It is officially the holiday season! While the holidays are the time for enjoying friends and family, let’s face it—there’s food everywhere.  While this time of year can challenge even the most disciplined among us, there are plenty of ways to enjoy holiday celebrations  and avoid holiday weight gain.

Consider starting a new family tradition that doesn’t revolve around eating, such as making holiday crafts, volunteering at a charity or arranging a family scrimmage in your sport of choice. 

Inevitably though, delicious, fragrant foods are going to be a part of your celebrations.  With that in mind, here are some helpful ideas for enjoying delicious food in moderation during the holidays:

• Pick your battles. When confronted with holiday delights, realize that you are human and indulge a little. Pick the one item you absolutely must splurge on and put a small amount of it on your plate, guilt free! 

• Fill your plate with healthy things. If you look closely, you can always find a healthy option.  Things like fresh veggies and dip, shrimp and cocktail sauce, cheese cubes or hummus and pita bread are nutritious and satisfying.

• Plan ahead. If you know ahead of time that you will be in a situation of temptation, consider starting with good nutritious foods before you go out, in order to minimize cravings.

• Read more tips on How to Avoid Holiday Weight Gain .

Remember that one day of indulging isn't going to sabatoge your healthy eating efforts for the year. If you overdo it one day you just have to recommit to healthy habits and move on.

It’s time to start planning your Thanksgiving meal and Meals Matter can help. Planning ahead is one of the easiest ways to avoid becoming overloaded during the hectic holiday season.

To help families take some of the stress out of preparing a Thanksgiving feast, we've selected some of our favorite make-ahead holiday dishes. Several of them can be made ahead of time so you’ll have plenty of extra time to spend with your family, instead of preparing food, this Thanksgiving.

For a festive family feast that’s relatively stress-free, plan on Maple Roasted Turkey with Stuffed Squash with Bulgur and Feta and Maple-Pumpkin Custards with Crystallized Ginger. Both the squash and the custard can be made in advance, leaving you with plenty of time for the turkey.

Here are some delicious holiday appetizer and side dish recipes that can also be made in advance: Spinach Balls, Caramelized Apples with Toasted Walnut Brie, Triple Cranberry Sauce and Thanksgiving Giblet Gravy.

Turkey needs to be carefully stored, thawed and cooked to prevent foodborne illness.

Turkeys are large, often purchased frozen and typically filled with stuffing, which makes it more difficult to thoroughly cook the bird to a safe internal temperature of 165 degrees.

We’ve put together Tips for Cooking a Turkey to help you purchase, thaw and prepare your turkey safely.