Feast Seasons without Gluttony?

Christmas Eve by Carl Larsson

I started a thread over at Real Learning on maintaining weight loss through the holiday season, hoping to motivate myself through networking and support.   This is tough time of year for me as far as weight maintenance goes --  I usually end up exercising less and eating more.  I have already gained five pounds since Thanksgiving -- not a catastrophe, but 5 pounds a month until February would undo all my hard work last spring.  And believe me, it has happened. 

One of the points someone brought up on the thread was that though we don't want to let go of all restraint, we do want to be able to appreciate the festive nature of the Christmas season.    In other words, it IS a feast time.

So how does one feast without being gluttonous?  I would really like to get this straightened out in my mind for the future!  Obviously, when celebrating the Birth of the Infant, one wants to be festive and that doesn't mean gloomily chewing on a bread crust while eying everyone else's pecan pie.  At the same time, how rude, to ignore the Infant Jesus while shoveling more chocolate toffee squares into one's mouth, right?

I can see it in general terms, but the balance eludes me.  Any ideas or thoughts? 

I am thinking that maybe PLANNING some festive food into the day might work.    That takes the "Forbidden Food" pull out of the whole thing.  Planning festivity sounds sort of funny to me, like a contradiction in terms but actually, that is generally what one does.   Hard to have festivities without planning.

Another thing that occurs to me is to focus more on the "giving" or "communal" aspect of having good things to share with others... hospitality.  It is hard to be greedy or gluttonous when you are thinking of other people and what would make them happy.  Four Moms of Many share ideas on hospitality here (with links to more)