Last year, we hosted Christmas dinner here for 13, and I’m not eager to repeat that until I get a double oven and another big refrigerator. Don’t get me wrong, a lovely time was had by all, but getting the meal components synchronized was just beyond my reach this time. One of the biggest issues was cooking beef tenderloin for that crowd for the first time. Lesson learned? Don’t try something new on the big day. You should have made it successfully at least once. Don’t leave it to chance.

Just like the cookie recipes I mentioned three days ago, you are going to want to do the same with your Christmas dinner menu. Start looking through your cookbooks and recipe cards. If you have new things you want to add to your traditional menu, now’s the time to start trying them out and tweaking them to work for you. You also want to put together a notebook to collect all of your information if you are hosting a big dinner. How many guests? Who’s coming? Does anyone have food allergies? And the list goes on!

If you’ve never hosted a Christmas dinner before, don’t be afraid to commit to this! There is great joy to be had by opening your home and breaking bread together. If you are kitchen-challenged, enlist a friend to help you coordinate your guests and ask them to bring a dish or two, and you order a ham or turkey done by your favorite place. In our neck-of-the-woods, we have a wonderful grocery chain, Publix, who does a terrific job with hams and turkeys, among other things. Other good meat places are Sonny’s, Honey Baked Ham, and various other restaurants. If you are a backyard gourmet, try smoking your meat for this.

I’ll be posting some great holiday recipes here during our countdown, so stay tuned and get ready to try some yummy holiday goodness!