Your first holiday season on the gluten-free diet is likely to be somewhat challenging. In my case, I moved my biopsy from December to January. I simply didn’t want to have to worry about learning about gluten – and how to avoid it during the holidays of all times. With my only outward symptom being anemia, to this day I’m very glad I moved the test to January!
Finding a gluten-free turkey and ham – or even prime rib – is not difficult. However, putting gluten bread stuffing into a turkey makes it off limits for you to eat – even if you only eat the turkey and skip the stuffing. Making gluten-free dressing with Pamela’s or Gluten-Free Naturals cornbread mix will have glutenoids asking for more! We use the dressing recipe on Pamela’s website, no matter which mix we use for the cornbread.
What you need to know is that making the food gluten-free and delicious is not the hardest part of getting through the holidays gluten-free style. The most difficult part is dealing with family members who will not want you to change any family traditions involving food. Some people can get really weird about these things – really weird. Don’t worry about understanding why they do, just accept that it’s likely to happen in any given family. It only takes one person to declare that they “shouldn’t have to eat differently just because you do” to ruin the whole meal – or maybe the whole day.
By the time I had my first-holiday meal, I had two other gluten-free family members, making us the majority in my immediate family of five. I’m not going to kid you. The easiest way for others to accept your diet is for there to be someone else in your crowd who either has a food intolerance or better yet, another person who can’t eat gluten. If no such person exists, people will come around eventually, so try and be patient.
Let’s assume that you are the only gluten-free person in your family because it might take a few years for the other celiacs (if there are any) in your family to be diagnosed. Think about what you need in order to feel relaxed and safe at the holiday gathering. Remember that is not reasonable to think others are going to be willing to make gluten-free food to accommodate your diet – at least, not in the beginning.
For your first holiday season, you might consider making all your own food and seeing how that goes over with everyone. If the gluten-free diet is new to you and them, it’s so much work to try to help anyone make you safe food, that it might not be worth the effort. Practice makes perfect and it will take time for others to understand that you can’t have the Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom soup that Aunt Betty puts in everything. This will be particularly hard for dear Aunt Betty to “get”.
We’ll go over pie crusts, gravy soups for casseroles, and various holiday cooking tips later this week.
