Homemade mince pies, perfect for Christmas with mulled wine. A little history: a mince pie (also called a mincemeat pie in North America, and a fruit mince pie in Australia and New Zealand) is a sweet pie of English origin filled with mincemeat, a mixture of fruit, spices and suet. The pies are traditionally served during the Christmas season in much of the English-speaking world. Their ingredients date back to the 13th century, when European crusaders brought back recipes from the Middle East containing meat, fruit and spices; these recipes carried the Christian symbolism of the gifts given to Jesus by the Biblical Magi. At Christmas the pies were traditionally oblong, to resemble a manger, and were often topped with a figure of the infant Jesus.