by Barbara Lee Norris

Created on: December 12, 2008   Last Updated: June 07, 2010

Will you be preparing Christmas Eve dinner this year? Does the mere thought of such an assignment throw you into a panic? This special meal is charged with expectations, emotions, and sentiments born from Christmases past. Your family and friends look forward to delicious food, seasoned with Christmas spirit, love, and good cheer. This is the meal you'd like them to recall, with fondness, many years to come.

How do you make this happen? The late Lee Bailey, who wrote many books and articles about food and entertaining, including the books Cooking for Friends and Soup Meals, insisted that great meals require little fuss, but a lot of style, great taste, and good, simple food. Your guests should feel comfortable. You should reflect your unique style through what you serve.

Nora Ephron, well-known author and screenplay writer, recalls a dinner at Bailey's house in her hilarious book, I Feel Bad About My Neck. She says Bailey wasn't pretentious about entertaining; he was stylish. He made people feel at home. He liked to serve the usual meat, vegetable, and starch, but "always added a 4th dish unexpected, like little crab apples, a casserole of lima beans and pears, peaches with cayenne pepper, or little biscuits." This 4th dish's purpose is to match and contradict everything else on the plate. This 4th dish makes the flavor of the other foods, combined with its flavors, pop to memorable levels. She said his guests always wanted to more to eat, because both food and the company of friends was so much fun.

Your menu for Christmas Eve dinner should accomplish what Bailey's meals did. You want to pick a menu that matches your personality and skill level. The biggest cooking disasters come from trying to look like Emeril Lagasse when you've just learned to flip an egg!

A great resource for ideas and recipes is the Food Network. There you can find all types of recipes. They are labeled either "easy," "medium," or "hard." Even an Emeril recipe can be easy, so don't be intimidated. Pick recipes that match your style and ability level. When thinking about ingredients, consider your environment.

People in the Northeast, for example, often have Oyster Stew on Christmas Eve, because oysters are plentiful, and stew is warm and filling. This dish reflects home and tradition for them. In the Southwest, homemade tamales and Mexican food are delicious at Christmas. If you think about the types of good, fresh food unique to your area, you can design a meal around them and create

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