I'm working on a story for our Smart magazine about the challenges of dealing with holiday food and festivities when you have food and environmental allergies.
(I know it's only July, but we like to work ahead around here.)
I touched on this a little last X-Mas, with my tips for co-existing with your Christmas tree. That mainly dealt with eradicating the mold spores with a good hosing and a bleach solution.
I want to hear about your experiences with allergies around the holidays - not just Christmas, but Halloween, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, New Year's and Kwanzaa, too.
- How do you handle holiday dinners?
- Is a live or fake tree the way to go?
- How do you handle the candy on All Hallow's Eve?
You can e-mail me or leave a comment below. Please leave your name and a contact number.
I find when doing large Christmas parties the easiest way to address allergy issues is one of two ways. First one is to make a placecard to set with the dish naming the food, with a list of ingredients on the back. Of course I feel you should ALWAYS have the name of the dish with it to raise peoples comfort level with trying, or not trying any particular dish. This cuts down on wasted food as well. Second way is to make a "cheat sheet" available at the front of the buffet for those with allergies to pick up and carry with them through the food line. It can be organized and color coded by allergy. I find these tips greatly enhances the enjoyment of guests who possess the dreaded food allergies!
Thanks for the tips Amy! Of course, that also requires making food that is actually free of allergens to begin with. I wonder how many people who host holiday parties think about that before hand - or do they just plan a menu and leave it up to the people with food allergies to have their own food?