6 holiday recipes to try this season, courtesy of “With Love, Meghan, Holiday Celebration”

If you’re like me and forget to purchase your Advent calendar in time before the beginning of December, fret not! Meghan suggests creating your own calendar from scratch using a hanging organizer that features rows of pockets. If you don’t have one readily available, you can also use small envelopes or cardboard boxes glued onto a piece of foam board. You can even get creative with fabric bags and string or ribbons.

“I love the idea of an advent calendar, so I wanted to do it for my own kids,” Meghan says at the beginning of her holiday special. She fills hers with small chocolates and little love notes.”

“And all it’s really about is having a surprise and delight every single day for 24 days until you get to Christmas,” Meghan adds. “They’re not supposed to be big things. They’re supposed to be small gestures…Just embrace the special touches that bring you joy.”

A nostalgic snack from her childhood, Meghan reimagines homemade “puppy chow,” a classic no-bake snack, as festive “reindeer chow.”

“[L]et’s do a throwback, ‘cause we want to talk about what happens as you grow up and elevate what you eat, but also the things, especially around the holidays, that become sentimental that always stay with you,” she says.

Her recipe only calls for a short list of ingredients that also happen to be pantry staples. To start, combine butter and semisweet chocolate chips in a large bowl and put them in the microwave to melt. Add one-third cup of peanut butter and a splash of vanilla to the bowl and stir them into the melted chocolate mixture. Pour that mixture over your favorite corn, wheat, or rice cereal and mix everything using your hands. Using a sifter, sprinkle two cups of powdered sugar onto the coated cereal and mix once again. Let the reindeer chow cool before serving — or packing.

For restaurateur Will Guidara’s wife, chef and cookbook author Christina Tosi, Meghan packs her homemade reindeer chow in a tall jar adorned with a festive bow.

The perfect showstopper for Christmas brunch, Meghan’s festive cinnamon-sugar star is not only beautiful, it’s also a delight to enjoy.

To make, you’ll need three layers of dough — which Meghan says she prepped earlier. Each layer is slathered with a decadent mixture of brown sugar, butter and cinnamon that will melt into warm, sugary goodness while baking. The star is then assembled by placing a small bowl in the center of the dough layers and cutting around the bowl’s circumference, through all three layers. The individual sections of dough are then twisted together to form a corner of the star. The finished star is bathed in an egg wash before going into the oven.

Let the baked star cool before sprinkling with a generous dusting of powdered sugar. Serve and dig in!

For her guest, Naomi Osaka, Meghan makes a vegetable crudité platter shaped like a festive wreath.

“People associate wreaths with the holiday, and this is a great way of modernizing something that is traditional,” Meghan explains. “Just sticking with green vegetables, you go all the way around [your elevated serving plate], put your dip in the middle, or you can sort of anchor it with your dip here at the bottom, almost as though that would be where your bow moment is.”

She uses a medley of green vegetables with different textures, including broccolini, asparagus and peas in a pod. Meghan adds a spark of red with cut radishes and pomegranate seeds. The vegetable crudité wreath is then finished off with a store-bought tahini dip drizzled with honey.

Meghan’s recipe for a holiday-themed French 75 stays true to the cocktail’s classic recipe, but adds a special seasonal twist. The formula remains the same — gin, champagne, lemon juice and sugar — yet calls for a specific ratio of alcohol to juice and syrup. Per Meghan, her cocktail calls for two ounces of gin, one ounce of lemon juice, one ounce of homemade pear and ginger syrup and three ounces of champagne. It’s garnished with berries and candied rosemary and ginger.

“M]y mom has been making gumbo for Christmas Eve for years now. It’s a once-a-year thing that she does, and so we’re going to make some gumbo,” Meghan says in preparation for welcoming Tom Colicchio into her kitchen.

Her family’s version of gumbo starts with chicken thighs, which are seasoned with paprika, cayenne, oregano and salt. While that marinates, the roux is prepared, which calls for a generous amount of olive oil. Andouille sausage and the marinated chicken are cooked in a separate pot before adding in the onions, peppers, celery, garlic and homemade roux. Next, add in broth and filé powder. To finish, put back the cooked sausage and chicken and serve over rice.