Food Network Magazine - (12)December 2020

y 18-year-old nephew

walked up to me at a

family cookout a while

back and asked where we’d be for

Christmas. I wanted to hug him, not

for his suggestion that we all get

together—although that was sweet.

I wanted to hug him because it was

September 27, and his ability to think

that far ahead was the most hopeful

thing I’d heard in months. Most of

us haven’t been able to plan for the

next day in 2020, let alone figure out

Christmas three months in advance.

On September 27, I didn’t even know

where we’d be living in December,

so I brushed off the question and

changed the subject.

But the crazy thing is, I actually

had been thinking about Christmas—

along with everyone else at this

magazine. We edit and photograph

our holiday issues in the summer,

and as I write this and get ready to

send the issue off to the printer, I

honestly don’t know how we’ll all feel

when it arrives. I’m not sure who our

next president will be, or how the

pandemic will play out, or if families

will fly to see each other this year.

I’m not even totally sure if “Happy

Baking!”—the big line we put on the

cover—will sound too...happy.

I keep thinking back to an issue we

published earlier this year, right before

Covid-19 struck, with a line on the

cover that said “Make a Sheet Cake

and Everything Will Be Fine.” The

timing was terrible: I mean, a sheet

cake is great, but it wasn’t going to

make everything OK—and it sounded

out of touch when the issue came out

a month later. So we thought long and

hard about what to put on the cover

of this issue, and we kept coming back

to the things that bring us joy: familiar

faces, fun recipes, festive cocktails

and...cookies. So many cookies.

Giant cookies, tiny cookies, crackle

cookies, cookies that look like

Mrs. Claus. We decided that we are

making cookies this year, no matter

what. And we’re making Yule logs, too,

and holiday roasts and over-the-top

latkes. All of it.

The holidays aren’t canceled. We’re

just going to have to do them the way

the Whos down in Whoville did: Let

go of the things we can’t have this year

and appreciate the people, and the

food, around us. If we do that, then

Maile Carpenter

Editor in Chief

@maile__fnmag

editor’s letter

16 FOOD NETWORK MAGAZINE ●DECEMBER 2020

BORDER PHOTO: JOHNNY MILLER. CARPENTER PORTRAIT: TRAVIS HUGGETT.

m

truly, everything will be fine.