America's most unusual Christmas foods: Crabs, chilis and ... orange juice?

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SAN FRANCISCO – Snowy scenes of New York City and New England have captured Americans' imaginations in classic Christmas movies and songs, but millions of Americans live in places where warm weather makes for very different seasonal traditions.

In San Francisco, it's not snow that lets folks know the most wonderful time of the year has arrived. It's fresh crab.

In sunny Florida, December marks the the peak of citrus harvests and in New Mexico you'll see strings of dried red chiles to brighten the holiday season.

In Texas rows of hauntingly beautiful paper Christmas lanterns called luminarias make an appearance. In Louisiana, Christmas bonfires light the way for Santa Claus. In Hawaii, December often means a kalua pig feast.

Here's a look at some of the unusual seasonal harvests that mark the holiday season in some of America's more mild locations.

Crab at Christmas in San Francisco

No one's putting on ear muffs and gloves in San Francisco come Christmastime, since late December temperatures rarely fall below 55 degrees.

That doesn't stop the celebration. A popular holiday meal in the San Francisco Bay area consists of steamed Dungeness crab with butter, a crisp white wine and lots of sourdough bread to soak up the buttery juices.

California's crab seasons historically began on November 15 off the southern and central coast and on December 1 in the northern part of the state, making it the perfect special treat for both the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons.

Crab doesn't replace turkey or ham on those days but is instead often a separate family occasion, sometimes on New Year's Eve and sometimes whenever everyone can get together.

Dungeness crab are much bigger than East coast crabs such as Maryland's blue crabs. They weigh between two and three pounds and start out a dark reddish purple, becoming bright red and pink once steamed.

Today the tradition continues even though in recent years the commercial crab season has been closed until later in winter in some areas. In 2024 the restrictions were based on potentially dangerous meat and protecting migrating whales.

In winter, humpback and blue whales are migrating past the coast which puts them at danger of entanglement in commercial crab fishing gear. This year commercial Dungeness crabbing south of the Sonoma/Mendocino county line was delayed due to an abundance of humpbacks and a large number of recent entanglements, the state's Department of Fish and Wildlife said.

Both the increase in harmful algae blooms and overlap between migrating whales and crabbing, have been linked to climate change.

Peak orange season in Florida

Florida has one of the mildest winters in the U.S., that typically means highs of between 60 and 77 degrees.

Around Christmastime, it's also peak citrus season, when the harvest of the state's orange, grapefruit, tangerines and mandarins is underway. That has created a link between Christmas and especially oranges for over 100 years.

They're famously put in stockings, perhaps as a reminder of the golden balls the original Saint Nicholas tossed into a poor man's stocking so his daughters could have dowries instead of being sold into slavery - known as The Miracle of the Dowries.

Or perhaps because in the mid-1800s fresh oranges in mid-winter were an expensive and rare treat, only recently made available as the first refrigerated railcars began to transport fruit, according to the Florida Department of Citrus.

Oranges were so tied to the state that in one of its first planned retirement communities, Ridgewood Groves, residents were promised "five producing citrus trees with every home" and the five home designs were named after orange varieties, the Mandarin, the Seville, the Tangelo, the Valencia, and the Duncan, according to a history of Florida and the orange written as a thesis at the University of South Florida.

During World War II orange juice was especially important for the troops, who needed vitamin C to stay healthy and prevent scurvy. Just after the war the technology to make frozen OJ concentrate was born, which allowed the juice to be more easily transported – becoming something returning GIs could find at home.

Advertising campaigns linked orange juice to health and to Christmas, along with gift boxes of citrus to be shared with family and friends as far back as the 1930s. Such efforts strengthened in the 1950s.

This year's Florida citrus harvest is forecast to be down 16% from last year's, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, due in part to the effects of an especially strong hurricane season in the state.

Chilies in New Mexico

In New Mexico, December temperatures can dip into the low 50s and you'll often find snow in the mountain areas and the state's northern portion, right along with clear skies and sunny but crisp days.

A hint of the holidays comes when the bright red strings of chilis known as ristras (Spanish for "strings") appear in the late fall as the state's significant chile pepper harvest comes in.

Grown especially in the Hatch Valley, the New Mexico variety of chile is large. It can be picked green but those are mostly eaten cooked, pickled or roasted. Left on the plant to ripen, the chiles turn a rich red color and when harvested can be dried so they keep well.

The traditional way to do this was to either to cut them open and place them flat to dry or tie them into long strings to be hung where they can dry naturally. It's no easy task, said April Beauchemin, program specialist at the New Mexico State University Chile Pepper Institute

"The peppers have to be at a specific ripeness, the stems have to still be pliable to be manipulated. But if they're too fresh, as they lose moisture the strings loosen up and the chilies fall out," she said.

Ristras have become a symbol both of New Mexico and also a seasonal treat. "They're very popular here in the Southwest as a door ornament, they hang on either side of the entryway," Beauchemin said. "Some people like to put them on their doors instead of the traditional pine wreath."

While the bright-red wreaths and ristras aren't necessarily linked to Christmas, the delicious chile sauce that is made from them features a lot of Christmas elements.

"It's very New Mexican to put a red chile sauce on everything on your plate, from your turkey to your stuffing," said Beauchemin.

But the real holiday spirit comes when you're asked the state question of "Red or Green?" which refers to what kind of chile sauce you want on a dish. Which really is the state question, it was legally declared so in 1996.

"As a New Mexican, I proudly answer 'Christmas!' Which is what we say when we order enchiladas and you want both red and green sauce on them," Beauchemin said.