Don't Waste the Holidays by Pamela White
Looking outside I see the leaves turning gold…about three minutes before they fall off the tree. Raking leaves and hanging storm windows are they only chores we need to stay on top of right now. The holiday season is upon us and, while it's too late for us to submit a great holiday article, it is the perfect time to organize your thoughts, notes, photos and recipes for next year.
This year, be hyper-sensitive to what is going on around you. Listen to your guests' reminiscences about their happy holidays of years gone by. Take notes of any recipes they discuss. You can use their seventeen varieties of gelatin salads for a nostalgia article on Thanksgiving in the 1970's, or make your vegan sister-in-law divulge her gourmet holiday treats for another angle to pitch to editors.
Use the holiday parties for the kids at school, for work, for family, and for best friends to inspire you to develop new, exciting treats to share with these diverse groups of hungry holiday folks. Take pictures of people eating your food! You may be able to sell it to a small magazine by offering your party photos.
Use the next few months to investigate new (and I mean NEW) was to cook that old turkey. Forget smoked, roasted and fried; find a new way to present an old tradition and you'll have food editors swooning over you next summer when you pitch your holiday articles.
As we move through the next three months, write down the events you hear about – parties, teas, brunches, cookie swaps, children's parties, New Year's gatherings, and even parties for pets. Someone you know is coming up with a new feast idea. It's up to you to uncover what's unique, develop the recipes or cooking techniques, and write the piece.
Don't forget the importance of drinks during the holidays. Everything from mulled cider, Beaujolais nouveau, gourmet cocoa, peppermint flavored milk shakes and all those coffee creations we make to show off should be written about.
What else do you notice about the holidays? Do your friends decorate with cookie ornaments, hold taffy pulls, create popcorn balls or serve good luck meals on New Year's day? Keep writing it all down. Interview your friends about ethnic dishes and traditions, or just hang out with your neighbors and share the new culinary traditions they've begun in their own families.
Food is one of the magical elements in the holidays. Keep the magic flowing until the spring or summer when editors are looking for those great, different, one-of-a-kind holiday articles.
(c) Pamela White, 2006
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About the author: Pamela White is the owner of www.food-writing.com and www.thewritingparent.net . Each site has an ezine for writers, as well as online classes. Her works have been published in Writer's Digest, ByLine Magazine, Home Cooking, Soul Matters, Spirit Communication, Back Home, Futures Mysterious Anthology, and many other online venues. Her book, Make Money as a Food Writer in Six Lessons, is available at Amazon.com .
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