Decorating for the Holidays: Christmas with Martha Stewart Living

What would the holidays be without a fresh book from Martha Stewart? Remarkably, she manages to come up with something new every year. Decorating for the Holidays shows off some amazing, almost lifelike snow figures of greenery-clothed polar bears, a full-skirted girl and her lively dog decorating a live tree, and a sharp-nosed, skinny Santa leading a lone reindeer across a field. From there, Martha moves on to instructions for fairly standard, though lovely, wired greenery and fruit wreaths and swags; a set of velvet stockings trimmed in gold and silver ribbon; satin balls and mini-stockings of felt for the tree, and finally to the kind of beautiful beaded ornament that makes it worthwhile to buy the book long before December. The heirloom beaded wreath is utterly gorgeous, the kind of craft project that can consume many months, yet will be enjoyed for years. Martha never neglects edible treats, and offers as a family project a Gothic gingerbread mansion and gingerbread snowflakes and animals for the tree. Don't worry, they'll keep for a while--and she does warn that "gingerbread is meant to be eaten, so be sure to make an extra batch or two." The remainder of the book is dedicated to tabletop ornaments, like silvered pine cones and topiary fruit trees, and to more seductive treats: tuile cookies in the shape of holly leaves, chocolate petits fours, a gingerbread Yule log filled with a creamy semifreddo mixture, and tiny angel-food cakes cut in the shape of stars and piled up on dessert plates. Transitory though the festive season may be, creating beautiful and tasty things to help celebrate it is one of its greatest pleasures. --Barrie Trinkle