Memories of holiday celebrations remain very food centric for me. When I recall the roasts, turkeys and hams of holidays past, I am instantly transported to the chaos and love of the kitchens where those meals were affectionately prepared.
Christmas was always spent at my aunt and uncle’s home. My brother and I could never wait to arrive there to play with our cousins, see all the new toys Santa delivered and for me, eat copious amounts of my aunt’s stuffed mushrooms. These mushrooms somehow verified it was finally Christmas. They were not fancy, just mushrooms with a piece of link sausage placed in the cap and baked to perfection. I craved these mushrooms all year. They would disappear within minutes of exiting the oven.
As we grew older the family increased and now boyfriends, girlfriends, new husbands and wives were also attending the holiday celebrations so the mushrooms would vanish at an even faster rate. There were never enough of these little bites to meet the growing families’ demands and the competition to score a few was fierce. I truly miss that.
Baking season is in full swing and it seems that everywhere you turn there are cookies. Everyone loves biting into a sugary Christmas cookie. But I think the best part about cookies is making them yourself, and getting kids and even the adults involved. Baking batches of all different types of cookies is my specialty at Christmas. I bring them to parties at the office and share them with neighbors and friends. I always have some on hand for when people stop by to visit, which can happen quite often during the holidays.
My family, while I grew up in Iowa in the 1970's, had no traditions save one. For 364 dinner days of the year, it was my mother who performed culinary magic at home. (Today her dinners would be heralded by food critics as tempura-style but back then it was just “frying floured foods in fat”.) Her lipid of choice was Crisco but on Christmas Eve the can of Crisco was put away and my father took out the stew pots.
I grew up singing Bach hymns before dinner. We were all terrible singers, but it didn’t matter: my mother trained us to sing in parts. Children, adults and even teenage boys would toil our way through “Now Thank We All Our God.” My mother wasn’t interested in musical quality, but in the virtues of complexity and genius. 
We have the same meal every Christmas Eve, because it is just perfect! Not too difficult, things can be made in advance, and it is oh so good! Off to the Maine coast we go to get Glidden Point oysters right from the grower, pick up our lobsters that we have pre ordered and then a quick stop at the grocery store...and we start to cook.