Healthy Holiday Traditions

Now that the holiday season is here, are there any family traditions that you've given up because they're unhealthy, or any new healthy traditions that you've created?

This year, I'm planning to make the following changes in our holiday traditions:

1. Cookie and Candy Making: When I was a child, my Mom, Grandma, and all of the female relatives would spend weeks baking dozens upon dozens of different kinds of cookies. There would be trays of them sitting around during and following the holidays. They would give trays to everyone they knew. I have lots of pleasant memories associated with this - after all it's fun to eat and receive cookies and it's fun to have something that you can give generously to everyone that you know!

Every year I’ve felt like I should be carrying on this tradition. But I just don’t have the time to do all that baking. Most of the people that I know are trying to eat more healthfully and don't really want to be given a big tray of cookies, anyway. So this year I am going to let this family tradition go. I am not going to bake cookies or make candy. It's not like we won't have any sweets over the holidays. I am sure we'll be given cookies by others that we can enjoy. And I'm planning to make a yummy dessert to enjoy on Christmas Day (I'm not sure what it will be yet).

In place of this tradition, I'm planning to start a new tradition - a cookie baking party. I'm going to invite some family and friends, make a big batch of sugar cookie dough, and at the party the kids can roll and cut out the cookies and decorate them. We might even have a surprise visit from the jolly old man in red! This will let us enjoy the process of making the cookies together (and eating a few!) while we enjoy spending time with family and friends. There will be no pressure to make a huge quantity of cookies – the kids can make them until they get bored with it and then we’ll quit.

2. Christmas Dinner: I’m still trying to convince dh of this idea . . . In place of our traditional huge turkey dinner with all the fixings, I’d like to make the turkey in advance and on Christmas Day have a pot of soup and turkey sandwiches. That way I won’t have to spend most of the day in the kitchen dealing with food preparation and cleanup. Instead, I can spend Christmas Day having fun with my family.

Mon. Nov 27, 12:43pm

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