Holiday Sections: Decorating | Entertaining | Tech Gift Guide | Holiday Gift Guide

How-to Holiday

Festive ideas for spreading holiday cheer throughout your home

Home for the Holidays: Creative Ideas for Making the Holidays Memorable by Heidi Tyline King (Gold Street Press, 2007) $25 Christmas Merrymaking by Barbara Kissinger (Pelican Publishing Company, 2007) $19.95

Not Your Grandma's Holiday Cards

Holiday cards are developing into an art, going beyond mere greetings, becoming part of holiday decor with music, photos, pop-ups and more

E-mail may be all the rage, but people are still sending cards this holiday season: 2 million, to be exact. But that doesn't mean things haven't changed. Cards just keep getting better: more creative, fun and personal. If you're thinking about doing something new this year, perhaps some of these trends will inspire you. Here's what's new in the holiday card world.

Showcase Your Collections

'Tis the season for collectors. Holidays come but once a year, so here's how to collect and decorate in style

When mixing holiday season and sentiment, traditional decorating rules get buried in the snow. Come holiday time, the scrooge gets nostalgic and the spendthrift start splurging - suddenly purchasing one more Mr. and Mrs. Claus set becomes a no-brainer. The holidays bring out the collector in all of us, tempting us to splurge on extras - Christmas trees throughout the house, a menorah collection bright enough to light up the block, snow globes as far as the eye can see. In the spirit of joy and festivity, 'tis the season to let go of reason.

Stop Dreaming of a Red-and-Green Christmas

Stop Dreaming of a Red-and-Green Christmas

Red and green.Stop believing those are the only color options for holiday decorating. Go for hues that exude a wintry feel without kitsch or commonality.

DIY Holiday Decoration Idea

Family Photo Mobile

Get out that old box of family photos that you’ve been meaning to go through for years.

Welcome to Your Holiday Home

More intimate than outdoor lights that scream down the block, front-door decorations invite guests in with a hint of the holiday d'ecor style yet to come

Leslie Linsley can't imagine a winter without enjoying decorations on her front door that in some way reflect the holiday cheer.

Handmade, Heartfelt: How We Deck The Halls Now

Reinvent your holiday home with DIY decorations for every room

Whether it's a popsicle-stick reindeer, a cotton ball snowman, or a milk-carton dreidel, being a kid around the holidays means a lot of handmade holiday crafts.

Get The LED Out

Reinvent your light show this holiday season with energy-efficient LED lights

Every year, Gatlinburg, Tenn., goes all-out during the holidays, festooning downtown trees, lamp posts and storefronts with millions of glittering, colored lights.

Tips From the Top

Holiday decorating doesn't have to be a challenge. Here's how to make it fun, memorable and beautiful from holiday pros who know their way around a tree

If the idea of holiday decorating fills you with dread, try putting yourself in Brett Beaudette's boots. As head visual designer for the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn., he's faced with hanging enough lights, wreaths and ornaments to make the 4.2-million-square-foot facility feel warm and festive. And then there are the Christmas trees - more than 400 of them, two of which top out at 44 feet tall.

All Shades of Green

No need to choose - there's room in your home for both real and artificial greenery. Here's how to spice up your holiday d'ecor

Nothing conveys the holidays like festive greenery. But while real evergreen trees, pine bough swags and mistletoe kissing balls are all great in theory, the cost and maintenance aren't terribly practical.

Show Me The Tree!

Redefine how your home reflects the holiday season starting with your Christmas tree

Your Christmas tree doesn't have to look like the boxes of ornaments, garland and lights fell directly out of your attic onto it.

Books for Holiday Cooks – and Those Who Love Them

Hosts and hostesses in search of inspired menus for holiday entertaining will find much food for thought in the latest offerings in holiday cookbooks and entertaining guides. If you’re buying for a cook this season, consider the benefits of presenting an

Pillsbury Holiday Baking: Treats filled with cheer for a magical time of year by Pillsbury Editors (Wiley, 2007) $19.95

One Smart Cookie

How to decorate cookies like a pro

It’s not that there’s anything wrong with sprinkles or dots. A gingerbread man needs festive buttons, after all. But the holidays are the perfect time to expand your cookie-decorating repertoire. The good news: You don’t need to buy out your local baking supply store to achieve dazzling results.

D'oh! The Non-Baker’s Dozen

Does it get any easier than this? From one can of refrigerated dough, 13 simple, crowd-pleasing treats. As Homer Simpson says, D'oh!

Wouldn’t you like to be on a roll during the holidays?

When It’s Time to Pass the Turkey

You’ve stepped up to host the family’s big holiday meal for the first time. Here’s how to handle the cooking – and the emotions – with grace

As families grow and change, so do their holiday celebrations. Changing the annual feast’s location, menu, or both can wreak havoc on a family’s hearts and stomachs. Inevitably, though, there comes a time in every family when hosting the big day passes from one generation to the next and a new era is born.

