In the UK, Mince Pies go hand in hand with Christmas, just like Christmas Pudding, Christmas Crackers and Yule Log! They are individual pies, and you can eat them cold or warm, served with cream, or custard or crème fraiche or whatever you want really!
I used to make mince pies with my Mom at Xmas, and I still have the same cake tins that we used 20-25 years ago when I was a little girl.
Not many people make their own mincemeat (which is the filling of the pies, it is a sweet fruit chutney style filling, flavoured with spices, fruit and often brandy) these days because it is so cheap and readily available in the shops. Back in ‘Ye Olde Days’ the pies did actually contain meat, but now are sweet rather than savoury.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mince_pie
Not sure where you can buy mince meat in the US, but probably more speciality grocery stores and European markets? Someone once told me they had seen it in the baking section of Wal-mart. Here’s a recipe to make your own though:
http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/h...tmas-mincemeat,1235,RC.html
Mince pies can be as basic or as fancy as you wish. The basic ones we used to make were just plain shortcrust pastry cut into rounds and filled with shop bought mincemeat.
http://www.deliaonline.com/cookery-s...rtcrust-pastry,21,AR.html
But you can do all kinds of variations; use sweet pastry, make decorative shapes for the lid of each pie, use puff pastry, top each pie with crumble or marzipan rather than pastry. You can even bake the mincemeat into cupcakes, it is very versatile stuff.
This is a good basic recipe with pictures too:
http://www.cookuk.co.uk/cake/MincePies.htm