I have a friend in Germany whose father teaches English to seniors. He has asked that I post simple stories about a traditional Christmas menu as a way to teach English and a little about American culture at the same time.

I would say that our traditional Christmas dinner menu is very similar to our traditional Thanksgiving menu because they are about one month apart from each other, and therefore are in the same season with the same fresh produce.

I believe meat-eaters tend to have turkey for Thanksgiving and ham at Christmas. Although I understand there are many options for Christmas, including foul (birds). However, this being a vegetarian blog, I'll be looking more at the fun vegetarian dishes that are available.

The following are helpful links to vegetarian and vegan menu ideas.

• Variety of categorized recipes for soups, bread, entrees, and desserts
• Great Photo step-by-step recipes. Ready to make the pumpkin soup this instant.
• A great list of links to vegan dishes Love the Panko Green Bean idea because I love P.F. Chang's Crispy Green Beans. Excited to try to make them myself.

Next, I'll show you some of my preferred Christmas dishes.