For many, the real meaning of Christmas lies in sharing meals with family and friends. These feasts are often extravagant in style or size (or both) and are designed without our gut microbiomes and arteries in mind: Such is their joy.

They’re also often laden with tradition. My family’s festive table, however, has been through a series of evolutions. My pescetarian childhood Christmas was celebrated around an enormous bowl of pesto pasta. We had a few years of the traditional roast turkey, followed by beef when it was decided a big bird wasn’t worth the stress. Then the feast was vegan until last year, when my parents decided to welcome small amounts of dairy back into their lives.

All the meals were suitably celebratory, but the transition back toward dairy was notable because it echoes a shift I’ve seen multiple times among my peers. Several vegetarian and vegan friends have reverted to eating meat or are considering it, while — at least in my limited experience — no one seems to be going the other way. There’s also been a spate of celebrities renouncing plant-based diets too, including Lizzo, Miley Cyrus and Bear Grylls. Full disclosure: I’ve been a vegetarian for the last seven years, but I sometimes eat fish, and on a few occasions, I have eaten meat. (Some might call me a flexitarian.)