"how hard is it to be vegan during the holidays?

Don't worry, I'm going to post whatever vegan concoctions my family and I cook up this year for Xmas when the time comes, but since I've been asked a million times before 'how hard it is to be vegan during the holidays,' and since I happen to have these photos from a year or two back on Thanksgiving, I thought I might as well post them, and then give a fuller and more thought-out answer to the question at hand. The quality is significantly better than the other photos on this blog that I've taken only with my MacBook. This is because my sister Vanessa was a photo major in her undergrad (She's since left photography for net.art).

Anyway, so here it is, what a vegan eats for Thanksgiving--
(not pictured are the cranberries, vegan raspberry swirl cheesecake and apple pie)

Faux turkey cutlets.

Stuffed acorn squash with wild rice and cranberries.

Cornbread stuffing with apples, rosemary and sage

Roasted sweet potatoes with toasted pecans and brown sugar.

Green beans with fried onions

Garlic mashed potatoes


This is why I usually just laugh it off when people ask me how 'hard' it is to be vegan during the holidays. Being vegan is as abundant a lifestyle as I could ask for. I don't 'miss' anything at all from when I ate animals. If I had it, I wouldn't enjoy it. This is what I eat not because this is what I am allowed to eat, but because it is what I choose to eat, and in that I see an abundance I never imagined would come from conscious eating. The holidays are not just a time to unreflectively gorge on the foods that slowly kill us, made by the corporations that don't give a damn about us, relieved that 'today doesn't count,' and feel terrible about it the next day when you draft your new years resolutions. The holidays are a time to celebrate the abundance of resources that we have, and I'm thrilled that those resources allow me to give back to the world, my body, and other animals not just in spite of the holidays, but especially during the holidays, a time when the delicate, awesome power of the environment, the gift of our health and embodiment, and the welfare of the least among us should be at the forefront of our minds. For me and other veg*ns, the holidays are not a time where we grit our teeth and grudgingly surpass the turkey's breast or pig's leg because we 'have to.' For me at least, the ever-threatened, ever-abused 'true spirit of the holidays,' and the reasons that I choose veganism aren't in conflict--they flow from the same part of me--the part of me that embraces community, compassion, and respect for life. So in answer to the omnipresent puzzlement "it must be hard to be vegan during the holidays!?" my best and most honest response would be to laugh and say "how hard? as hard as it is to feel charitable during the holidays, as hard as it is to feel compassion during the holidays, as hard as it is to feel love during the holidays. The flavors of animals are long-gone from my palate. I don't even remember them anymore, so how could I miss them? The foods on a vegan holiday table are overwhelmingly flavorful, rich and healthy. Nothing is missing. I would choose them over meat and dairy even if I got a no-strings-attached option, just once a year, that let me eat meat that no animal had to die for. I would still choose these foods. A vegan holiday is not one of sacrifice and self-discipline. It is not one of bland flavors and colors. A vegan holiday is one of abundance, compassion, health, flavor, growth, community and joy."

...that's how hard it is to be vegan during the holidays.