Since my good ol’ Southern California home isn’t exactly designed for the makings of a picturesque white Christmas, the past week I’ve taken it upon myself to maintain festive cheer the one way I know best: sharing good food. Steamed local cauliflower and hearty kale salads have become some of the staples for dinner, and it’s inevitable that the almond gingerbread men and acai berry fudge plate gets at least 3 visits a day.

But the big hit this season has been, indeed, in the hot chocolate category: my uber awesome recipe for Candy Cane White Hot Chocolate.

Homemade, using ingredients you can feel really good about, and scoring 1000% on the “special” test, make this delight for yourself and those you love and tell me you don’t see smiles. Luxuriously creamy and sweet with a tickle of candy cane flavor, this warm drink is like confronting a polar bear who (instead of being big and scary) was really friendly and gave you a belly rub and a candy cane for your time. I know these things.

Happy Holidays & Good Tidings!

Candy Cane White Hot Chocolate

An instant new holiday tradition! If store-bought hemp milk is used as opposed to homemade, I recommend Living Harvest brand – it has a white, smooth viscosity that is ideal for this recipe. Rice milk works as well, but consider leaving out some of the water as rice milk it is naturally a thinner type of milk.

INGREDIENTS:
¼ cup water
1 cup unflavored hemp milk
1½ Tbsp shaved cacao butter
1½ tsp agave nectar, or to taste (stevia also makes a good substitute)
3-4 drops mint extract
¼ tsp vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS:
In a small saucepan, heat all the ingredients over low for about 5 minutes (cacao butter should be entirely melted at the surface). Transport to a blender and blend for 30 seconds to emulsify cacao butter into the beverage. Or, keep liquid in pan and use a hand-held blender to whisk directly in the saucepan. Serves one.

Natural benefits: low sugar, omega fats

And there it was again, Christmas morning.

The warm smell, the golden fluff doused in syrup, the entire waffle “experience” — I instinctually found myself reaching for an orange not out of hunger, but more for distraction.

The truth was I didn’t want the waffles. What I did want was the tradition. I wanted to join in. I wanted to take part in the “family time.”  And in this case, family time was waffles. Even my normal exuberance for a juicy seasonal orange served as no match for the social connection of syrupy breakfast.

I’m not alone in feeling this way. A recent LA Times article suggests that humoring this type of nostalgia is actually considered clinically therapeutic. Krystin Batcho, a professor of psychology at Le Moyne College in Syracuse, N.Y. and leading researcher on the emotion, claims that nostalgia’s importance extends to feeling like one is maintaining a sense of identity.  Batcho claims, “Nostalgia, is like looking in a rearview mirror.  Do I still have the values and priorities I had before? It gives us stability when we live in a time of constant change.”

Of course the real paradox is that my personal values of health and being fabulous (it’s a value, trust me) do not necessarily coincide with the empty calories and sugar rush of waffles. Traditions only work if they marry with your values; doing something “just for tradition” may be an empty excuse, even if people you love are egging on your participation.

So here’s my pitch.  All traditions start somewhere. And we can be nostalgic about something we did just last week, if it’s fabulous enough. So in regards to the social connection food often takes on, why not simply make new traditions.  Healthy traditions.