How I Survived My First Christmas As A Host

The turkey leftovers are safely stowed in the freezer for easy January weekday dinners. The last of the gift wrap is in the recycling bin. The sheets and towels have all been washed. My favourite Vince Guaraldi Trio mix is tucked away for another year. The tin of my grandmother’s (aka Nanny’s) homemade shortbreads is almost empty. We did it: we survived our first Christmas as hosts.

Rediscovering The Christmas Magic

At some point over the last few years Christmas lost its magic for me. Living far away from home, in our tiny city flat, my favourite traditions fell to neglect: stockings hanging by the chimney ready to be filled, a roast turkey dinner with all the trimmings, colourful lights adding seasonal sparkle to the neighbourhood.

Then, last December, hubby and I moved into our first house. After years of apartment living in three different cities across two countries it was finally time to create a home and merge our lives properly. (For now let’s leave the subject of the endless negotiations over where to store his childhood trophies and other memorabilia…)

Our move coincided with Christmas and New Year so we spent most of the 2014 holiday period unpacking boxes and making last-minute runs to the Do-It-Yourself store down the road. It couldn’t have felt less festive.

In spite of our gallant 12-hour day efforts to get settled in, by the time we returned to work in early January there were still unpacked boxes in the living and dining rooms. We told ourselves we would tackle these — along with the unhung paintings — in upcoming months as part of a bigger decorating project.

You can guess what happened next: the months flew by, full of work obligations and travel. The abandoned boxes slowly became a fixture of our living room, taking on an identity of their own. We postponed our grand interior decorating vision in order to tackle unanticipated garden fix-ups. In fact, those pesky boxes might just have stayed in tact for another year if it hadn’t been for my impulsive decision to host 2015 Christmas at our house. (How is it that when the sun is shining and the garden is in full bloom in June these ideas spring to mind so effortlessly?)

Fast-Forward to Pre-Turkey Meltdown

I remember the exact moment the Christmas panic set in. I was flying home from a business trip in early December, with only 15 days to go until C-Day (Christmas Day). Until then I hadn’t given a second thought to my summer yuletide musings. I already had my hands full with a busy work schedule, the adjustment to home-ownership (why doesn’t anybody tell you how much admin and ongoing maintenance this involves?), and the care of our recently adopted cats.

But cruising at 35,000 feet altitude over Europe, the reality of what I had signed up for sank in. The thoughts started flying: My first-ever Christmas at home…as a host. My first turkey dinner — for 12, no less (if you’re going to do it, you may as well go all out). Our first attempt at squeezing eight guests into our home for an overnight stay. Our first time decorating the house for the holidays, which we usually spend either with my family in Canada and hubby’s family in Italy.

Along with these thoughts, the questions started flooding in: how would we ever fit 12 people around our dining room table designed to seat no more than eight? Where will everyone sleep? Never mind the sleeping, where will everyone sit? (Our house is still sparse as we await a last shipment from my storage locker in Canada.) Above all, how in the world will I cook a full turkey dinner using a Swiss-sized oven that can barely fit the turkey pan?

A Christmas Roadmap

At this point my Type A gears kicked in. The only way to survive the holidays would be to List my way through them:

• Seven-day menu plan for the duration of my family’s visit from Canada…CHECK
• Five-course Christmas Eve dinner menu…CHECK
• Christmas Day turkey dinner menu for 12…CHECK
• Seating plan for Christmas Day dinner, including a sketch outlining the conversion of our rectangular table for eight into a square table for 12…CHECK
• Hour-by-hour Christmas Day rundown leading to a roast turkey and side dishes served at 17h…CHECK
• Table and house decoration list…CHECK
• Food shopping list – part I: for everything that keeps for more than a few days CHECK
• Food shopping list – part II: for perishables to be purchased the day Christmas cooking begins CHECK
• Hubby’s To Do list: wood for fireplace, hang paintings, take out garbage and recycling, confirm travel details with family, etc. CHECK

Fortunately somewhere along the way, hubby and I had had enough foresight to book a few days off from work in advance of our first-ever C-Day as hosts. This proved invaluable for the countless trips to our trusted Do-It-Yourself, IKEA, supermarket and nearby department stores to transform our half-finished living room into a welcoming winter wonderland.

During this time we spent hours unpacking boxes, creating makeshift side tables in the living room, moving around lamps from our home offices to the temporary guest rooms, and, best of all, unpacking those last remaining boxes in the living room. (Christmas came early for us this year as we discovered some gorgeous unopened wedding gifts from 2009.)

The Holiday Pandemonium Payoff

With just two days left to C-Day the first of our guests arrived from Canada, along with a lost baggage saga that is requisite to any peak-period travel. Just as we got them settled in, the second half of our Christmas party arrived from Italy. (This is right about the time our cats moved into a quiet basement room to wait out the holidays, aside from a few covert operations up to the kitchen with an eye on nabbing the turkey.)

What ensued were two days of complete chaos: a whirlwind of gift wrap, an explosion of nephews’ toys in the living room, the amusing attempts at intra-family translation (both literal and figurative) by our unilingual parents, and a marathon of cooking, preparation and clean-up.

All in all, it was exhausting. But for the first time in a long time, Christmas truly felt like….well, Christmas: that unique, slightly dysfunctional and just shy of disaster once-a-year family gathering you both anticipate and dread in equal measure. In our case, this year brought together our families from thousands of miles — and cultural oceans — apart to celebrate the best of our Canadian and Italian traditions and create a few new ones to call our own.

And apart from that close call with the turkey, we made it. Plus we made a whole lot of memories along the way. Perhaps the start of a new annual tradition? (I think I’ll wait until next June before deciding…)