These Are GA's Most-Craved Christmas Dishes, Survey Says

GEORGIA — Persimmon pudding anyone? Nah, not in Georgia. When it comes to the most craved Christmas dishes, we’re all about ham and cupcakes.

Let West Virginians purée persimmons for pudding. Nebraskans can have their runza, a Hot Pocket kind of thing filled with ground beef, cabbage or sauerkraut, onions and seasonings. In Louisiana, they want the gumbo.

Those preferences are according to a survey of 3,000 Americans revealing the 100 most popular regional Christmas dishes conducted earlier this month by Newark, New Jersey-based Fabuwood Cabinetry.

Here in Georgia, we like a maple and mustard-glazed ham for a main dish, with a key lime cupcake for dessert.

Ham is the way to go at Christmas in many regions, claiming three of the top 10 spots.

The top 10 regional favorites are, according to the survey:

1. New York’s cheesecake
2. Idaho’s prime rib
3. Texas’ Texas-style barbecue brisket
4. Kentucky’s bourbon-glazed ham
5. Vermont’s maple-glazed ham
6. Washington’s apple pie
7. Virginia’s southern baked macaroni and cheese
8. Alaska’s snow-crab legs
9. Wisconsin’s honey-glazed ham
10. Nevada’s bone-in rib-eye steak

The survey also showed Americans’ tastes are evolving, whether with the slice of sunshine that is Florida’s Key lime pie and or Louisiana’s bold, flavorful Cajun gumbo, which came in at No. 11 and No. 17, respectively.

• Related: What Holiday Traditions Should Be Brought Back? [Patch’s Exclusive Block Talk]

Put another way, a growing number of Americans are ready to ditch Christmas traditions. That’s according to an unrelated survey of 2,000 U.S. adults commissioned by St. Pierre Bakery.

According to the St. Pierre Bakery survey:

A third (31 percent) of respondents are bored with the Christmas menu and want something different on the menu. Those willing to skip the turkey preferred pizza (44 percent), tacos (38 percent) and Chinese takeout (34 percent).

Almost half (47 percent) didn’t want to get dressed up for the day and instead preferred to spend the day in their pajamas.

About 60 percent of respondents have already switched up their menus to something untraditional. Among them, the preferred dishes were pizza (37 percent), pasta (31 percent) and burgers (28 percent). About half of them said switching up the menu made the meal more enjoyable than they expected.

Nearly 7 in 10 respondents (69 percent) want to create holiday customs that are unique to their close circle of family of friends, but 62 percent of them said they feel bound to family traditions and are nervous about abandoning them. About 22 percent of that group think their loved ones would get it and support new ways to celebrate the holidays.