(photo template courtesy of the amazing puglypixel)

This is my favorite time of year. I spend eight months wishing that it were October through December, and then it comes, and I’m so busy rushing around that it all happens in a blur of Vegan MoFo-Halloween-Thanksgiving-Milo’s birthday-Christmas-Our Anniversary-New-Years, followed by the two most depressing months to live in the Pacific Northwest: January and February, aka Cold and Grey and Somehow Colder and Greyer.

Tonight, while I was going over my Thanksgiving shopping list, I wrote on a scrap of paper a few goals for my holiday season, and I’ve decided to share them with you:

♥ Dress up for Thanksgiving dinner…but bring a change of clothes for post-dinner video game playing
♥ Watch lots of movies with Milo, snuggled under blankets
♥ Reread the entire Harry Potter series
♥ Involve Milo in the baking and decorating of his birthday cake
♥ Attend the Mississippi and St. Johns Christmas tree lightings with my family
♥ When talking with Milo, keep the emphasis on tradition, family, kindness, and goodwill and downplay the acquisition of stuff as much as possible
♥ Send hand-written cards
♥ Watch the Christmas Ship Parade—we kept missing it last year
♥ Shop exclusively at local, independent businesses
♥ Bake, bake, bake
♥ Get a sitter for our anniversary and do something special with Matt
♥ Take lots of pictures
♥ Spend as little money as possible

I’ve compiled three, count ‘em, three playlists of Christmas music:

christmas: coffee ♥ a playlist of mellow tunes to listen to while you’re drinking your coffee and watching the lights blink on the tree
christmas: crafting and cooking ♥ a mix of old and new songs to play in the background while you glue sequins and roll dough
christmas: cocktail party ♥ classics, heavy on the crooners

What are your goals for the season?

Each of these retailers has their own rules about what dates after which they will not guarantee shipment for the holidays, so don’t dawdle. Wrap up your shopping this week so you can put your focus on more important things this month. Of course, I mean cookies.

Cow Hugger Kids tee from Herbivore: $15. Am I biased because that happens to be my cute kid in that picture? No, dummy, I’m biased because Herbivore shares my values. You know, the values where we don’t treat living things like garbage. You believe in that, too, right? So you’ve already added this to your cart, right? Awesome.

Revive 2010 Wall Calendar by Nikki McClure at BuyOlympia.com: $16

Mum’s Garden hair pins from MiaBeads: $17.50. I would be overjoyed to receive any of the hair pins from this shop, actually. I’ve had short hair for so long that, now that it’s growing out, I’m rediscovering the joy of hair accessories and would love to splurge on a big lot. Pretty hair things fall solidly in the category of “I would love them as a present but I’d never spend the money on them myself,” so I bet there is a woman in your life who’d love these!

Missed Connections print, by Cat and Girl: $10. This print is so genius that I’m kicking myself for not having come up with the idea myself. The Missed Connections junkie on your list must have this.

Paper Dolls from The Black Apple: $16. I wish that paper dolls were this amazing when I was a little girl. Then again, I did have a set of Jem paperdolls which were truly, truly, truly outrageous.

Coffee Contraptions hand silkscreened print from Jen Oaks: $15. Show your dedication to caffeine by hanging this print above the coffee nook in your kitchen. While you’re at her shop, why don’t you go ahead and buy her incredible 2010 wall calendar which, since it weighs in at $26, can’t technically be on this list, but which is the only item on my wishlist which I wanted so badly that I couldn’t risk not getting it, so I went ahead and bought it for myself. After you admire it for a year, you can frame each one of those beautiful illustrations, so you’re really getting a calendar plus 12 prints for $26. When you think of it that way, it’s too good of a bargain to pass up.

Pumpkin Pie print from Amber Alexander: $18. I own a couple of Amber’s prints already and might not be able to stop myself from adding this one to my collection. That bear is going to eat the shit out of that pie, and you know he’s going to love it!

