In Scotland Christmas is a low key celebration with a build up to New Years, called Hogmanay, the biggest party of the year.
In the late 1500s, the Scottish Reformation abolished Christmas, which lasted for 400 hundred years. Most Scots had to work on Christmas Day until the 1960s.
In the early 1600s, they changed the date of New Year’s from March 25 to January 1, and began celebrating Hogmanay. Christmas is still celebrated with family as a low key affair, but then the Scots pull out all the stops for a two day holiday.
Auld Man's Milk, the Scots version of Egg Nog
In Scotland Christmas is a low key celebration with a build up to New Years, called Hogmanay, the biggest party of the year, raising a glass (or two) of Aud Man's Milk in celebration.
Ingredients
- 6 large eggs separated
- 1/2 cup icing sugar
- 4 cups milk
- 1 cup rum, whisky or brandy
- 1 pinch nutmeg, freshly grated for garnish
Instructions
- Beat yolks and whites separately. Add the sugar to the egg yolks, whisk in the milk, then add the alcohol.
- Gently mix in the whipped whites. Grate nutmeg and serve in small glasses.
- Ensure that the drink is kept cold.
Notes
Traditional Toasts:
- Lang may yer lum reek (long may your chimney smoke) wishing wealth to keep enough coal burning in your fireplace to keep warm, and the home fires burning.
- A guid New Year to ane an' a' and mony may ye see, a wish for a good New Year to one and all
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