Christmas dinner in Scotland is not set in stone; every family chooses what they like best. However, a popular dish for Christmas dinner is roast turkey, or bubblyjock as it is known in Scotland. It is often preceded by cock-a-leekie soup. The menu can be filled out with roast potatoes, oat and sage stuffing, turnip (neeps) and carrot, and gravy. Dessert is usually Christmas pudding or Clootie dumpling. And you can't forget the Christmas crackers placed at every seat; everyone gets a prize and has to wear a paper hat!

Here are recipes for three of these Scottish Christmas dinner dishes:

Cock-a-leekie soup

1 small chicken, skinned
8 soaked prunes: stones removed and put aside
1/2 cup diced bacon
2 1/4 cups leeks: washed and thinly sliced
4 cups of water
1 teaspoon chopped tarragon
salt and pepper to taste

Place the chicken, bacon and prune stones in a large pan. Add the water to the pan and bring to a boil. Cover the pan and simmer for 2 hours. Remove the chicken and chop it into large pieces, discard the prune stones and chop the chicken in large pieces. Add the chicken, bacon, leeks, tarragon, salt, and pepper to the pan and bring to a boil. Simmer for 20 minutes and add the prunes at the end.

Oat and sage stuffing

3/4 cup of oats
1 small onion; chopped
1/4 cup of sage; chopped
1 tablespoon of oil
salt and pepper

Mix the ingredients together and stuff into the turkey's breast cavity. The stuffing will be done when the turkey is cooked.

Clootie dumpling

4 cups of self-rising flour
1 3/4 cups of dried currants
1 2/3 cups of raisins
1/4 pound of shredded suet
1 cup of dry bread crumbs
1 cup of white sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup of milk
1 teaspoon of mixed spice
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 pinch of salt
1 tablespoon of molasses

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. While waiting for the water to boil combine the flour, currants, raisins, suet, bread crumbs and sugar together in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, mix the egg and milk with mixed spice, baking powder, salt and molasses; stir into the flour mixture to form a dough. Wet a heavy cotton cloth with water and sprinkle it with flour. Place the dough in the center of the cloth, draw the opposite corners together to form a ball, leaving a bit of room for the dough to expand, and tie tightly with twine to seal it. Place the dumpling in the boiling water, reduce the heat to a low boil, and cook for 3 1/2 hours, topping the water off as needed. Remove the dumpling from the water, remove the cloth and dry the dumpling in front of a fire or in a 150 degree oven until the surface is no longer wet. Serve.