New Christmas traditions

This year it was all about eliminating stress while increasing calories and pleasure.

1. eat Chinese take-out on Dec 24
Christmas eve usually involves some kind of blow-out meal like tourtiere, baked beans and ham or lobster and scallops in a creamy sauce followed by endless tins of shortbread and Florentines. The cook's exhausted and the kitchen's a mess. Someone inevitably croaks out a defeatist "I'll never eat again".

Chinese take-out tastes totally different from anything you'll be eating on the following day, leaves you very hungry for the next day's meals, and it requires no shopping, chopping or dishwashing.

2. enjoy a no-cook boozy breakfast on Christmas day
Much as I love my family's traditional eggs Benedict, a lazy holiday morning is no time to soft-poach a dozen eggs and make fresh Hollandaise. Good smoked salmon, cream cheese and rye toast provide a perfectly wonderful accompaniment to cold Champagne. And then everyone's happy.

3. roast beef for the family
It's so much less stressful than a goose or turkey. Or if gravy terrifies you, roast a ham.

4. then roast a goose a few days later -- just for yourself and your single best food-loving pal
A goose doesn't go too far, so save it for those who really care. Add some foie gras as a starter.  Use full-fat cream in the scalloped potatoes. Drink Champagne recklessly. Die happy...then turn the leftovers into Peking goose in Mandarin pancakes the next day.

5. make enough Christmas cake this year to last until next year
I found one of last year's cakes tucked away in my catch-all closet behind a suitcase and the humidifier. Still good.