After looking at the state of the world and the pandemic right now, I’m going to assume you are not planning on having a normal holiday season, but rather a small gathering.
I’m here to tell you, that it may look different this year, but there are still a lot of fun ways to celebrate and enjoy the holidays.
Why we need to celebrate in a smaller way
Here in England, we’re in our second lockdown. Thankfully it’s not as restricted and our kids are still in school, but the idea is that being restricted to home will help control the virus and allow us to all get out and gather together for Christmas.
As a military family, we don’t get to spend a lot (or any) of holidays with our family.
This pandemic is making it difficult to think about when we’ll even be able to see family at all since we live so far away from them.
But hopefully, celebrating with a small at home gathering, with just your nuclear family, will help to get rid of this thing.
That way in the future we can travel to see family, friends, and neighbors and gather with them freely without restrictions.
It’s my biggest hope!
What’s the benefit of celebrating with a small gathering?
Although celebrating at home with your nuclear family may not sound that appealing after spending the better part of the year with them locked up at home, there are quite a few benefits of celebrating with a small gathering.
Let’s focus on those benefits:
- Less food to cook
- Less dishes to clean up
- Less of your house to clean before people come over
- No need to put on fancy clothes
- No need to make small talk with your cousin’s weird +1
How can we have a fun small gathering this Thanksgiving?
I put together a few dishes I think would be perfect for a small gathering on Thanksgiving.
Mostly because they are all small in size.
An individual sized charcuterie board cuts down on costs and waste of putting together a large grazing table. Put one at each person’s place setting and you won’t need to make a giant meal with such a substantial appetizer.
I added seasonal meats and cheeses to the individual boards to make it fit with the Thanksgiving theme. I used cranberry infused cheddar, apricots, and applewood smoked gouda.
Other ingredients that would work would be anything with sage, rosemary, or thyme. Pears and figs are great additions this time of year as well.
Another small appetizer bite that is perfect for a small gathering is an individual cheese ball.
You can find the recipe for the one I used here. Just roll or scoop the mixture into bite sized balls and place onto a cracker for a fun presentation.
Thanksgiving inspired meatball appetizer recipe
Another great Thanksgiving appetizer is this meatball recipe I threw together. It would also work really well for using up some of those Thanksgiving leftovers.
I will preface this with the fact that I’m not a food blogger, so this “recipe” isn’t really a recipe but a guideline of how to mix up some ingredients and make a meatball.
Meatball Ingredients
- 1 lb. sausage (use whatever kind you like)
- 1egg
- 1/2 cup dried stuffing mix like Stove Top (or use leftover stuffing)
- 1/4 cup craisins
- 2 stalks celery, diced
- 1/2 of an onion, diced
Instructions
- Sauté the celery and onions in a bit of olive oil
- Once sautéed let them cool
- In a bowl mix your sausage, stuffing mix, craisins, egg, and cooled celery mixture
- Feel free to add any seasonings you like, salt, pepper, thyme, rosemary, sage, etc.
- Place scooped meatball mixture onto a parchment lined baking sheet
- Cook in a 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes or until the meatballs are crispy on the outside
See I told you I’m not a food blogger. But there is some great seasonal flavor in these.
I also love that you can mix these up way ahead of your small gathering, freeze them, then cook them when you need them.
Making these dishes in small batches and small sizes makes it fun to snack on with the few people you plan to gather with.
Plus having everything pre-plated individually reduces the amount of stuff each guest at your small gathering has to touch.
Purchase what you need for your own small gathering this holiday season
Ready to host your own small gathering? Need a few things to serve these fun appetizers on? Just click the affiliate links below. I get a small commission if you purchase through my links, but it doesn’t cost you anything extra.
I sincerely hope you enjoy your holidays this year even if they are a little smaller. Mixing up how you serve things and the recipes you use will help to make this year even more memorable.
And hopefully by keeping it small this year will allow us all to celebrate together in so many big ways next year!
