My first Christmas (as a vegan)

This Christmas was my first as a vegan and I have to say it went both exactly the way I expected it to and not at all like I thought.

My extended family has a Christmas Eve tradition of going to The Keg Steakhouse for dinner. Being a steakhouse I didn’t have high hopes for a good vegan meal. And thank I God I didn’t otherwise I would have been VERY disappointed.

There were no vegetarian options on the menu, let alone vegan ones. None. Like, come on, most places usually offer one measly vegetarian dish. Nope, not The Keg.

The waitress was very nice, though, and put together a vegan meal for me: quinoa with sliced avocado and a side of steamed vegetables. It wasn’t the most filling and/or best-tasting meal I’ve ever had but at least it was something. Plus, I just filled up on alcohol anyway…

Below is a picture of my Christmas Eve meal:

My cousin thought my meal was so sad looking she made a Snap Chat story about it

Christmas Day went a lot better for me, vegan-wise. My Mom thoughtfully bought a bunch of vegan items for the morning breakfast so while they had their traditional bacon and egg breakfast, I had soy yogurt with granola, vegan wild berry waffles and lots of fresh fruit. I think her kindness and thoughtfulness in putting that together for me was the best gift I got that day.

And it didn’t stop there; For dinner she prepared a Tofurkey for me, alongside the traditional turkey she made for the rest of the family.

Here’s a picture of my Christmas dinner:

And here’s the Tofurkey

But, as I’m sure we all know, Christmas doesn’t begin and end with Christmas Eve and Christmas Day… there are usually A TON of Christmas parties leading up to and immediately following those two days. I went to a few this year and, generally, was able to avoid any vegan awkwardness but there were a couple where food was the main event and, again, I was touched by how thoughtful and sweet the hosts were in accommodating me.

A Christmas lunch I went to was entirely vegan except for the main meat dish the host prepared for everyone else. For me, she’d put together a delicious quinoa and bean salad. This was so touching because going into the lunch I’d fully expected to not be able to eat anything there because the host wasn’t particularly open to me being a vegan in the first place.

Of course there were a few food-focused Christmas parties I went to where all I could eat was from the veggie platter but I just made up for it by being a chegan and filling up on all the delicious desserts >:)

Overall, my first Christmas as a vegan was a good one and I’m so happy to have spent it with all the wonderful, thoughtful people I have in my life. It’s nice to have major holidays like these ones go well because it really encourages me to keep going with this vegan thing.