Food, festivities and shopping: all of our holiday stories organized in one place.

Work-Back List

Use A Work-Back Sheet To Get Stuff Done

Take the stress out of planning any event with this tool used by event planning pros. (WORKSHEET)

Work-Back List

FREE WORKSHEET | The holiday season will never be as carefree for adults as it is for kids—we have too much work to do behind the scenes—but this year why not make things easier on yourself by using a simplified version of a “work-back schedule,” a tool employed by event-planning pros, to get everything done in a less hurried, more orderly and enjoyable manner. Read more

Gift Tag - Fifth & Hazel

Our Top 3 Printable Holiday Gift Tags

If you ever buy another gift tag, you will be wasting money. Here are a few of our favourites among the hundreds of printable ones you can find on the internet.

Gift Tag - Fifth & Hazel

FREE & EASY | While most of us put thought, time and money into the paper and ribbon we use to wrap Christmas presents, gift tags are apt to receive only brief and unsympathetic treatment. My brother, for example, doesn’t bother with tags at all, preferring instead to use a Sharpie to scrawl the recipient’s name across the top of his offerings. I’ll cut him the tiniest amount of slack given he’s an overworked business exec with a partner who’s not into Christmas, but the rest of us have no excuse for going such a lacklustre route with so many gorgeous, printable gift tags available for free on the internet. Here are three of our favourites, plus tips on using printable tags effectively. Read more

Pink Petal Dust On Pumpkins-Such Pretty Things

Where To Find Pink Pumpkins Right Now

Whoever said pink and orange never look good together hasn’t seen what devotees have done to the humble Halloween pumpkin.

Pink Pumpkin Patch foundation

TRENDING NOW | While we’re not about to completely write off the orange jack-o‘-lantern as the most recognizable symbol for Halloween, we have noticed that pink pumpkins in a variety of permutations are popping up everywhere. Read more

Plastic Eggs - iStock

How to Organize An Easter Egg Hunt

This clever spin on the traditional Easter egg hunt is participant specific.

Easter Egg Hunting-shutterstock

 

CREATIVE SOLUTION | At first it felt unnatural to hide plastic eggs instead of real ones because we didn’t grow up hunting for plastic on Easter so having our kids do so felt not only anti-Martha but like some kind of cheesy cop-out. But at some point it stopped being okay to sacrifice three dozen perfectly good hard-boiled eggs to the springtime muck in our backyard just so our kids and their friends could charge around Easter morning and ideally find them—yet never eat them.

So we have changed our tune and completely switched over to plastic, keeping the hand-decorated chicken eggs in the fridge for snacks or sandwiches. The plastic eggs have proved fantastic because we can hunt for them outdoors in all weather conditions and recycle them year after year.

Here’s how our hunt works: Read more

Orchid - iStock

Consider The Orchid

The long-lasting orchid, in myriad colours, is gaining ground on the traditional Easter lily.

Orchids

 

SHOPPING AROUND | Since it was first introduced in North America in the early 1900s, the stick-straight Easter lily, with its scraggly leaves and showy flowers that look like trumpets growing sideways out of its stalk, has been a mainstay on Easter morn altars across this continent and a top hostess gift for Easter dinner. But now orchids of all types and sizes challenge Easter lilies for pride of place—on the home front, at least—because they have qualities lilies can’t match. Read more

Where To Buy V-Day Roses Right Now

Of all the quality roses available for Valentine’s Day, the one’s at Whole Foods really are bargain priced.

Wholefoods_fairTrade_roses

 

PRICE CHECK | Just like at Christmas when they sold fresh, beautifully proportioned eight-to nine-foot-tall Noble fir trees for only $59, Whole Foods markets are offering a killer botanical special for Valentine’s Day: long stem roses at a particularly persuasive price. Read more

We’re All Heart: Find Free Valentines Here

This year, make it personal with downloadable and DIY valentine cards to give—and eat. (FREE, PRINTABLE VALENTINES + RECIPE)

Heart breaker Candy filled Valentine's Cards

 

FREE & EASY | Lucky in location, I live in one of several provinces in Canada that celebrates Family Day, a statutory holiday dedicated to promoting family life, on the second Monday in February rather than the third as some other provinces do. Having an extra day off just before Valentine’s Day means my kids and I have more time to make valentine cards to hand out at school and the heart-shaped cookie notes we share with one another. Read more

Paperless Post

Send Out Fabulous, Free New Year’s Cards

No, Virginia, it isn’t too late to send out gorgeous, free Christmas cards—really.Paperless Post Christmas Car

HOLIDAY 2012 | ’Tis the night before Christmas and all through the house disquietude prevails. Though your intentions were good, you have yet to snail mail holiday greetings to family and friends and you’re feeling like a slouch. Well, maybe you did fumble this one, but it won’t seem that way to your nearest and dearest when they receive a sophisticated holiday card with a personal message delivered directly to their inbox long before Santa slides by. Read more

Stack of Old Letters

Why A Christmas Letter Is The Perfect Gift

All I want for Christmas is one simple thing no amount of money can buy.

Stack of Old Letters

 

HOLIDAY 2012 | Somewhere around the first of December every year my kids ask me what I want for Christmas. This year I threw them a curve ball. I don’t need a lot of new stuff, and the few new things I might want (a Vitamix down the road, maybe) are insanely out of their price range anyway. Read more

Spiral Ham shutterstock

Why Not Do Spiral Ham This Holiday Season

One alternative to the turkey is “going spiral” this holiday season.

Spiral Ham shutterstock

 

EASY & DELISH | So many people I know are casting around for an alternative to turkey for Christmas dinner this year. Turkey for Thanksgiving is immutable, but for Christmas people are experimenting with goose, duck, pork or beef to get away from the same-old gobble-gobble. Read more