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Quote Jonsie:
"I think they last forever and they are truly awful. I was once made to eat it at school before I could leave the dinner table and I want to throw up every time I see one. It's one of the big mysteries in my life why people assosiciate this dish with Christmas
"
lol Didn't wanted to say it, but that's what I thought 
I have a fight inside if I would try it or not ^^
"It's one of the big mysteries in my life why people assosiciate this dish with Christmas"
Like many things, that's largely down to ancient practices being "legitimised" by the dominant Christian Church.
Originally, these winter puddings started out as savoury dishes containing meat and evolved into fruit-only dishes hundreds of years later. Before "modern" farming, it was often impossible to produce enough fodder to feed livestock through the winter so they would all be slaughtered at the end of autumn. The meat was either dried through smoking or salting or else it was stored in a pudding or pie with dried fruit which is high in sugars acting as a preservative - spices were added to balance the sweetness and mask any "unfortunate" flavours from the aging meat. The whole thing was originally wrapped in pastry then stored in the pantry or cellar.
The mid-winter festival was regarded as a suitable time to hold a feast where rich foods would be served along with the last of the prime fresh meat - falling on or around the shortest day of the year it was a celebration of turning point of the year and pigging-out was effectively saying "we made it and can afford to eat the good stuff". As the Christian Chirch begain to subvert and absorb the older festivals, the mid-winter festival became "Christmas" and the practice of serving that savoury "mincemeat" was tailored to fit to the extent that there was a "proscribed" recipe for "Christmas pudding" which used 13 ingredients to represent Christ and the 12 apostles and even a "correct" date on which to start making it - which has become the tradition of making it weeks or months in advance. Over time, the meat content was reduced - although the suet remained as a vestige of the savoury origins - and it became a dessert.
It was also common until the late 19th/early 20th centuries for such puddlings to be called "Plum Puddings" or "plum duff" but only because raisins were called plums - there are no plums in a "plum pudding".
For anyone serving Christmas pudding and having someone at the table who is not too keen on it - the flavours are so strong that you can dilute them massively and still give a hint of Christmas flavour - just break a small piece up and sir it into cream or yoghurt - or plan in advance and make Christmas pudding ice-cream (which is also a good way to use the left-overs).
And if you've only ever had shop-bought Christmas puddings - don't write it off until you've tasted home-made - cos the difference is great - you can make your own version more or less spicy. more or less dense and more or less boozy to suit - and no E numbers. I've got two puddings left that were made from scratch five years ago - one of which I'll be having on the 25th and one to save for next year - they mature and the flavours deeper rather than stronger.
Oh - and in case the hours of boiling or steaming the pudding is off-putting - the high sugar content means that you can microwave them in a few minutes - just don't over-cook them as they turn into charcoal bricks if you do - it's easiest to microwave portions rather than a whole pudding - and it only takes a few seconds per portion.
And one last tip - if you want to set fire to it when serving - use a mixture of brandy and vodka. Have a dessert spoon filled with the booze and heat that over a flame - the gas cooker is ideal. When it's warm, pour it over the pudding and light it immediately. Warming the alcohol causes it to start evapourating rapidly and it's those fumes that ignite - not the liquid.
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Then eat with gusto until you're sick, I always do! 
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@Carrie
You mean "Lebkuchen" (Kuchen = cake) ^^
@pengipete
So it's a dessert? o.o I thought it's served same time as meat and so on (meat, joint, roast.... there are more then one word for "Braten")
We'll have homemade "Mousse au chocolat" on "Heiligabend" (that's 24th dec. We celebrate on 3 days over here). Can't wait for it
I think that's like what you call "custard".
In German "Pudding" is flan/custard, that's why it's so confussing ^^
There's confusion over here as well - no-one knows whether something is a tart or a pie except by what it's been called by someone else. Then we have things like cottage pie or shepherds pie that have no pastry at all - just a layer of potato on top - but we also have hot-pots with potato on top and cobbler which does have pastry but isn't a pie. After that, we have dumplings - which are basically the same basic recipe as Christmas pudding but with a variety of sweet or savoury fillings. Then there's the all time freak - a sweet dish made with a pastry case filled with jam and an almond paste - generally known as a "Bakewell Tart" except in the town of Bakewell (where it originated and they still make the best ones) where it is called a Bakewell pudding.
In reality, a lot of our Christmas "traditions" are only 100-150 years old and "borrowed" from Germany - they were made popular by Queen Victoria and her family. The one dish I wish we had adopted but never did is stollen - like a mince-pie with marzipan and seriously good grub. We've become more adventurous with cooking in recent years but the majority still stick to tradition at Christmas - maybe giving it a tweak but it's still basically roast meat followed by a very sweet dessert.
It's as much about the ritual as the food itself. For many people, it's a rare event to eat a full meal at a dressed table - with the TV switched off 
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its nice to learn new things, and yes i did mean those thank you and Stollen is lovely, but as its not an everyday food here, i can see the attraction
