This week, I’ve decided to spend a few posts looking at why people fear planning for the holidays.

One reason that holiday planning scares people is that we’ve gotten out of the habit of cooking family meals and entertaining on a small scale. When you are accustomed to cooking Sunday dinner – and eating it in the dining room, not in front of the tv – or having friends over for small gatherings, the idea of cooking a Thanksgiving dinner or throwing a Christmas Eve open house is far less intimidating.

Think about it: Holiday celebrations aren’t some new kind of exotic animal. They should just be bigger and more formal versions of what we already do. Of course, if your last 10 meals have
been eaten off paper plates or out of a fast food bag, putting a turkey and 4 side dishes on a properly set table will be stressful.

So, what do you do about it?

Pick (at least) one day each month when the family gathers around the table for a meal. Everyone shows up (friends are welcome), properly dressed. The table has a tablecoth, more silverware than a fork, cloth napkins, and the good china (yes, you can use it on non-holidays!) The tv and cell phones get turned off and you actually TALK TO EACH OTHER. Everybody helps to get the meal on the table and to clean up.

It’s a radical concept, but if you have a nice dinner once a month for a year, you’ll be amazed at how easy it will be to plan holiday meals next year!