Caroline's Christmas Strategy: 'I Start Drinking Wine Early'

Face it – the holidays aren't always so jolly. "I start drinking wine early," Caroline Manzo joked on The Chew about her Christmas Eve coping mechanism.

If the season brings uninvited guests to your door (and we're not talking about carolers!), the Real Housewives of New Jersey star advises, "Just go with it – it's a holiday. It's meant to be happy… and then when they leave and you give them a little goodie bag, give them the burnt cookies."

She's just kidding -- we think. "It's only a few hours, and maybe that will mend things. Maybe you'll find out something about them that you didn't know that you might like."

As for her own December 24th dinner, Caroline puts a personal spin on the Italian customary Feast of the Seven Fishes. "The signature dish was really born from necessity. We had a farm in upstate New York -- grew up in Queens -- and every summer we'd go up to this farm," Mama Manzo explains. "We wound up there Christmas one year. There was no food in the cupboards – just canned stuff. My dad made a sauce based on the tomatoes we had and olive and olive oil, and it's olive sauce over linguine. That's the signature thing that's become a tradition in our house."

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