Hearth and Holidays

If the kitchen is the beating heart of the home, then a holiday kitchen represents something even more important, family traditions.

A holiday kitchen is clean but doesn’t smell of chemical. Warm and inviting, holiday scents waft about enticing everyone into the kitchen hearth. My perfect holiday kitchen would meet all my highest home chef standards while setting my guests at ease enough to lick their fingers as they nibble at my table.

And guests come frequently in our holiday kitchen as we start celebrating the holidays by celebrating St. Nicholas Day and other Advent holidays so that our Christmas is more about family than just one day of presents. Much of our holiday activities takes place in the kitchen.

Indeed, Christmas is not the end, but the beginning of the Twelve Days of Christmas which keeps our holiday kitchen quite busy. My favorite is New Year’s Eve when the kitchen is swept clean and filled with pleasures like champagne, canapés, dear friends and we remember the best of the old year while hoping to try our best to do as much good as possible in the new one.

I’ve been cooking since I was five. The kitchen is the central pivot of my life. The holiday kitchen (perfect or not) is the culmination of the year and one of my favorite opportunities to give my children invaluable gifts – family traditions, loving hearts, the warmth of being home for the holidays.