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Navigating the holidays can be tricky — and if you or someone you love is gluten-free, it can feel downright overwhelming. From family dinners and cookie swaps to travel days and potlucks, gluten seems to pop up everywhere.

In this episode, Allison shares her personal system for staying gluten-free through the holiday season without missing out on the fun or driving yourself crazy. Drawing from her own experience living with Hashimoto’s and managing gluten sensitivity, she offers simple, realistic strategies to help you feel prepared, confident, and at ease — no matter what’s on the menu.

In this episode, you’ll learn:
— How to travel stress-free with simple “rescue snacks” and planning tips
— How to communicate with family and hosts about being gluten-free (without feeling guilty or apologetic)
— Why it helps to eat something beforehand when you’re unsure what food will be served
— Easy ways to recreate your favorite holiday dishes with gluten-free swaps
— What to do if gluten sneaks in — and how Allison manages accidental exposure
— A mindset shift that makes navigating food restrictions feel lighter and more empowering

Whether you’re newly gluten-free or hosting someone who is, this episode will help you plan ahead, enjoy the holidays, and keep your peace of mind intact.

Allison mentions the enzyme pills she keeps on hand

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Scroll down for a full transcript of this episode.

214. Traveling, Hosting & Dining Out Gluten-Free During the Holidays

Before we dive in today, I want to tell you how excited I am about a little mom gathering that I’m going to this weekend. In the spring at one of my daughter’s basketball tournaments, I ended up chatting with a mom that I did not know at all. We pretty quickly went deep on career journeys, being working moms, all of it. She was super thoughtful and interesting. And not long after she invited me to one of her social gatherings.

A small group of women who she brings together for an intentional conversation around a specific topic. She hosts these gatherings quarterly and invites women that she’s met or women that she knows well with the goal of fostering connection. Such a genius idea, right? Unfortunately, my schedule didn’t allow me to attend the first one, but I’m going to her fall brunch this weekend where we’ll be talking about our priorities around the holidays. When I got the reminder yesterday and looked at the guest list, I realized I do not think I’m going to know any of the 20 women attending. And I’m actually super stoked about that. I love meeting interesting women and having real conversations. So I’m going to report back to you all on how this goes because I think this might be something more of us should be trying to emulate. Okay, on to today’s episode. If you’ve recently gone gluten free or you’re hosting someone who is, the holidays can feel a little extra stressful. From travel days and family dinners to cookie swaps and office parties, gluten seems to pop up everywhere.

In today’s episode, I’m sharing how I navigate the holidays being gluten-free without missing out on the fun or driving myself crazy.

Hey there, Allison here. Welcome back to How Long ‘Til Bedtime. When I first shared about being diagnosed with Hashimoto’s and going gluten free in order to improve my health, I got so many DMs asking how I handled it, especially around the holidays. Eating out, traveling, and spending time with family who have never had to think about dietary restrictions, it’s a lot to manage when you’re trying to maintain your health and still enjoy yourself without stressing other people out. I’ll start by saying there is a learning curve. When I first went gluten-free, we were all at home during the pandemic. And honestly, that made it easier. I was in full control of my kitchen and I didn’t have to think about potlucks, buffets, or big family dinners.

But once travel and gatherings started up again, I noticed that I had a little, or maybe I should say a lot of food anxiety that was creeping in, especially around trips to visit family. I’d find myself worrying about whether there’d be anything that I could eat or what would happen if I got stuck in the airport. This is of course not really rational because there’s always little shops at the airport that have some sort of snack that I can eat and wherever I travel to there is inevitably a grocery store, but nonetheless the anxiety was real. These days I am much more relaxed because I have a little system that works. So here’s how I handle the holidays and being gluten free. Number one, I always pack rescue snacks.

You are never going to find me traveling without a few Chomps beef sticks in my bag. They have saved me more times than I can count on flights or long car rides. They are just a quick and easy snack. If we’re traveling over a meal time, I will often also throw in a salad that I’ve whipped together, a piece of fruit, a bag of nuts is often stashed in my purse and or some chopped veggies. Knowing I have something to eat takes so much pressure off. And the reality is I am not then eating the junk food that is at the airport or along the car route. Number two, I stop at the grocery store right away. When we’re visiting family, we often make a quick grocery store run between the airport and their house. I’ll grab a few basics, eggs, cottage cheese, some salad ingredients, and some type of protein. It just helps to have a few go-to items that I know I can prepare quickly if the group meal doesn’t work well for me. Number three, be proactive, but not apologetic.

