It's become fashionable to say that your favorite holiday is Thanksgiving, and every so often I say those words. What I mean is that Thanksgiving is a holiday that's entirely about food. The glorious turkey. The stuffing your mother used to make. And pies, pies, pies. When you say your favorite holiday is Thanksgiving, you're not just praising Thanksgiving -- you're secretly dissing Christmas, with all its mercenary trappings and its promise of day-after holiday depression.
But the truth is I am demented over Christmas. I love it. I love twinkle lights, I love my tree (which I put up the first week of December), and I love Christmas dinner.
Unlike Thanksgiving dinner, which is practically written in stone, Christmas dinner is a feast with no real rules. Days of discussion precede it. Goose? Prime rib? Turkey all over again? What about ham?
And then there are the desserts. The desserts of Christmas are divine, and they are true holiday recipes, the definition of which is that you would not be caught dead eating them at any other time of the year. It wouldn't be Christmas without something like gingerbread, or a yule log, or a plum pudding with hard sauce.
A bit of everything
So at Christmas we have them all. We have gingerbread cookies on the tree, decorated with the names of all the current and previous household members. We have a yule log that someone brings. And I always make a plum pudding with hard sauce, which I am the only person who eats.
But the big favorite in our house is the Peppermint Pie. This pie, which I swear is my own completely original invention, is a recent addition to our Christmas repertory. It has many advantages, one of which is that children like it as much as adults, and another of which is that it's incredibly easy to make.
