I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately about Christmas (and Thanksgiving) dinner. These are holidays celebrated by the majority of the people in the United States, and they’re a cause of concern, stress, and unnecessary worry for probably three quarters of the people that prepare the meals.
Last year my mom suggested that we all go out to eat on Christmas. We did, and the food was okay – but it just didn’t feel right.
Christmas is a holiday that we’ve turned completely on its head. For some, it used to be a religious holiday. For those who didn’t see it as a religious occasion, it was about being with family and friends, giving and sharing. It shouldn’t be possible for this holiday to be the cause of so much stress!
Yet stress reigns supreme at Christmas time. We knock ourselves out, rack up credit card debt, eat ourselves into obesity (with many people gaining up to five pounds that they don’t lose during the rest of the year), and stress ourselves to the point of insanity trying to have everything be perfect.
There’s much here to think about and discuss, but for right now I’d just like to address the topic of Christmas dinner.
At this point you’re probably expecting me to say some sort of great minimalist platitude, something along the lines of “enjoy the simple beauty of a steamed turkey breast.” Yeah, that’s not me. I’m about real food – but the real food doesn’t have to stress you out!
The first issue with Christmas dinner is variety. Specifically, there’s too much of it. My mother is known for this – she’ll prepare ten or twelve dishes for a crowd of five or six. Everybody samples a bit of each, the popular ones disappear, and she’s stuck with leftovers. Some of these are for dishes that she doesn’t want or even like, but she prepares them because she thinks other people want them. A family of six could eat for a week on what she has left over from Christmas dinner.
There’s a simple solution for this. Ready?
You only make an amount of dishes and/or quantities that people have a chance of eating.
If you have six people coming, and you have ten dishes that each serve twelve, you’ve got way too much food. Get your food variety under control, and you’ll be on your way to a stress-free holiday.
The second issue with Christmas dinner is unwanted leftovers. There’s nothing wrong with leftovers, except when you have a three-quart casserole dish full of a green bean casserole that Aunt Mildred absolutely loves – but nobody else within a ten-mile radius will even consider eating. I propose a new rule:
You don’t make any dish that you personally won’t eat as a leftover.
If Aunt Mildred loves the green bean casserole, give her a call. Tell her that you’ve got a lot going on this Christmas, and ask her if she could lighten your load by making the green bean casserole for you. That way she brings it, and it’s her responsibility to haul it off at the end of the day.
The third issue with Christmas dinner is that it’s not planned organically.
No, I don’t mean that you need to go to the organic market to buy things. I mean that planning Christmas dinner should be a nice quiet area alongside the stream of normal meal planning – not a sudden whirlpool in the middle of an ocean where you’re lost without an engine or navigational equipment.
Some cooking practice throughout the rest of the year will translate nicely into Christmas dinner success. And some advance planning will allow you to easily deal with the miscellanous leftover items. Leftover meats can go into soups, or be used on sandwiches. Leftover potatoes freeze well, for quite a long time. Leftover gravy can be served later in the week over meat, or on leftover potatoes. Leftover stuffing can be frozen with some meat and potatoes for a homemade TV dinner.
The fourth issue with Christmas dinner is trying to do too much yourself.
You know what you’re capable of. You know what you can put together, and what you can’t. Figure out a base amount that you can do, and find appropriate ways to divide labor. Maybe there’s a child or a grandchild that’s getting to the age where they can do some of the work. Perhaps you have a friend that could come over and help you get things ready the day before. Christmas is a holiday that’s about people, family, and togetherness. Bring some of that togetherness to the kitchen, share with each other, and teach the next generation. It’s worth your time, I promise!