Like usual, I’m nowhere with Christmas shopping. Every year I run around in a cold sweat days before the 25th and every year I swear I won’t do it again. But I’m in great shape with holiday cooking—and in my case, that’s a challenge because we celebrate both Hanukkah and Christmas.

On the first day of Hanukkah, I tested these recipes for a classic Christmas dinner, which included roast beef, Yorkshire pudding, winter vegetables and gravy. (Here’s a slide show of the effort.)

But in the spirit of my interfaith household, I served latkes as an appetizer and sufganiyot, jelly doughnuts traditionally served on Hanukkah, for dessert. A heavy meal, to be sure, but a great one. (I used a latke recipe I found online — and darned if the latkes weren’t the best I ever made.)

Cooking traditional holiday meals may seem too time consuming when we are working, preparing to travel, shopping and coping with the costs and stress of the whole undertaking. But I recommend it. Home-cooked meals with family are always nice, but at the holidays, with timeless traditional recipes on the table, they can really be soul-warming.