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In so many ways, the kitchen is the heart of the home. And when the holidays roll around, the kitchen is -- or should be -- Christmas Central.
The kitchen is where so many Christmas memories come from, where so many Christmas dreams begin. It's a place of intoxicating aromas, tantalizing tastes -- of bustling activity and endless creativity. It's a place where old meets new, where tradition gets spiced up with fresh ideas, where grown-ups and kids, friends and family, come to together to cook and prepare and enjoy the festive results.
You know what I'm talking about. There's the spicy-sweet, familiar fragrance of cinnamon and apples, the tangy taste of cranberries and cider, the sugary goodness of Christmas cookies. There's the childlike fun of playing with flour and sugar, the reward of giving presents you've made with your own hands. There's the camaraderie of swapping stories while chopping onions, the creative satisfaction of setting a beautiful table and gathering friends and acquaintances for a festive party. And of course there's the joy of gathering around a table to celebrate the coming of Love into the world.
All these things are what the Christmas Kitchen means to me, to most of us. And I'm not just talking about the kitchen at Grandma's house or in a Norman Rockwell fantasy or on the pages of your gorgeous coffee-table Christmas book. I believe any kitchen can be the place where the fun and heartwarming business of Christmas memory making begins. And I promise you, you don't have to be June Cleaver or Martha Stewart -- or even Tammy Maltby -- to pull it off.
Your kitchen, whatever it looks like, is your number one resource for holiday celebration and decoration. It's your comforting place to nurture relationships with people related by blood and those you choose to welcome into your life. It's rich with possibilities for gift giving, for expressing thanks, for reaching out to others and showing love to them. It's also an ideal place to connect with children, passing along the experience of Christmas and recovering a little of the child in you at the same time.
Or it can be all those things -- if you don't let the busyness of the season or your own inflated expectations or kitchen insecurities overwhelm you.
But that's the problem, isn't it? So many women I know long to have the kind of delicious, fragrant, fun, and festive holiday I've just described. They pore over magazines, delighting in the beautiful images and ideas. But that stuff doesn't happen in their own homes -- not the way they'd hoped. And they cite any number of reasons.
"My kitchen (or my house) is too small."
"I'm not much of a cook."
"The idea of entertaining scares me to death."
"The kids are too small -- they're all underfoot."
"The kids are all grown -- why bother?"
"I don't have kids -- I don't even have a family!"
"Money's tight."
And then there's the perennial "I'm just too busy!"
We're all too busy -- with jobs, with kids, with other obligations.
There really are a million excuses -- good ones! A million valid reasons to just pick up a dozen cupcakes at the bakery for a child's party or a loaf of store-bought bread for a potluck and order the turkey-and-dressing package from the supermarket for Christmas dinner.
Don't get me wrong. There's absolutely nothing wrong with taking shortcuts. In fact, I think shortcuts can be crucial in making the Christmas Kitchen a real possibility in many people's lives. (You'll fi nd a lot of them in this book!) Not everything needs to be made from scratch. Not everything needs to be done the way Grandma did it -- or even the way you've been told is the "right way." And not everyone is in a position to throw a big party or even stage a traditional Christmas dinner.
But if you've picked up this book, I know something about you. I know you don't really want a prefab, carryout, catch-as-catch-can Christmas season. You certainly don't want a hectic, stressful, overworked holiday season where you wear yourself out meeting everyone's unrealistic expectations. Instead, you dream about a Christmas that is beautiful, special, warm, delicious, and as stress-free as possible. In some part of your heart, the Christmas Kitchen lives in all its intoxicating glory. And I'm here to tell you it can be part of your life -- regardless of your circumstances, your kitchen skills, or your time limitations, and with far less stress and work than you ever expected.
The Christmas Kitchen, you see, isn't just a collection of appliances, recipes, and techniques. It's really a state of mind and heart, and the best way to get there is to adjust your thinking.
How?
A good place to start is to let go of perfection. Perfectionism can paralyze you, while an attitude of "good enough" can set you free.
Next, I encourage you to embrace the principle of true hospitality -- not performing for others or impressing them or "entertaining" them, but using your life and your home (including your kitchen) to communicate to people how much you value them.* And it's not just something you do for guests but also for your family -- and for yourself!
I hope you'll also promise yourself, no matter what, to enjoy the experience of Christmas, to laugh and celebrate and sometimes sit in silent wonder. It would be such a shame to be so caught up in activities, kitchen or otherwise, that you end up missing Christmas in your heart.
And finally, when you've wrapped your mind around a different approach to a beautiful Christmas, I urge you to start simply...but simply start. That's so important! Take just one step beyond dreaming and do just one delicious thing to make your Christmas season merry and bright.
It really doesn't have to be much. Maybe your one thing will be to just sit quietly, read this book, and dream while sipping a warm mug of holiday cider.
But that's the beauty of it -- because once you do that one simple thing, I predict you'll find yourself wanting to do something else. And before you know it, your kitchen really will be Christmas Central, a true gathering place for making memories and serving up holiday joy for family and friends old and new.
Are you ready? I am. Let's take our fi rst simple step into the Christmas Kitchen.
The Christmas Kitchen © 2009 by Tammy Maltby and Anne Christian Buchanan
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