Why do we eat turkey at Christmas?
Question
One from my 11-year-old: why do we eat turkey at Christmas?Stacey, Northwood
Answer
** Definitive **
Name: Jonathan, Enfield
Qualification: It was on Victorian Farm
Answer: Turkeys were first used when people had large families in the
Victorian times, a goose wasn’t big enough. So they started using a
turkey instead, which they had kept in their garden every year.
Name: Leslie, Pinner
Qualification: My intelligent best friend told me!
Answer: It was seen as a practical meat for Christmas, as beef could be used for dairy and other elements, while chickens were expensive. Henry VIII used to eat turkey and Christmas and we all started to do the same. We used to eat goose or peacock in the 19th Century.
(James O’Brien: There is no way Henry VIII had anything to do with it!)