Enjoying the holidays with a food allergy sounds like an oxymoron, doesn’t it? After all, eating together is an integral component of the holiday season. I looked forward to making our traditional holiday foods until I was diagnosed with a dairy allergy in 2012. What was to enjoy about the holidays when the foods associated with it were off limits to me? I experienced a sense of separation from my family members as they enjoyed foods that were now off limits to me.

That holiday season was not enjoyable. At all.

My New Year’s resolution was to learn to make dairy-free versions of my holiday favorites so I could once again enjoy holiday baking and eating. In subsequent years, my commitment to the cause ramped up when we embarked on a multigenerational living adventure with our daughter’s family. She also has a dairy allergy, our son-in-law is lactose intolerant, and two of my grandchildren were dairy, gluten, and soy intolerant when they were young. Until they outgrew their food allergies, we were one of “those families” that made enjoying the holidays with a food allergy difficult for us and our hosts.

Slowly my daughter and I developed several strategies to make attending and eating at holiday gatherings not only doable, but also enjoyable. Here are some of our favorites.

1. Gather recipes. Compile allergy-free recipes all year long so you’ll have plenty of options to consider when the holidays roll around. A kid favorite at our house is Rice Krispie treats. They’re naturally gluten free. To make them dairy free, we use a butter substitute instead of butter. Many of my dairy-free recipes (which taste as good as their traditional counterparts) are housed at my website jolenephilo.com. Type “dairy-free” or “gluten-free” in the search bar to find our family favorites. Or do an internet search with those terms to get ideas from all over the world.

To read the rest of How to Enjoy the Holidays with a Food Allergy, visit Key MInistry’s blog for parents raising kids with disabilities and special needs.

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Photo by Jed Owen on Unsplash