Apple and Spice print from Kris’s Color Stripes: $10. This would look awesome in your kitchen, good luck giving it as a present to someone else. Oh, hell, just get yourself one, too, they’re only $10!

Potluck Mania, my zine! $7. You didn’t honestly think I wouldn’t take this opportunity to self-promote, did you?

Finally, last but not least: Yellow Rose Recipes gift set from my Etsy store: $25, marked down from $30 for one week (until December 9). In addition to a signed copy of the book, you get a batch of vegan parm and a batch of tofu scramble seasoning mix, both of which are slightly different from the recipes in the book! After a week, this price is going back up to $30, and I’ll only be guaranteeing holiday arrivals until the 12th, so you should probably act on this one right away, kids.

my vegan Thanksgiving; photo by Katie Jane Marggraf

I had my first vegan Thanksgiving in 2001, and I showed up at my parents’ house armed with recipes I found in dark corners of the internet, recipes I’d never tried before and was just sort of hoping would work. I ended up with a pumpkin soup that tasted like dirt (literally) and a cranberry walnut salad made with store-bought seitan. If I remember correctly, I ended up eating rolls and tossed salad and feeling pretty sorry for myself.

Obviously the options are a lot better now, and because of that, you might find yourself facing the opposite problem: there are so many recipes to choose from, and you’re not sure which will become your “standards,” because there is no way that you can make all of them.

I don’t recommend trying a recipe for the first time on Thanksgiving day—even if it’s from a cookbook author or blogger whom you trust—because that day will be filled with distractions, and multiple people competing for oven and stovetop space, and those conditions aren’t ideal for following a recipe for the first time. The safest bet is to do a test run: make the dish at least once in the week leading up to Thanksgiving, just so that you are familiar with the timing and the steps.

I also don’t recommend using all new recipes this Thanksgiving. If this is your first vegan Thanksgiving, and you’re responsible for the entire meal, it’s probably a better idea to focus on one or two new dishes, and use your standard easy favorites (mashed potatoes, roasted vegetables, a tossed salad) to fill out the rest of the meal.

Finally, and most importantly, Thanksgiving isn’t the time to mess with the classics. You heard about some great new mashed potato method and can’t wait to put your nephew in cleats to give it a whirl? Great! Try it another time! If you decide then that it’s better than your current recipe, make it that way a lot in the coming year and then debut it at next year’s Thanksgiving.

Here are the recipes which I’ve used, and with great success:

• any of the recipes from the Thanksgiving section of my zine, Potluck Mania, obviously, but if you only try one for this holiday, make it the Mushroom Dressing;
  
• If you try two, make the Coconut Sweet Potatoes, because they’re crazy delicious and so easy that you can assign all the work to your clueless cousin;
• the Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes from Yellow Rose Recipes is my go-to mashed potato recipe;
• The Best Vegan Green Bean Casserole from Fat Free Vegan is always a hit, though I’m sure that the recipe Isa just posted today is also great, I just haven’t made it;
• I like simple vegetables at Thanksgiving, since everything else on the table is usually heavy and calorie-dense, so I make roasted brussel sprouts (brussels tossed with olive oil, salt, pepper, and a little paprika and roasted in the oven until crispy) and a green salad with apple slices, dried cranberries, and caramelized walnuts tossed in a balsamic vinaigrette;
• I make a seitan roast which is my standard chicken style seitan recipe, but uses Brian McCarthy’s Vegan Turkey Roast method. I baste it before baking with a basting liquid that is 1 tablespoon olive oil, 1 tablespoon tamari, and 1 teaspoon liquid smoke;
• I don’t usually make dessert at Thanksgiving (someone else always does!), but I’ve happily eaten Smlove Pie and The Millennium Cookbook’s Pecan Pie¹ at vegan thanksgiving potlucks.

Have a happy holiday!

¹It was brought to my attention in a comment that Todd X lifted “his” pecan pie recipe from The Millennium Cookbook. I’ve made the correction.