It’s Christmas today. I love Christmas because dinner is always a big event with many people involved. My favorite food on Christmas, somewhat strangely, is potatoes. Here are my ten favorite types of potatoes on Christmas. Listed in no particular order — I love all ten.

1. Mashed Potatoes – I make pretty good mashed potatoes, but I’ve got to admit my friend Ken and his wife Marcela, daughters Michelle and Melissa, and granddaughter Mila, make the best I’ve ever eaten (every year for the last 25+).

2. Potato Soup – I like plain potato soup. No “loaded”, no cheese, no this, no that (well, maybe a little bit of bacon allowed).

3. Hash Browns – I rarely eat hash brown potatoes except when I travel, most often to Las Vegas. When I was growing up in the 1950s and 60s, they were called “hashed browns”. I only eat breakfast from fast food McDonald’s two or three times a year, but their pseudo hash browns are surprisingly good.

4. Scalloped Potatoes – I like both plain and “au gratin” variations. I’ve got to admit that I really like the Betty Crocker kind that come out of a box.

5. Stir Fried Cubed Potatoes – A few times a year, I’ll get a craving, go to my local QFC grocery store, buy a couple of Yukon Gold potatoes, cut them up, and fry them in butter.

6. Baked Potato – I don’t eat baked potatoes very often. They take too long to cook at home, and when I’m eating out at a restaurant, I’ll always gravitate to mashed potatoes. But when I do eat a baked potato, I want it topped only with butter — no sour cream, no chives, no anything. Just butter — lots of it.

7. Potato Cakes – My father used to make potato cakes for me and my brother and my sister. Leftover mashed potatoes formed into patties, floured, fried in oil. Good memories. RIP mom, dad, Roger.

8. French Fries – I love all kinds. My favorite dipping sauce is tartar sauce, with ketchup a distant second.

9. Potato Skins – I usually only get these as appetizers at parties. There’s a wide range but I prefer a minimal version, without gobs of cheese and other toppings.

10. Potato Salad – I can, and often have, made an entire meal of nothing but a good-sized bowl of potato salad. I like the Reser’s brand. They make many varieties, but I like plain, old fashioned potato sald the best.

11. Tater Tots – I know this s supposed to be a “top 10” list, but I can’t leave out tater tots. I love tater tots but I don’t eat them very often because once I start, it’s difficult to stop eating them. I especially like tots when I eat steak. Tater Tots were invented in 1953 by brothers Nephi and Golden Grigg in Ontario, Oregon, as a solution to use up leftover potato shavings from their Ore-Ida frozen French fry production.