If we’re staying with family, or going to a dinner at someone’s home, I’ll just let them know ahead of time that I’m gluten free. But I also immediately add, please do not change your menu for me. Instead, I offer to bring something that I can eat. It keeps the host from worrying and it ensures that I will have something to eat on my plate because what makes people really uncomfortable is if you say you can’t eat that and then you literally have nothing to eat and everyone’s all stressed out. But I have to tell you that now that I’m five years into my gluten-free journey, my mom who’s had to navigate this having never had anyone in her family with kind of food restrictions, she now totally understands what I can and can’t eat. And when it comes to planning out family dinners, she always checks with me on my dinner plans and what she’s making and ensuring that it’s okay. And she also just lets me navigate on my own breakfast and lunch. And so it kind of works for all of us.

And so many more people are gluten free these days that I have several friends to come to mind where I’ve eaten at their house recently, where they are not gluten free, but they happily made just a few swaps to make a planned dinner gluten-free. Like I ate at one of my friend’s houses not too long ago. She said she was serving lasagna and salad. I said, that’s awesome. My whole family will be thrilled with that. I’m gonna bring a little something for myself to go along with the salad because I can’t eat lasagna because of gluten. And she responded, no problem. We will use gluten-free noodles. And lo and behold, everyone was like, these are great, even though they had not had them before. So it worked out great. There’s a lot of easy swaps that people can make now. And I think a lot of people are more comfortable doing that.

If we’re headed to a bigger party or I’m going to a unique event, kind of like the women’s brunch that I mentioned to you that I’m going to this weekend, where I have no idea will be served, everyone’s bringing something to contribute to the brunch. So complete wild card. I will eat a small meal beforehand. That way I can focus on chatting and enjoying the event and the company instead of feeling anxious and looking around the table hoping that there’s something I can eat. And of course, in the example of this brunch that’s happening this weekend, the dish I bring will be gluten free. So there’s something that I know I’ll be able to eat. I mean, inevitably there’s always something that I can eat. There’s often fruits or a veggie tray. But if I eat something before, I don’t need to have that anxiety about what I will be able to eat at the event or the party.

Number four, recreate your favorites. If there’s a dish that you love to eat during the holiday season that typically would have gluten, and you are kind of new at this, I want to encourage you to find a way to make your own version of that dish. Pinterest and Instagram and chat GPT are full of gluten free holiday recipes. For me, gravy and Christmas cookies. I loved having those pre being gluten free. And over the last five years, I have found gluten free versions that are every bit as good and honestly sometimes even better. My kids will even tell you that. And at this point my immediate family is totally happy to eat gluten-free gravy so we don’t even make two versions in my house. And since I’m not celiac I will share with you guys that if I really want a bite of something with gluten I will take my gluten ease pills.

I always bring them with me when I travel or when I am spending time with family during the holidays because there are times where gluten will accidentally slip in somewhere. And so I like to have them handy. And sometimes I intentionally take a bite of something with gluten because I’m just dying to try it. So as long as I don’t go overboard, those little enzyme pills really do help me avoid my reaction to gluten, which in case you’re curious, looks like night sweats, headaches, and joint pain. That is how my body responds to gluten. And all of those things result in me getting a terrible night of sleep.

Okay, number five, don’t make it bigger than it is. So yes, being gluten free during the holiday season does require a little extra planning. But it doesn’t have to steal your joy and it doesn’t have to bring you the anxiety that it brought me. I treat it the same way I used to treat my kids sleep when they were little. I plan ahead. I don’t expect others to adjust their plans or their menus. And I don’t feel guilty or apologize for doing what works best for me and my health and wellbeing.

That mindset has made all the difference. So if this is your first gluten-free holiday season, give yourself some grace. It’s okay if it feels like a lot. I promise it gets easier every year. And if you are hosting someone who is gluten-free, you could really knock their socks off by doing some basic substitutions, can probably enter any recipe you have into the internet and find what you need to adjust. And you might be surprised that you like what you make. So cheers to a holiday season full of good food, happy memories, and peace of mind knowing that you can take care of yourself.

Thanks for listening and if you have a friend who is newly gluten free, please share this episode with them. I’ll see you back here next week. Bye for now.