Are you checking off your lists again? Does your home look perfect for receiving your Christmas guests? Is the schedule for the upcoming holidays watertight? Will everybody have fun-stuff to do? Is the wine cellar filled, and will the food on the table be sufficient? Ah, what is sufficient?! I have stopped going to the lengths of creating all of the dishes that are traditionally expected because I have found that quite a few of them aren’t even liked well enough! Why deal with left-overs that don’t get better by freezing and reheating? Why not simply make what experience tells us will be consumed and avoid waste? Why not leave time in the schedule for everybody to figure what they’d like to do best? Nothing has to be perfect. Perfection is an overrated concept that leaves the observer daunted and uncomfortable anyhow. Enjoy the little imperfections – they make an occasion memorable.
I resonate with what you write. It is time for a rewire of Christmas for some of us. It’s all too much all at once. This year we slow down. Have a simple dinner but splurge on the dessert. Celebrate New Years Day instead. As I get older I find that I do not have the Christmas energy that I used to have.
As a native German, I’m always overwhelmed by the amounts of food that are served over here and by the incredible number of dishes created for some holidays. Of course, it’s often due to having guests. Still, when WE did, we had the same number of dishes as ever, just in a bigger amount. If nobody likes a specific dish, why make it? Just because it is tradition?! I realize that a lot of hobby cooks in my generation have broken the template in the past years. We DO know how to make the traditional fare – but we consider what everybody really likes, what gets eaten, and that nothing gets wasted. This way, it’s fun for the cook as well.