You walk into a house that isn’t yours. You have arrived at a holiday party, and there is a lot of food. Food is the way many people show love (think of all those cookies you receive!). You hang up your coat, and then greet your hosts, friends, and family. You are offered a variety of drinks, and choose something you like to keep your mouth moist as you talk. After some chatting, you become hungry, so you walk over to the spread of food.

On the table(s), there are glazed sugar cookies, decorated gingerbread, fudge, salmon and crackers, ham, roast beef and cheese with sandwich buns, shrimp and cocktail sauce, chili, cheese and crackers, a bowl of dried fruits, some roasted nuts in a bowl, and some raw veggies with a dip. It’s a lot of food!

What do you do? What food allergies/intolerances do you cope with? If you are allergic to tree nuts and peanuts, the very fact that there are nuts in the room might preclude you from staying - there’s a high chance of cross-contamination. Plus, you need to check ingredients - some people even add peanut butter to chili! If you have celiac disease, you might have cross-contamination problems from the crackers and bread, and there would be questions about almost every other food - wheat can be a binder in dip mix, an ingredient in roasted nuts, and used to keep dried fruit from sticking together, just to name a few. If you are avoiding dairy or any of the other top 8 allergens, you would likewise have to ask questions about almost everything, as well. Are the hosts prepared to deal with those questions?

Walking into this party would be difficult for an adult. Now imagine if you are a child, having to ask which foods are safe for you to eat. You have to trust the words of the adults, because you might not be old enough to read labels yourself. If you are lucky, some of the treats are designed to be acceptable to your allergies, because the party’s hosts know about them. If you’re even luckier, your parents brought extra snacks to make up for the food you can’t eat. Add in the fact that this is happening at just about every home your child visits over the holiday season, and by the end of December, they could be completely overwhelmed.

I try to make candies and cookies during this time of year. Not only because it’s festive, but also to make sure that the kids have plenty of treats during a time that is filled with treats for everyone else, but when they often have to forgo the offerings of food.

My girls are great about checking to find out if a food is acceptable for our dietary restrictions. However, when a great-grandmother with some mild memory problems keeps offering cookies, it makes me want to just eat them and damn the consequences. If you are ambivalent about your restrictions, holidays make it worse. Even if you are completely accepting of your restrictions, it’s still a tough road to follow - I really wanted some brie and crackers the other day…

If you ended up with some mild cross-contamination problems, this week is a good one for laying low and dealing with the aftermath. Simple, whole foods are a good answer for this problem, with plenty of treats planned after their systems are back to normal.

Treat yourself this week! If you didn’t have time or energy to make treats before the holidays, make some treats for the New Year! Find some yummy recipes and decide what will make you feel pampered and special. Or, go out and have someone else cook for you! We were lucky enough to be given gift certificates to GlutenFree Mall and Outback Steakhouse, and I plan to use them for every penny! If you’re going out to a New Year’s Eve party, bring some treats. If you’re staying in, make something extra special. Around here, special means Buffalo Wings, but everyone has their own special treat that they love - find yours, and make sure you’ve got it. You deserve it after being “good” throughout the different parties!

Have a Happy Pampered New Year!

This is part of the Food Allergy Blog Carnival! Check out more entries, too.