Bust out the gelatin! It's Christmastime!

I ran into a LOT of Christmassy recipes in the past year, so looks like December will be a whole month of them. I originally posted about Marye Dahnke's Salad Book (1954) in the summer because of course I think of salads in the summer, but the book also includes a bunch of salads that seem holiday-ready (and of course loaded with Jell-O since there's always room for it-- even at a big holiday feast).

Some, I've just decided to call holiday-themed because of their color schemes. Tomato Aspic in Green Peppers is an easy one-- red inside of green!

Plus, you get to garnish slices of aspic-filled pepper with American cheese before serving-- easy to cut it into holiday shapes using tiny cookie cutters to be even more in the holiday style. (Nothing is classier than a star-shaped Kraft single sinking into tomato glop.)

If you want to get a little crazier with the flavors but stick to the red-and-green color scheme, the Cream Cheese Cucumber Ring might be for you. 

Okay, the gelatin might be only barely green, since it's mostly cream cheese and the only green part will be grated cucumber. You can always throw in a little green food coloring if you want. The real trick is that the onion-and-cucumber flavored cream cheese gelatin is topped with canned pear halves dyed bright red by cinnamon candies. Top with mayonnaise or salad dressing for a real(ly confusing) holiday "treat."

The book includes plenty of explicitly holiday salads too, though. I thought Poinsettia Salad might be one of those mostly-sweet gelatin salads topped with a marshmallow cut into a flower-ish shape and dipped in red sugar, but I was wrong.

It's tomatoes cut "into 5 sections, poinsettia fashion" (which sounds pretty difficult) and filled with cream-cheese-and-mayonnaise gelatin cubes. (Dahnke must have really liked an excuse to just straight-up eat blocks of mayonnaisey cream cheese. I might be close to agreeing if it weren't for the mayo!)

There's also a Holiday Salad swapping out the cream cheese for avocado if you feel like being just a little more health-conscious.

And it's easier to make because you don't have to try to pretend the tomatoes are flowers-- just slice 'em up for garnish!-- and you don't have to cut the gelatin into little cubes. (You do have to be able to unmold it, though, so maybe not as easy as you'd hope....)

The Holiday Luncheon Plate is supposedly good enough to make "Santa Claus himself... stop to sample this handsome mold." (I can't say as I'd ever think to call a Jell-O mold "handsome," but the '50s were a weird time.)

I have to admit this predominantly fruity version sounds much more palatable than anything so far (especially if you swap out the mayo for yogurt), but it BETTER be good-- 12 to 16 servings is a lot.

The Christmas Buffet Mold is a smaller and more simplified version-- you just have to be willing to forego cream cheese and gnaw on the occasional wood chip bit of diced celery to enjoy this one.

I hope you enjoyed this little trip to the past, when pretty much any occasion-- Christmas! Easter! Presidents' Day! Washday! Thursday!-- called for a big plate of food suspended in some reconstituted powder derived from collagen. 

One last look at "Cooking by the Calendar"

The December chapter of Cooking by the Calendar (1978) lets me know what editor Marilyn Hansen saw as the most fun part of the season: imbibing. 

The "Holiday Drinks" section has all manner of options for the adults (plus a few kid-safe ones). Along with the expected eggnog and mulled wines, there's a Malikihiki Mai Tai Punch for those who are spending their holidays in the tropics or-- more likely-- simply wishing they were. 

The "Gifts from the Kitchen" section also recommends giving the gift of social lubricant for the family-togetherness-heavy holidays.

You just have to be the plan-ahead type, as Vanilla-Coffee Liqueur takes a couple weeks to mellow. 

If you have a family of tea-totalers, you still have some gift options, like Winter Strawberries.

I'm not exactly sure who the target audience for strawberry-shaped wads of walnuts and coconut held together with strawberry gelatin and sweetened condensed milk is. Kids won't like the nuts. Grownups will think it's overly sweet. Maybe this is just supposed to be decorative?

And speaking of decorative, if your holiday party won't feel complete without some sort of food-related arts-and-crafts project, the book recommends a Holiday Sandwich Tree.

Guests can choose between sandwiches with a corned-beef-cottage-cheese-horseradish filling or a chicken-spread-water-chestnuts-ground-ginger filling, as long as corners are dipped in mayo and then parsley to resemble evergreen branches. (Or you can just sprinkle the whole thing with chopped parsley if you're running late!) If your guests aren't big on canned meat, the tree might remain a nice, intact centerpiece for hours. And maybe somebody else will host the big holiday party next year.

Whether you're in the holiday spirit or not, I hope December brings you something better than winter strawberries. That's it for Cooking by the Calendar! We'll see what the next year has to bring....