Fruit Salad Never Left the Christmas Table

Adi Miguel

December 1, 2015

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  Why do we always serve fruit salad on Christmas?

  Maybe you haven’t noticed but your mom has always served fruit salad on Christmas. And you might be unaware but it never left the Christmas table.

  The famous dessert has never been seasonal to us. Fruit salad has become a generic dessert on Filipino tables on special events. Well, sometimes not really special occasions.

  But first, where did fruit salad come from?

  According to guampedia.com, fruit salad was presented during the American period circa early 1900s. It was more or less founded while early Chamorros, indigenous people of Mariana Islands, ate various kind of fruits with sweet sauce mixture.

  There were also several fruit salads which were served with mayonnaise (Waldorf fruit salad) popular in Europe. Others use oranges and sour cream called ambrosia which is known in America. While here in Philippines and in Guam, coconut and condensed milk are used.

  So as we see, fruit salad was already in history before our mothers and fathers served it during special moments. This gives us a hint that the popular dish is passed on from generation to generation.

  With that, we asked some of our “lifestyle sections sources” why fruit salad is always served on Christmas. And we were kind of surprised with their answers.

  “I asked my mom why we serve fruit salad on Christmas and she answered, ‘Masama ba? Gusto ko ‘yun eh.’ (Is it wrong? I want it though.)” – Alix, 22

  “It’s a jolly food and it’s a jolly season. So, yeah.” -Pao, 23

  “It’s easy to do and you can have much in one mixture.” -Angel, 20

  “Because of tradition. And to lessen the meat on the menu? Hahahaha!” -JM, 18

  “It’s a default.” -Bel, 21

  As time went by, this ordinary dessert was given different versions apart from the classic one which is fruit cocktail ft. milk mixture. Examples of the versions were buko salad (fruit salad ft. buko), fruit salad yoghurt (instead of the traditional milk mixture you put in yoghurt), citrus fruit salad for the health conscious (mixture of citrus fruits sans milk mixture), etc.

  There are a lot of fruit salad versions that we have invented through the years especially now that foodies have become innovative and experimental.

  Perhaps this question will remain unanswered until God-knows-when. Fruit salad has become part of our lives and the Filipino tradition. After all, we are as colorful and as weird as fruit salad is.

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