Next year, big changes are coming to The Lunchbox Season and Summer of Funner …dare we say, a transformation? With this in mind, we thought we’d bring you our biggest, best, and most ambitions CHRISTMAS EVE CHECKLIST ever!
But, here’s the deal, folks. This isn’t your Christmas List! No need to get all of this done. No need to check every single box on this list, let alone “check it twice.” Just look on this as motivation to be cheerful as you get your **** together, have a drink or several, and, as one of the kids once said, “contact the spirit of the season!”
The Lunchbox Season’s Christmas Eve Checklist 2016
□ Family football game outside, no matter the weather!
□ Warm up by drinking hot chocolate and homemade eggnog by the fire!
□ Take a moment to meditate, try a Christmas colouring page, or have a long, hot, luxurious bath!
□ Pick up the main protein for tomorrow’s Christmas Dinner from your butcher or vegetarian grocer. Our main is a 6lb, butteflied, marinaded leg of lamb at our old haunt, St. Jamestown Steak and Chops!
□ Brave the early morning crowds at a local market for tonight’s seafood haul, salad fixings, veggies, fresh fruit, et al. [We will hit St. Lawrence Market or the shops along Queen East in the Beaches.]
□ If you haven’t do so already, wait on the long-*** line at the local liquor store for your beer, wine, booze, and champers or do the same at your local cheesemonger for the cheese plate to end all cheese plates!
□ Go home and have a light lunch and an afternoon cocktail! Or, raid the cookie platter.
□ Set the table for Christmas Dinner! Bea has made gorgeous place cards for us this year! We picked up a last minute sparkly table cloth and napkins for a steal at Kitchen Stuff Plus. And, by googling “Christmas Napkin Folding” images we found this bosss tutorial for how to fold napkins into Trees! We also googled up a fancy table-setting guide to use as a loose model, too. Add candles or cheapo led string lights and flowers from your favourite florist, cuttings from your tree, or pinecones and stuff from the world outside, and you are golden.
□ Watch a holiday movie like The Thin Man or A Christmas Carol.
□ Listen to Jon Solomon’s 27th Annual 25-Hour Christmas Radio Show! This show runs from 5pm Christmas Eve to 6pm Christmas Day on WPRB in Princeton, N.J. But you can Listen In from anywhere on a computer or phone!
□ Walk around and see the holiday lights in the neighbourhood!
□ Christmas Eve Prosecco Toast and Feast of the Seven Fishes, the Fireside edition! Grab some bubbly and some sparkling juice for the littles. And, toast the season alongside of a fish-themed supper. Giada’s Cioppino is a good place to start! So is take-out chinese! I usually make a simple pasta sauce and then cram it full of canned anchovies, clams, smoked mussels, artichocke hearts, green olives, and capers. And, this year, since the table’s already set for a fancy Christmas Dinner – see below, we’re putting all the side tables together in between the couches and chairs and enjoying a fireside feast.
□ Read aloud to one another: pick a Christmas story, poem, or your favourite scene from Shakespeare.
□ Dessert, Cocktails and Carolling by the fire! Remember those holiday carols we wrote based on the Song of the Summer? Now’s the time!
□ Leave cookies, milk, and reindeer biscuits for Santa and his crew!
□ Be breakfast-ready in the kitchen! Prepare cinnamon rolls or set aside the ingredients for panettone french toast. Or, do as we will do this year, by setting out the fixings for coffee with fancy toast and marmalade or jam.
□ Hang up your stocking! Yeah right, as if it’s not hung up already 🙂
□ Put on your new pajamas!
□ Set aside your Sunday finest for tomorrow.
□ Tuck in with a favourite new book and a late night hot toddy!
NAILED IT!
Our table-setting resources and prowess thus far (haven’t added flowers yet!)
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