5 Recipes for Holiday Fun

Why settle for the same old, same old holiday party? This season, cook up a whole new plan

The holiday party season starts in December and lasts well into the New Year. If you’re hosting one of these dozens of bashes, your party had better have some pizzazz if it wants to be remembered – or even well attended.

Serves You Right

Set a Festive Tone with Offbeat Tableware

To create a more innovative holiday table, look beyond traditional serving plates and bowls. Your strategy: repurposing. Chefs Geoff Gardner of Boston’s Au Soleil Catering, Gregg Wangard of Ocean and Vine at the Loews Santa Monica Hotel in California and George Jewell of Chicago’s Jewell Events Catering, weigh in on how to think outside the plate.

Party On! The Shameless Host’s Guide to Entertaining

Do less work. Have more fun. It sounds like a plan to us

Are great expectations for this holiday season weighing you down already? You’re in good company. Entertaining gurus say they get overwhelmed this time of year, too. Sheila Lukins, co-author of “The Silver Palate Cookbook,” just re-released in a 25th anniversary edition (Workman Publishing Co., 2007), admits that she doesn’t cook a complete Thanksgiving dinner from scratch. She leaves the baking to bakeries and outsources a side dish or two. And party-planner-to-the-stars Preston Bailey, with clients such as Oprah Winfrey and Catherine Zeta-Jones – a man who fashioned Leucospermum blossoms, peacock fathers and orchids into dozens of individual floral displays at each guest’s place setting for a client’s Balinese-themed wedding last summer – says keeping the décor simple can be the solution to holiday time pressures.

Have Yourself a Merry Little…

It’s time to think small. Little plates of food – a bit of this, a taste of that, a sliver of the other – is just how we want to dine, and how many hostesses want to entertain

Entertaining with small plates was so appealing to Kathryn Tortorici that she integrated the trendy dining style into her décor.

Why Stuffing… No, Dressing!… No, Stuffing! Rules

Don’t mess with the stuffing… or the dressing. Of all the foods on the Thanksgiving table, this unassuming side dish is the one that inspires the sharpest debate. Oysters? No Oysters? Cornbread? Fruit? Let the games begin

History books tell us the Civil War ended in 1865. Yet vestiges of the battle, at least a culinary version of it, simmer every Thanksgiving in the Fort Worth, Texas, kitchen of Lynaia and Allen Lutes.

‘Tis the Season for Sushi

Sushi, styled for the season, is a perfect holiday food

Sushi, the ultimate finger food, is making its way onto holiday tables – and not always with traditional trappings like wasabi and fresh ginger in tow.

Going, Going …

The fleeting pleasure of seasonal treats

You know it’s the holidays when the stockings are hung by the chimney with care – and Cap’n Crunch trades in his blue sailing garb for a scarlet suit.

Living high on the hog

You say salami, I say salumi.

Top Treats: Why Toffee Tastes Right, Right Now

Toffee, straight: no chocolate coating to hide behind, just the intense rich flavor of butter and sugar. Sometimes less really is more.

Doughnuts: Nibbling on the Dessert du Jour

Maybe it’s been years since you stood in line for a fresh-from-the-fat Krispy Kreme doughnut and maybe your thighs have finally forgiven you. Get ready for a caloric shock.

Smile! A Smart Camera Is Watching

They recognize faces. They wait for a subject to smile before they click. Digital cameras, perhaps the season’s most popular gift, may now officially be smarter than we are

By now, we’re all familiar with the routine digital camera specifications: megapixels, zoom, LCD screens. These are so familiar that they’ve become, well, passé. When camera shopping this holiday season, you need to familiarize yourself with a new lexicon: facial recognition, image stabilization, ISO and that transcendent buzz word, high definition.

Insider’s Guide to the Year’s Top Gear

If you’re like most holiday shoppers and forgot your pocket guide to all things technological, leave the research to someone else. Take a few tips from the CNET’s list of winners from the 2007 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas

See It, Hear It, Play It, Wear It

If you’ve got it, flaunt it. Just don’t forget the charger

In the old days, say, five years ago, high fashion and high technology were mediums that did not mix. Loving your cell phone or computer was not like loving that great new bag, super cute slides or fantastic jeans that made your butt look like that. After all, to pay for those Manolos, fashion maven Carrie Bradshaw used a payphone until Season 4 of “Sex and the City.” But, when Carrie answered her cell phone in the last scene of the series, just two years later, it was pink and encrusted with jewels – a fashion statement.

