Keep family traditions for foods alive by handing them down to the next generation. Here are 4 food tips to build your own holiday traditions to get you started.
Before you get bogged down in holiday season fatigue, take a deep breath and enjoy today. Savor a few simple moments that you create for yourself, whether it’s sipping an aromatic cup of cinnamon orange tea or taking time out to decorate Christmas cookies with your preschooler. One of the very best things about the holiday season is reflecting upon and renewing the family traditions of years gone by. Perhaps you remember your grandmother’s gift of a mandarin orange, your mom’s special nutty fruitcake, or your dad’s wicked hot chocolate. We all have holiday traditions that stretch back to distant times and places. It’s important to keep these family traditions for foods alive by handing them down to the next generation, especially during this special time of the year. It’s also a great time to (BYO) build your own new holiday food traditions that are uniquely your own—a statement of where you are at this moment in time. Pass them down to the next generation of sons, daughters, nieces, nephews, students, and friends. Maybe twenty years from now they’ll be remembering those traditions with a wistful smile, too. You have some time to create a new food tradition. What will it be? Here are my top 4 Food Tips to (BYO) Build Your Own Holiday Traditions.
4 Tips to Build Your Own Holiday Food Traditions
1. Build a Food Tradition Around Place.
Like many people in this country, you might not live where you grew up. I was born in Seattle, but have lived in Southern California for 25 years. One of my new holiday plant-powered traditions involves trips to the year-round farmers market to buy seasonal winter produce, like chard, citrus, avocados, apples, and pomegranates to appear in Mediterranean-forward dishes. What’s your place? And how does it impact your holiday cuisine?
2. Build a Food Tradition Based on Food—At Its Source.
The holidays are all about enjoying delicious food. But what if you dig just a bit deeper and celebrate food at its very source—the soil. Instead of reveling in party buffet platters and tubs of candy, how about reveling in the simple beauty of foods au naturel! Think a basket of harvest nuts (pecans, almonds, walnuts, and pistachios) on your coffee table, literally chestnuts roasting on an open fire, and a bowl of winter citrus fruits—grapefruit, blood orange, and tangerines—brightening up your breakfast table.
3. Build a Food Tradition with a Nod to the Past.
Even brand, spanking new traditions can have a glance back at the past—even with a modern plant-powered translation. My husband’s childhood in Sweden is the perfect backdrop for favorite new dishes, such as Swedish pea soup (minus the ham!) on a blustery night and pretty, open-faced beet sandwiches (with hummus!) for a light lunch.
4. Build a Food Tradition That Makes You Smile.
What with the crazy hustle and bustle of this season, the last thing you need is one more chore, like creating a new food tradition, right? But it doesn’t have to be a big deal. And it doesn’t have to be stressful. Consider this: In some cultures, cooking is cherished as an honor, because that means you are blessed enough to have food to cook a healthful, nourishing, delicious meal for your family. It is like a precious meditation, as the cares of the day melt away while the onions start to caramelize in the pan and the spices warm the kitchen. What if you just take time out one night during this entire month and create an inspiring meal that is a labor of love for you. It doesn’t have to be a gourmet work of art! It could be a Vegetable Tofu Pho (one of my family’s favorites!) shared at the table together—each one building it they way they like it. Or perhaps it might be a Sunday dinner with a slow cooker filled with a savory vegetable stew and home-made rustic rye bread baking in the oven. Maybe it’s a wonderful pear crisp (my favorite recipe is in The Plant-Powered Diet), with several hands pitched in to slice the fruit, and then all enjoying those sweet smells while sipping mugs of coffee in the kitchen. Whatever your new plant-powered food tradition, I hope you’re smiling!
Please share your own plant-powered food tradition by tagging me @SharonPalmerRD on Instagram or Twitter.
I wish for each of you the most joyous of holidays.
Eat and Live Well,
Sharon
For other holiday inspiration, check out:
Dietitians Favorite Family Traditions for the Holiday Season
Mindful Eating During Seasonal Holidays
Make Your Next Meal a Meditation
Image: Vegan Cranberry Orange Shortbread Cookies, Sharon Palmer, MSFS, RDN