Dec 20 2025
Every December, millions of families perform a ritual that would look rather strange if we had not grown up with it. We bring an evergreen tree indoors, cover its branches with lights and ornaments, place gifts underneath it, and make it the glowing centerpiece of Christmas. The Christmas tree feels timeless, but the familiar decorated …
Dec 20 2025
There is something unmistakable about the winter solstice. Even before we look at a calendar, the season announces itself through long shadows, early sunsets, cold evenings, and mornings that seem reluctant to brighten. Then, near the end of December in the Northern Hemisphere, the shortening days finally reach their limit. The winter solstice has arrived. …
Dec 19 2025
Few cookies look more at home on a Christmas cookie tray than snowball cookies. Round, buttery, and completely covered in powdered sugar, they really do look like miniature snowballs tucked among the gingerbread, chocolate cookies, and other holiday treats. Beneath that snowy coating is a tender shortbread-style cookie filled with vanilla and finely chopped pecans …
Dec 18 2025
Christmas music does not always have to arrive with jingling bells, booming choirs, and songs energetic enough to send everyone rushing toward the dance floor. Some of the loveliest holiday music is quiet enough to accompany a snowy afternoon, an evening beside the Christmas tree, or those rare December moments when there is nowhere else …
Dec 14 2025
Christmas in Hawaiʻi looks a little different from the snowy holiday scenes printed on greeting cards. Palm trees may be wrapped in lights, families can spend Christmas afternoon at the beach, and Santa is occasionally portrayed arriving by outrigger canoe rather than sleigh. Yet beneath those tropical details is a holiday shaped by Hawaiʻi’s long …
Dec 08 2025
Few movies look more like Christmas than White Christmas. There are snowy Vermont landscapes, enormous decorated trees, fireplaces, elegant costumes, military reunions, romantic misunderstandings, and enough Irving Berlin songs to carry viewers through an entire December evening. Released by Paramount Pictures in 1954, White Christmas brought together Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, and Vera-Ellen …
Dec 07 2025
Some of the prettiest Christmas decorations are also the simplest. Salt dough ornaments need only a few pantry ingredients, a handful of cookie cutters, and a little time in the oven, yet the finished pieces can look wonderfully timeless hanging among evergreen branches. For this version, we are keeping the design deliberately understated: classic Christmas …
Dec 06 2025
Handmade Christmas ornaments do not have to be complicated to look special. This little felt candy cane uses just a few inexpensive materials, but the combination of snowy white felt, bright red stitching, and narrow red ribbon gives it all the charm of an old-fashioned Christmas decoration. The design is especially appealing because it does …
Dec 03 2025
Christmas music can fill a house beautifully without anyone singing a word. Instrumental holiday albums are especially useful during the moments when Christmas music should create atmosphere rather than command attention. Piano can accompany an evening of gift wrapping. Jazz works beautifully during dinner. Acoustic guitar feels at home beside a fireplace, while orchestral and …
Dec 01 2025
Christmas is one of the easiest times of year to have a little more fun with your manicure. Red and green suddenly feel completely at home together, glitter becomes almost mandatory, and tiny snowflakes, candy canes, Christmas trees, and reindeer can transform an otherwise simple set of nails into something unmistakably festive. The best Christmas …