How to Wire Their Workouts

Technology can enhance just about anybody’s personal fitness regimen – from weakened warriors to triathletes in training. Here’s how to get with it

’Tis the season to eat, drink and be merry. Spirits imbibed, cookies inhaled and calories consumed in the name of the holidays never count … until Jan. 1, anyway. Luckily, this season also brings a grand selection of new technology geared toward giving us a little extra inspiration to get fit and stay fit. Come the New Year, someone on your gift list may be making a resolution to train for a triathlon, lose a few pounds or simply find a sport they want to stick with. Wrap up a special gift for them: a technology-driven fitness product designed to make them want to sweat.

The Buying Game

When it comes to selecting the right video or computer game, don’t play around. Ask the experts

Gamers often sit back and put their feet up when they play video games. Why not use the same technique to track down a great gift for your favorite player? Each summer journalists who cover the world of gaming vote for the Game Critics Awards games of the year at Electronic Entertainment Exposition, the summer trade show and new product launch held in Las Vegas. The Best of E3 2007 honored titles in 16 categories, from best handheld game to best strategy game. So if you don’t know, now you do. Let the games begin.

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This season, two letters will stand out on wish lists. It’s definitely time to study up

There’s nothing more terrific than cutting-edge technology. There’s also nothing more terrifying. Every wow-inducing, crave-worthy feature is accompanied by a mind-numbing mishmash of letters, numbers and formats that can leave shoppers beelining for the door. Thankfully, there’s an antidote for electronics anxiety: high-definition technology.

MPwheee Players

Give them music – and more – wherever they go. The latest portable media players are virtual home-entertainment systems that fit in a pocket

Portable media players, including MP3 audio devices and models that can further store and display digital video files, will once again be high on the wish lists of adults and teens this holiday season.

Get Crafty

Hobbies such as knitting, jewelry making and scrapbooking do more than just keep our hands busy. Here’s how to give a gift that tempts someone off the sidelines and into a passionate lifetime pursuit

The next time a loved one throws herself a pity party, pay attention. You may actually get clues for holiday gift giving.

Talking a Good Game

Today’s games are about communication first, convenience second. Winning? That’s just icing on the cake

Would you rather suck fresh milk directly from a cow’s udder or drink store-bought milk two days after it’s gone bad? The question, from Zobmondo!! Entertainment’s latest board game, “Would You Rather…? Sick, Twisted and Wrong,” is a far cry from the typical “Trivial Pursuit” query.

Happy Holistic Holidays

Some of the season’s brightest gifts are those that inspire us to pursue a healthier, balanced, more rewarding path. Here’s to giving – and living – the good life

This season, the definition of an indulgent gift goes beyond expensive jewelry and designer handbags. Smaller luxuries that make life better – a massage, a hot cup of tea, a restorative lotion – can be the most inspired gifts of all. Think about giving those who count most in your life – your spouse, sister, mother or best friend – gifts that inspire and uplift; gifts that are beautiful and good for them, in a calming sort of way; gifts they will love you for every time they use them.

Peace on Earth

Gifts in the Perfect Shade of Green

Organic, non-toxic, sustainable, earth-friendly gifts are quietly everywhere this season. The best of the lot are beautifully designed and whisper, rather than shout, their eco bona fides.

Take 10: Award-Winning Children’s Books of 2007

Global Travel, No Leaving Home

Like the nutritional value of vegetables, the fact that a book has won a big award is hugely irrelevant to children. But a good story – bring it on. And could you read it again, please? This year, give the gift of endless possibilities. Imagination might not fit in a box with a bow, but a book will. These titles were winners of or finalists for some of the most prestigious awards in children’s literature for 2007.

Take 10: Animated Film Favorites of 2007

Dare to Dream

Some of the year’s best movie memories came courtesy of Hollywood’s computer animation wizards. Travel the sewers of Paris with a rat named Remy who dreams of becoming a great French chef in “Ratatouille.” Take an unexpected detour with Lighting McQueen, the young racer who exits the fast lane to learn what life’s all about in “Cars.” The 2007 Oscar nominees and some of the year’s hottest box office draws in animation will charm kids and anyone who’s ever dreamed big.

Take 10: Top Albums of 2007

Listen to the Ladies

Believe Beyoncé when she sings, “Let me upgrade you, Flip a new page, Introduce you to some new things.” Some of the freshest music to bow this year came from female vocalists. These critically acclaimed new albums landed in the Top 25 on the Billboard charts. If someone on your gift list loves new music, one of these CDs is bound to please them. You, too.

Take 10: Top TV Shows of 2007

Relive Every Titillating Moment

Are there escape artists on your gift list? Wrap up hours of blissful couch time by giving them a season’s worth (or more) of a top TV show, commercially uninterrupted. The following titles were nominated for 2007 Golden Globe Awards for excellence in TV series and drama.

The Online Life of Toys

Forget the pink convertible. These days Barbie’s speeding into cyberspace, along with lots of other new toys. Welcome to the new world of child’s play, where only half of the fun is in the physical world

There was a time when most toys were tangible and children played with them alone or with other youngsters close by.