Essential equipment, suggestions for setting up an in-home bar, great homemade gift ideas, knowledgeable wine and cheese pairing notes from wine expert Peter Marks, and plenty of simple and simply delicious menus cover any occasion from Rosh Hashanah to Thanksgiving to New Year’s.

From drinks and appetizers to entrées and desserts, each festive recipe is designed to reduce prep time and streamline cooking techniques, so hosts can spend more time at the party and less in the kitchen.

Seriously Simple Holidays

Halloween Bears

These Bearington Collectibles are the perfect Halloween gift for the little goblins your life.  Each bear is made with the impressive attention to detail and the dependable high quality you’ve come to expect from the Bearington Collection of stuffed toys.

Halloween Bears

We never get tired of the holidays.  We first stumbled across the Bearfoots Ornaments on a trip to Anchorage, AK.  Now, whenever we travel – we make it a point to pick up a holiday ornament to commemorate the trip.

At Bear at Home you are sure to find something beary special for all of your Christmas shopping needs.

• Holiday Stockings – This large stocking can “bear” alot of gifts.   17″ long Christmas Stocking – Hooked with New Zealand wool – Velveteen backing and lining

• Bearfoots Ornaments – Our inspiring new ornaments can’t wait to hang around with you. As always, you’ll find a passel of critters that would much rather celebrate than hibernate.

• Beartivity 5 Piece Set - Always a favorite!

• Brr Bear with Penguin Cookie Jar – Not even this friendly polar bear can keep little hands for grabbing all the cookies.  Oh well, that’s kinda the point isn’t it?

We are seeking submissions of images representing our community, then and now. We want to celebrate the joy, the fun, and the vitality that can be found in a rustic world.

We want you to find your favorite holiday picture. You know the one where your brother had shaved your eyebrows or your Mom cut your bangs . . .

Scan it and send it along with a current picture. We will then post the top ten and see if our readers can match the then to now.

The last few weeks sure have been bumpy.  With presidential politics hitting a frenzied pitch and "market analysts" trying to figure out "how bad is it?" – The rest of us are just left frazzled and worried.

We can’t tell you where the economy is going to land or how hard the landing is going to be, but we can offer you a little relief for your holiday shopping. We are offering 15% off all our Big Sky products including bear ornaments and holiday figurines. These include brand names like Bearfoots, Brushwerks Bear, Maskwa Ridge and Big Sky Christmas

When you check out simply enter the code "fallbears" for your discount.  This offer is good through November 15th.

Now, don’t you feel better you got that out of your system?

Fat Tuesday is Mardi Gras, the festival New Orleans, Louisiana, is famous for. "Gras" is French for fat and "Mardi" is French for Tuesday.

Fat Tuesday always occurs on the day before Ash Wednesday. The parties and parades will continue until Lent begins at the stroke of midnight on Tuesday.

Mardi Gras is also known as Shrove Tuesday. Shrove Tuesday gets its name from the ritual of shriving that Christians used to undergo in the past. In shriving, a person confesses their sins and receives absolution for them.

Fat Tuesday is something of a "last call" before the expected reflection and abstinence of the Christian Lenten season. Lent is the forty day period leading up to Easter.

It has been a little quiet the last few days …

I imagine most folks are off doing some last minute holiday shopping (I actually spent the better part of the day finishing last minute wrapping).

For some folks, the holidays are challenging times. Please remember those who are less fortunate.  Sometimes all they need is someone willing to lend an ear.  Though we may share different traditions and be geographically dispersed, we are still a community.

I opted for a Victorian Motif – mother of pearl ornaments, cherubs, white lights and so on.  The tree looked picture perfect despite its diminutive stature.  It looked like a tree you would see in a shop window, not in a warm and cozy den.  Admittedly, I didn’t have a den, but isn’t that the idea?
 

20 some odd years later, our tree is a far cry from those early days.  Now, it’s a tree of memories.  Part of our holiday routine is going out to select the tree.  That one is too tall, that one is too sparse, and inevitably we settle on what we believe is the perfect tree.
 

Once in our home, the pine aroma fills the house – marking the start of the holiday season.  We string the lights and then it’s time – the ornaments!
 

Here’s wishing warm memories this holiday season . . .

As a former vintage modern dealer and author of “Kitschmasland!,” a book devoted to Retro Christmas decor from the 1950s through the 70s, I have amassed quite a collection over the years. My partner and I like to mix these holiday decorations with our year-round collections.

You can do the same – look around your space for accessories that may translate easily into that “Atomic Yule” look. Ceramics or art glass in red, white, or green can be used as tablescapes with dramatic poinsettia arrangements. Fill up a modern glass cylinder vase with silver ball ornaments for a simple but elegant centerpiece. Display your vintage tin toy collection on shelves with other Christmas decorations or around the base of your tree. The possibilities are endless.

For interior decorating there are such classics as the 60s felt Pixie elf dolls for grouping on a fireplace mantle or dining table, small light-up plastic Snowmen and Santas – these are actually great displayed on a bathroom vanity or kitchen counter to add mood lighting for parties creating an endless assortment of vintage centerpieces for tablescaping, garlands, and more. You can even still find those cardboard stencils to make window designs with spray fake snow!

Outfitting your front yard can be just as easy: the larger sized plastic light-up lawn decor such as Santas, Carolers, Candles, Snowmen, etc., I found a large number of 60s toy soldiers to line our walkway on eBay. Always check the shipping charges on these listings – sometimes they can be more than the item is actually worth. Also, this year Walmart is offering a vintage style light-up plastic Santa that looks like the real deal. We found him in their garden department. Target has similar designs.

Also found on eBay are the paper posters to hang on your front door of Santa welcoming visitors. But you can be creative and do something more personal – covering the door with foil gift wrap, ribbon, and a huge bow is a very classic 50s/60s look and quite elegant (and inexpensive too!).

For lighting you can find the old school large outdoor bulbs to outline your ranch roof in classic vintage style. I have also seen some really cool homemade lawn decor from those periods which have a one-of-a-kind “folk art” look.

For your Christmas tree you can find stunning blown glass ornaments or the old standby “Shiny Brite” ornaments (Christopher Radko currently reproduces many of these designs), angel tree toppers, and those atomic looking sputnik ornaments from the 60s. Again, a lot of these are being reproduced by the more hip stores – especially Target. We always make several pilgrimages to Target during the holiday season – their displays, marketing, and merchandise never ceases to be brilliant.

One of our personal vintage Christmas collectibles is the line of Starry Eyed Santa ceramics by Holt Howard from the 50s and 60s. These whimsical little guys really have that atomic look – we display them in groupings on shelves along with other favorite Kitschmas items. Look for these on eBay or your favorite vintage shops.

If you really want to get some wonderful ideas for holiday decorating, look for vintage magazines and books from the 50s and 60s dedicated to this decor. Old “Better Homes & Garden” type magazines published yearly holiday issues that offered a huge assortment of craft ideas that you can recreate at home – kids love it too. And even better, you will most probably be the only one on your block to have them!

I hope this article helped to inspire you with your holiday decorating – next week we’ll discuss the perfect vintage tree…

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Travis Smith

www.kitschmasland.com

www.goodeyeonline.com/design.htm