New Delhi, Dec. 20 -- A lasting memory of my Christmases in Goa is of the family sitting around a table making kulkuls. We would take small balls of dough and painstakingly roll them out on cleaned and sterilised combs and forks to get that customary curled shape. The amount of time it took to make them was indirectly proportional to the eating time: the crisp, deep-fried sweets make for an addictive snack.

Food, especially sweets, has always been a big part of my Christmas celebrations. Our Goan Catholic sweets platter called kuswar has something for everyone: crisp rose cookies, rich rum fruit cakes, delicate marzipan and milk cream, chewy letri, soft doce, and the wobbly dodol.

Beyond the Catholics in Goa, here are a few traditional ...