If you have a passion for having your extended family over on Christmas Day, but don’t want to slave over all the prep and cooking, then be a hostess-organizer. A what? Just read on.
Back when I was a child, the holiday cooking fever began days before Christmas Day. My grandparents who lived next door to us traditionally hosted an all-day Christmas get-together that started with lunch and ended with dinner. So, you can imagine how much food and cooking I’m talking about.
While I was too young to be privy to the food shopping frenzy, I observed how some of the prep happened. In the backyard, a mixture of beef tripe, oxtail and cheeks was boiled in a large pot over burning wood overnight so they’d be perfectly tender the next day to be cooked into kare-kare (a stew of beef and vegetables in peanut sauce). Ube (purple yam) halaya, a thick jam served as a standalone dessert or scooped into a bowl of ice cream, was stirred over burning wood too in an oversized carajay (the Filipino version of a wok).
On Christmas morning, my grandfather took out his heavy grinder from storage (the grinder was from the days when he and my grandmother owned and operated a meat shop in Manila) and ground pork cracklings and dried smoked fish to go into his home version of pancit Malabon.
Great aunts and great uncles, aunts and uncles, and their children, and their children’s children, would start arriving at mid-morning. It was always a riot.
The routine hardly varied. The adults sat around the dining table chatting from noon to night (catching up, I suppose) while us children found ways to amuse ourselves. Between lunch and dinner, we played with dry ice that came with the gallons of ice cream. We dropped dry ice into tumblers and waited for the “white smoke” to float. Then, we’d run, tumblers in hand, and laughed with glee as the “white smoke” left a trail. Or we picked food from platters and bowls meant to be served for dinner. Well, children are imaginative so there were hardly any boring moments.
As the years and the decades rolled on, great uncles and great aunts passed away, and there were less and less relatives who came on Christmas Day. After my grandfather died (he really was the food expert in the family; my father was only second) and my grandmother was too frail to manage all the Christmas preparations, an aunt took over and dishes like fried chicken, barbecue (think satay) and spaghetti replaced most of the traditional and labor-intensive Christmas dishes.
In time, there were no more big family reunions on Christmas Day. The surviving siblings of my grandmother visited her but they didn’t come with their entire broods, and they didn’t stay as long as they used to.
As an adult and the oldest grandchild, I did not inherit the role of playing Christmas hostess. No one suggested it, and I never offered. Truth be told, Christmas family reunions may be fun for young children, but it’s a lot of work for adults. While my grandmother had the passion and the benefit of having a bevy of assistants (okay, housemaids), I didn’t.
If you’re one of those mothers (or grandmothers — I’m not one yet) who feels the warmth and nostalgia that come with Christmas family reunions, know that you can invite your entire clan without the need of prepping and cooking for days and days. You can just be the hostess-organizer.
What’s a hostess-organizer?
Well, that means you offer your house as a venue for a family reunion, but you don’t cook like a slave in the kitchen while everyone else is having fun.
Option #1: Potluck
When you issue invitations, attach an assignment with each one. If you’re inviting six families, for example, have one bring the soup, another family brings appetizers, two families will bring main courses, another one will bring dessert, and another one will be responsible for the drinks.
It’s a wonderful arrangement, really, because everyone’s contribution to the meal is a conversation starter. Arrange all the potluck contributions buffet-style, and you can relax.
Option #2: Pot luck + hot pot
Depending on how many people you’re inviting (factor in the harsh reality that some guests often bring along guests of their own without informing you ahead of time), this may involve setting up a few to several tables.
Now, that’s not a Christmas meal you’re seeing in the photo. That was from the first time we set up a hot pot meal at home. No special occasion but just for enjoyment.
If you want a similar setup for Christmas, you’ll need a small gas stove for each table and a pan for the broth. Have a HUGE pot of broth in the kitchen to replenish the hot pot throughout the meal.
All the rest, you ask your guests to bring — meat, poultry, seafood, vegetables, mushrooms and whatever else you want to dunk in the simmering soup can be kept in the fridge, covered, until meal time.
Option #3: Potluck + stovetop grill
This has been a favorite with my family for the past several years.
Again, if you’re having plenty of people over and not everyone can fit on your dining table, you may have to setp up extra tables and equip all with stovetop grills.
Prep is basically the same as a hot pot meal. All ingredients (meat, chicken, seafood, mushrooms, vegetables…) are brought by your guests, placed in serving bowls and plates, and kept covered in the fridge until needed. But, unlike a hot pot, guests don’t cook food in simmering broth. Rather, they do their own grilling on the table.
If you can get a grill with cheese trays, the better. Prepare slices of a variety of cheeses (or assign someone else to bring the cheeses), and everyone can melt their cheese of choice. Our grill has eight cheese trays so that means eight people can have their own cheese tray.
