Growing up, we would always spend Christmas Eve at my grandma’s house. Every year, my parents, aunts, uncles, and all the cousins would head over after church and gather for Christmas dinner, sparkling pear juice, and gift opening. Once the cousins had all aged out of the big gift exchange, the evening became more about food and family, and when my grandma died just before Christmas a few years ago, we were left wondering, for the first time, how to spend Christmas Eve.

Because most of our recent Christmases had surrounded her (we all still got her gifts and she was a very entertaining gift opener), we wanted to do something active to bring some cheer back into the holiday. My aunt had the perfect idea. Since she had just had her kitchen redone and now had room enough for everybody, she suggested we do a Chopped Cooking Competition. We split the family into teams and one person is designated to think of random (often strange) ingredients, buy enough for everybody, bring them to Christmas, and referee the games. The ref then reveals our mystery ingredients, just as they do on the tv show, and each team must prepare a dish featuring all of the mystery ingredients, as well as any other ingredients they can find in the kitchen, within a given timeframe. We do three rounds, first preparing an appetizer, then an entrée, and finally a dessert. After each round we sit around the table to eat the freshly prepared course, and score each dish based on taste, creativity, use of ingredients, and presentation. One team is eliminated after each round, until we are left with the victors.

Initially we were afraid that we’d end up with nothing good to eat, considering that the whole point is to make something out of nothing, and none of us are chefs. But we’ve never had a bad course! We managed to turn some nuggets, radishes, and other odds and ends into a delicious honey garlic chicken dish, and dozens of seemingly unappetizing mystery ingredients have been transformed into pastas, salads, stir fries, and other tasty bites over the years. The winning dessert, our very first year, was a holiday drink concocted by my cousin and uncles. Though the drink tasted great (it was some sort of ice cream float), the presentation is what secured them the trophy. With seconds left on the clock and everybody rushing to plate their desserts, my cousin ran over to the Christmas tree, a Balsam Fir, and cut off a small branch to stick in the top of the drink as a garnish. The tiny pine tree summitting the ice cream slopes pushed their presentation score over the edge and they won in a landslide! Though it has admittedly become a bit of a contact sport, what with there being only one stove, it has also become a cherished tradition and was a wonderful way to bring back the magic of Christmas.