NEWPORT — Many people would no doubt like to have an extravagant Christmas — lavish decorations, sumptuous food, homemade gifts — without the stress that preparation entails. A slim, easily read book by Betsy Watson can help with that goal.
The book, The Modern Woman’s Guide to an Old Fashioned Christmas, is the product of Watson’s three decades of experience in creating memorable family holidays.
“I feel that I’m creating memories for my children, and I’m creating traditions,” Watson said.
The book actually came about because Watson’s two sons are not yet married, and it’s possible that when they get married, Watson won’t be around to share her expertise with her daughters-in-law, she said.
“I could get hit by a truck or something,” she said, laughing, “and they wouldn’t know how to do Christmas right.”
Watson wrote her little guide primarily to help young married women create memories and traditions for their families, she said, but the guide provides quite a few helpful hints for old hands at celebrating Christmas as well.
Watson said that beginning in her childhood, she always dreamed of a bigger Christmas than her birth family had.
“My mother was very sensible and practical, and she did not do a big Christmas,” Watson said.
When she got married, Watson decided to create her own big Christmas.
“I found out why my mother was so sensible,” she said. “I learned quickly that it was a major undertaking.”
A big Christmas isn’t possible if you wait until December to start, Watson said. September — or even earlier — works better.
“The main thing is planning,” she said. “Do only what you can manage.” After all, the point is to have fun, she said.
Mistakes — and learning from them — are part of the process, Watson said.
During one of her early Christmases, for example, Watson used live greenery to decorate the stairway banisters and fireplace mantel. Live greenery dries out quickly, she explained, and becomes a fire hazard. Another problem was that her allergies kicked in while she was removing the greenery post-holiday, and she became quite ill, she said.
Then there was the way she chose to dispose of the mantel greenery.
“I threw it in the fireplace, and it exploded,” she said.
She never used live greenery again, Watson said.
About 15 years ago, for some of the same reasons, her family exchanged its usual 10-foot Canadian balsam fir for a pre-lit artificial Christmas tree because it’s so much easier, Watson said.
Christmas dinner was also a challenge early on, especially because Watson didn’t know how to cook when she got married.
“I thought it would be grown-up to make Christmas dinner, especially rolls,” she said.
She quickly learned not to be disappointed when food that took hours to prepare was eaten in a matter of minutes. She gets around this experience by preparing as many of her holiday dishes as early as possible and freezing them.
“By the time they’re eaten, you’ve forgotten how long they took,” she said.
The main dish also taught her some things.
“I’ve had lots of turkey disasters,” she said.
One year, she left the paper-wrapped giblets inside the bird. Another year, she didn’t get the bird completely thawed, with the result being that it wasn’t completely cooked when served.
Everything she has learned in the past 30-plus years, Watson has carefully recorded in a sectioned red ring binder, “so I don’t have to reinvent the wheel,” she said of writing her book.
The book contains charts, measurements, recipes and gift ideas, among other things.
“My notebook has become my salvation,” she said. It is the basis for her holiday guide.
The Watsons live in a two-story home in Newport. They expect to move into a one-story home in 2016, which probably means reinventing another wheel or two. Watson said she looks forward to it.