Embrace holiday celebrations again with simple, smaller entertaining this season

Many people are rethinking how they will celebrate the holidays this year.

After putting out a highly unscientific poll on Facebook asking “how will you celebrate?,” I found a few themes emerging: Keep it simple and keep it small. Many talked about only getting together with small groups of vaccinated family and friends. Others said they will all get at-home COVID-19 tests before gathering to keep it even “safer.”

After two years of winter holidays complicated by the pandemic, many wrote to say they seek tradition more than ever. The importance of serving the roast beef and Yorkshire pudding they grew up eating or the Christmas cake that always graces their table feels more significant than ever. But others talked about the need to mix things up this holiday season, create new traditions since so many things don’t feel “normal” right now.

With that in mind, I created three new recipes. The first, an Italian-style seafood dish, is a main course (or even a first course). Shrimp and winter scallops are sauteed and served on top of linguine or spaghetti with a simple sauce made from garlic, wine, fish stock, parsley and red chili flakes. It’s a beautiful, celebratory dish that doesn’t take long to put together.

Then a side dish: a hearty winter