Christmas has always been an emotional festivity during my childhood. Besides family issues, the meal plan varied between traditional meals like noodle soup and my first culinary experiments like sushi. Both have not been the burner for most of us. In retrospect, the topic has not really been about the food itself but about the lack of communication.
Talk Talk Talk
Instead of getting caught in endless unsatisfactory discussions take the time with your loved ones and talk openly about everyone’s desires. Do not suppose but ask and suggest mindfully. Everyone is different and our preferences for an enjoyable Christmas dinner are bio-individual. If the annual turkey distributes the cosy feeling of Christmas, then please keep on cooking it.
On the other hand, just because you had the fatty carp for the last 15 Christmas evenings does not mean everybody has been enjoying it. So, get together and talk about it. Every opinion should have the same weight, and everyone should feel heard. Sounds easy but it could be a hot topic. Here are some tips to master the challenge:
- Organize a roundtable for this topic with your loved ones.
- Create a comfortable and safe space for everyone and take the time to prepare and talk about it in a calm and honest way.
- Let everybody express their wishes without prejudices.
- Concentrate on the important thing: having a memorable time with your loved ones.
- Ask: What can we all contribute to have a memorable evening together?
- Divide the workload: have every member prepare one meal or side dish or even better cook together. If cooking is not the thing for everybody have them decorate the tree, do the shopping or prepare a suitable music list for example.
- Don’t be afraid to experiment with new dishes.
- For all parents of adult children: acknowledge that they are grown-ups now. Proposed changes to traditional meals are just a reflection of their desires and not a challenge to your status.
- For all adult children: acknowledge that Christmas could be a very important family gathering for your parents where possible changes can lead to stress.
- Do not overcommit. If Christmas is the one and only gathering where you as a family want to make up for all the missed opportunities during the year it could get tense. Relax and look forward to it. It does not need to be perfect.
Christmas is when the best presents are sitting at the table and not under the tree.
Unkown author.
Think About Healthy Eating Too
Here are some basic principles for healthy eating during the festive season:
- Put the emphasis on quality over quantity (e. g. grass-fed beef, organic vegetables and fruit, big green salads with nuts and seeds, etc.).
- Reframe healthy eating. There is no need to think that food on a special occasion like Christmas cannot be both, delicious and healthy.
- Avoid sugar and starchy vegetables like potatoes as much as you can.
- Enjoy some glasses of alcohol if you like but do not forget to hydrate with water between your drinks.
- Smell the food you are about to eat. Enjoy slowly and chew well to support your digestion.
- Get up from the table from time to time and shake your body through. Dance if you like. Just get the metabolism going and avoid Alf-feet.
I wish you an honest and inspiring conversation with your loved ones, a Merry Christmas and a fabulous start to a healthy New Year. And thank you very much for reading my content. It means a lot to me.
Blogpost photo by Vladimir Gladkov on Unsplash.
