Considered to be both a salad and a dessert, ambrosia is a staple of numerous potlucks and a Christmas tradition in the Southern United States. It typically consists of pineapples, mandarin oranges, coconut, and mini marshmallows, but it can also be enriched with ingredients such as bananas, strawberries, pecans, cherries, whipped cream, yogurt, or cottage cheese.

The name of the salad means fragrant or delicious, and it was also the magical fruit of Greek gods. In American cookbooks, ambrosia first started to appear in the late 19th century, when citrus fruit became more available, and today it is regularly prepared during the Christmas festivities in the American South due to ingredients which were once thought of as luxurious and exotic.