Untraditional traditions

I never seemed to successfully hit upon a tradition of holiday foods when my kids were small. Usually, Christmas dinner was a repeat of Thanksgiving: Turkey was on sale, it fed a lot of people, it didn’t require a lot of thought, and everybody liked it. As a vegetarian, I was more interested in the side dishes, so every year I tried a different main dish for me and the other non-turkey eaters. This led to a succession of vegetable loaves, stuffed squash, and wild rice dressings, all delicious, but none of them became a traditional part of our holiday meal.

Then I married a man for whom holiday meals consisted of an array of dishes from his family’s ethnic heritage of Filipino, Mexican, Polish and African-American. Adobo, lumpia, tamales, carnitas, refried bean tacos, kolachkes and sweet potato pie appeared on his family’s Christmas table. Turkey rarely made an appearance, and few people ate it when it did. His family tradition gave me all the culinary liberation I needed to make holiday dinner whatever we loved to eat instead of adhering to some arbitrary annual menu. This new approach to holiday meals also turned out to be a frugal one.

Holiday meals don’t have to be based on expensive meat cuts or prepared foods. Any foods can be holiday foods. Think about what your family loves to eat. Who says you can’t have roast chicken or a casserole or any of your family’s favorite foods as your holiday dinner? For years, we had spaghetti on Christmas Eve. Then one year, for reasons I have now forgotten, we made tacos, and they were such a hit that for years after that we ate tacos every Christmas Eve. Dessert was rarely more exotic than apple pie and Christmas cookies, and during the evening, we’d sip hot, spiced, cranberry juice “cider” that was kept warm in the slow cooker. If you use your silver and holiday linens, serve everything on holiday dishes, and display your children’s holiday crafts as centerpieces, even a casserole can seem festive and special.

Another way we save money is to have a family potluck on Christmas night. The hosts provide a main dish, and everyone contributes a dish or two. This cuts down on costs for everybody and still allows us to celebrate with a big meal.

There are many ways to save on holiday meals: Study the newspaper food ads so you can plan your menu based on what’s on sale. Make a list and stick to it. Don’t go to the store hungry. Shop alone; the more people you take with you, the more money you’re likely to spend. Use coupons. Take advantage of specials and twofers. Try store brands. Use your store loyalty card. Avoid prepared and processed foods, and cook from scratch. Base your meals on grains, beans, fruits and vegetables, and treat meat more like a condiment than the main focus of the meal. Being frugal yet festive doesn’t have to be a contradiction in terms.—Carol Wiley Lorente