Christmas Traditions.

There were many traditions in the Irish countryside in years gone by. One of these was the rearing and killing of a few turkeys or geese for the Christmas dinner. Young turkeys were bought in May at about three or four weeks old. They were fed on scraps from the kitchen and some meal and left roam freely for the summer. As Christmas drew near they would get a bit extra feed to have them in good shape for killing. 
About two weeks before Christmas the turkey is ready for killing. There is a certain knack in killing a turkey as no blood should be drawn. This is to give the meat a better flavour afterwards. The turkey is hung by its legs from a doorframe or low rafter. The head is held between the middle fingers and given a sharp pull and twist. This is to break the neck and so kill the turkey. This may have to be done a few times to be successful. The turkey is plucked as soon as possible as its easier while the bird is still hot. After plucking comes the cleaning out of all the intestines etc. When all this is done the turkey is left hanging in a cold room until Christmas Eve. 
Stuffing is made from potatoes, bread, rice, onions and some other ingredients and is placed in the turkey to be cooked together. The cooking might begin on Christmas Eve as it took a number of hours to cook slowly to give the best flavour. The cooking would be completed on Christmas morning to be ready for dinner.
This practice has all but died out now to be replaced by frozen oven ready turkeys from the far east whose flavour is not as good.

This story was written for Knocknagoshel School Newsletter last year. If anybody would like to write a similar short story with a Christmas theme, you could e-mail it to the web-site and I will put on the site for the Christmas period