It's Here Again!

Whoopie! The Christmas party returns! Yikes! All that planning and cooking commences!

Snow Buffet Party by Thornton Utz, 1960

Decades ago, when my husband was in graduate school and I was pregnant with our first son, we decided that it would be great to have a Christmas party. We invited my oldest friend, her husband, one of my husband’s closest friends, and a fellow graduate student—six people in all, gathered in a shabby little apartment invaded by an enormous tree that represented a week of my salary. Few ornaments dangled from its branches, and a couple of strings of blinking and bubble lights just about made it around to the top. The menu was chili, rice, and chocolate chip cookies.

We all had such a good time that we threw the party the next year. We invited a few more people. The menu expanded. We did it the next year and the next, the number of guests expanding as our social circle (actually my husband’s) widened. They eventually brought along spouses and partners and kids. As the party date grew closer, my husband took to inviting everyone he met, including people others would consider virtual strangers. Our sons hit their teenage years and their friends were added, jolting the party to a much higher level of festivity and the bar to suddenly be empty before dessert. Cooking for the party started at least two weeks ahead that bled into an intense 12 hours marathon the day before to complete at least five appetizers, three main dishes and their sides, and an average of 10 desserts. The year before the pandemic hit, our original little Christmas party had clocked in at 45 guests and at least 20 dishes. The last guests staggered out around 1 a.m.

Of course, the party’s annual run halted two years ago. We heard from some of our friends and even a couple of the strangers that, without the party, they felt a bit unmoored from the holidays. We did, too, missing them all, especially the friends that time and distance kept us from seeing the rest of the year. By last year, I found myself forgetting the pleasure of feeding people (one of the few things I do well) and enjoying too much the leisure pace of the weeks before Christmas. Even my husband, after a year of interacting and socializing only through cold Zoom sessions, admitted to me he was liking the quiet, too. When I heard that, I realized something had to be done or else we’d never have another Christmas party. Ever.

And so the invitations to the 2022 Christmas party went out this past weekend to a small guest list, headed by the very first attendees, our family, and some old friends we haven’t seen in two years. To all the other people we wanted to come, we pledged we’d make it up to them in 2023. After the invitation’s announcement of date and time came a long paragraph about air filters, open windows, outdoor space, and, of course, the requirement of vaccinations and testing. At this writing, there are four yeses and three nos. It matters not how many people eventually fill the house; we will put on the party with the same amount of effort as if there were three score more. I luckily happened to have kept the 2019 menu planning to refresh my memory of how, in God’s name, I used to cook for a house full of hungry folks. I thought that if I walked through it with you I might not feel so overwhelmed.

Here goes!

It all starts with raking through cookbooks, old issues of The Pleasure of Cooking, and whatever ragged pieces of newspaper and magazine recipes collected through the years. Websites are avoided to lessen the risk of short circuiting my brain and inserting way too many unrealistic photos. Each contestant is considered for variety and difficulty, then the finalists are listed on a pad:

The next list breaks down the ingredients needed for each dish. This helps me separate what I have on hand and what will need to be bought:

A shopping list is now together—with the usual caveat that I will surely be running to the store in mid-prep:

A couple of days before the party, I lay out a final cooking and serving plan:

Most important about all this is to remember to play music that will keep me dancing and cooking, cooking and dancing all day and night long!

If there’s no crashes and tears, then by mid-afternoon of D-day I’m kind of ready. Little plates will be scattered around the house, the dining room table covered under the official Christmas party table cloth. A bar will be set up in a central but out-of-the-way corner. My husband will have completed his playlist. The dog will be given his instructions that he’s not to bark, beg, or, considering his height and weight, scare people into thinking he’s not the sweet passive lunkhead he truly is.

And then, if I am truly lucky, by 5:30, hors d’oeuvres will be ready to pass around with the first guests’ arrival. The dinner will be heating gently in the oven and desserts stacked somewhere safe on the kitchen counter. A large bowl of soapy water will sit in the sink ready for quick washes. I, all dressed up pretty snazzily for the first time in three years, should be on the couch sipping a glass of wine to calm the pre-party jitters. My husband, old Mr. Fizziwig personified, will be doing his slightly obsessive run-through of his playlist.

Another husband putting the finishing touches on for the party.

A half-hour later, the bell should ring and we will open the front door to our first guests. For the next few hours there will be feasting and drinking as if no time has passed at all. I’m thinking we’ll want to stay together for as long as our weary little bodies will allow. So many people will be in our thoughts and wishing we could have all jammed together. Next year, we have to, for sure.

Until then, the holiday season is upon us and it doesn’t seem far-fetched to hope the world will seem peaceful and full of the season’s spirit.

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Last year I looked at December’s other religious and cultural holidays. There are so many similarities between the celebrations and beliefs that allow one to consider there are few differences that really separate us from one another. True to every year, the dates they occur are different from last year. A happy fact is the stories show how blessedly far we’ve come from the trials of 2021 when the pandemic continued to cause havoc in our lives and how much better 2022 has been.

I hope you enjoy reading about them.

December 8, Bohdi Day: The Enlightenment Tree

December 12, Feast of Our Lady of Guadeloupe: The Political Virgin and her special cookies

December 18 to 26, Hanukkah: Judith's and Ruth's Latkes

December 21, Shab-e-Yalda: The Prophetic Poet

December 26 to January 1, Kwanzaa: What to Do About Kwanzaa

December 31, Omisoka: Washing Away the Old Year, Ringing in the New