What foods will you celebrate with, this new year of two thousand twelve?

Fruit, maybe?
I want to share a tradition that I started years ago in my family. We have adopted this idea from the Philippines. Once I heard about this tradition from an employee years ago, I knew it would be a tradition I could take on and complete every year!

We set out a bowl, or in this case, a platter of 12 different kinds of (round) fruits – the banana being the exception – for the New Year celebration. Round fruits are the recommended items to be placed on the table on New Year’s Eve. It symbolizes a bountiful & fruitful future in the upcoming year and represents that the home will always have plenty of food throughout the year. Failure to place it on one’s table may bring misfortune into that household. Each fruit represents one month in the coming year. This is a tradition that is still being followed today. Filipinos are still so much into this that prices of round fruits during Christmas season goes up because of the demand.

We usually choose to do this on New Years Eve or New Years Day. I take one or both of the kids to the store with me to pick out 12 different fruits. This gets the child excited about eating one of these fruits each day. They learn how to pick out fruits based on firmness, color, and/or smell. Plus, this dish looks so pretty on my table as a centerpiece. Too bad it will all be gone in 12 days.

Happy New Year to you and yours!

Kids Kitchen hopes 2012 brings you a bountiful and fruitful future.

*Thank you to all that entered the kids cooking class giveaway.  Congratulations to Taryn for winning!  If you did not win, you can still sign up for the classes.  Visit my cooking class page for more information.  Keep checking back, maybe we will be able to give away more in the future!

Kids Kitchen Konnection:  The kids are excited about eating a fruit each day, getting to share the one they pick out.  It is also a constant reminder, on the dinner table, about eating more fruit….and everything we have to be thankful for.