Make ahead and make merry with over 100 holiday recipes for family and guests! Author of the Home Made series of cookbooks Yvette van Boven loves the holidays—and she’s never short of ideas for celebrations. In Home Made Christmas, she shows you how to make the season less stressful with her “make ahead” recipes, giving you time to enjoy your company when they arrive. Home Made Christmas includes more than 100 recipes (organized by Prepare Ahead and To Finish It Off) that are all easy to make and delicious. With her step-by-step directions, you’ll know exactly what to do and when—she even provides menu ideas to make all your planning easier. Whether you’re celebrating your first Christmas with the love of your life or cooking for your entire family, this cookbook makes sure you’re fully prepared to entertain your holiday guests with a delicious, satisfying meal.

Discover the fun of making food from scratch: “You’ll want to eat everything in this book.” —People StyleWatch Named One of the Year’s Ten Best Cookbooks by Details How do you make cheese from pantry staples? Or create an oven smoker from scratch in just two minutes? Or make ice cream without a machine? In Home Made, Yvette van Boven shows you how, complete with step-by-step photos and illustrations and a gorgeous photo alongside every recipe. While her recipes are rooted in a natural, from-scratch cooking philosophy, van Boven is never preachy—she believes that this way of cooking is fun and that the dishes simply taste better! Chapters include Preserving Vegetables, Pre-Dinner Drinks, Chocolate and Cookies, After a Night Out, Ice-Cream-You-Scream, Don’t Forget the Dog!, and more. Each chapter starts with a basic dish that you can make yourself, but usually don’t because you think it’s too complicated (think again!), and includes variations—basic bread becomes focaccia with olives and rosemary, or red cherry and thyme bread. Written with a friendly, irreverent voice, this book will inspire you to make every dish at home.

Home decorating will never be the same. Close your curtains! Throw away your summery linens! Forget about those white eyelet pillow covers! And for Goth's sake, buy some black lights! Voltaire is here to help you with your home decorating dilemmas, guide you through the hardware stores and decorating centers (which are so difficult for Goths to navigate), and lay it all out on the line about which shade of black goes with which shade of black. Who knows?! One day soon he might have his own decorating line at a discount store. In this world of pastels and plaids, it's so hard for Goths to find anything aesthetically appealing. You go in search of Edward Gorey and wind up with an eyeful of Eddie Bauer. With Voltaire's Paint It Black you can turn the unbearably mundane into the delightfully macabre with little more than a touch of creativity and a can of black spray paint.

This cookbook will help you plan your Christmas festivities to the very last culinary detail, acting as an invaluable Christmas organiser from reminding you to make your Christmas pudding and chutneys in November to giving you a crucial countdown for the last 36 hours.

Bring out your child’s creativity and imagination with more than 60 artful activities in this completely revised and updated edition Art making is a wonderful way for young children to tap into their imagination, deepen their creativity, and explore new materials, all while strengthening their fine motor skills and developing self-confidence. The Artful Parent has all the tools and information you need to encourage creative activities for ages one to eight. From setting up a studio space in your home to finding the best art materials for children, this book gives you all the information you need to get started. You’ll learn how to: * Pick the best materials for your child’s age and learn to make your very own * Prepare art activities to ease children through transitions, engage the most energetic of kids, entertain small groups, and more * Encourage artful living through everyday activities * Foster a love of creativity in your family

"Home-Made Gadgets" is a fantastic vintage guide to hand-making a variety of useful household items. From cheap and cheerful Christmas decorations to plant pots and decorative glassware, this volume will appeal to those with an interest in money-saving handicraft ideas. Contents include: "Tricks with a Watch", "An Easy Thought-Reading Trick", "Use This Conjurer's Bag for Amateur Conjuring", "Turn your Ash into Cash", "A Table-Top Railway", "Decorative Glassware from Jam Jars", "Cheap Christmas Decorations", "Make Decorative Containers From Tin Cans", "Plastic Toast Rack", etc. Many vintage books such as this are becoming increasingly scarce and expensive. It is with this in mind that we are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition complete with a specially commissioned new introduction.

When it comes to Christmas, it's the thought that counts. Homemade Christmas is the perfect source of festive inspiration for creating thoughtful, personalised gifts and decorations for your loved ones. Discover 100 simple decorations, recipes, gifts, cards, and Christmas craft projects, from garlands and gift boxes to mince pies and marzipan. Create beautiful homemade Christmas gifts using a variety of techniques from metalwork to bread making, and delight your friends and family with the personal touch. Homemade Christmas puts an individual twist on the festive season. With a focus on upcycling and natural materials, you can create eco-friendly and cherished gifts without the waste, and personalise everything from Christmas cards to Christmas pudding. Have your most creative Christmas yet with Handmade Christmas.

In days of old, Christmas was defined by the custom of exchanging simple handmade gifts. Today, it has become a multi-billion industry, synonymous with commercialism and consumption. How did this transformation occur? In this incisive and engaging examination of how Christmas has evolved since 1880, Waits chronicles the history of the holiday, from its origin to its current form. The book is illustrated with dozens of historical photographs and will be of interest to cultural and social historians alike. Christmas was a relatively modest occasion in the English- speaking world, celebrated by the exchange of modest handmade gifts, until the Victorians invested the holiday with immense significance as part of a larger effort to celebrate home, family, and a mythic past of well-ordered communities. By the late 19th century, Christmas had become a major American festival. Today, it is a multi-billion dollar industry and easily the most important seasonal event of the year. In this survey of the modern American Christmas, William Waits shows us how this holiday emerged, tracing its evolution from the days prior to 1880 when people presented one another with simple crafted presents to the turn of the century when industrialization brought with it waves of inexpensive, tawdry gimcracks. In the early twentieth century, reform-minded Americans reflecting on the new Christmas prompted a backlash against this cheapening of the Yule tradition, and the Christmas card was born. Henceforth, family members and close friends exchanged useful, costly items, while cards were sent to acquaintances and distant relatives. These reformers also persuaded retail stores to keep their regular hours of business during the holiday, rather than lengthening them, to give trade workers the opportunity to join in the celebration. They also rationalized the collection and distribution of holiday charity, resulting in the Christmas celebration we have today. Waits's book clearly illustrates that the notion that Christmas is uncontrollable is simply untrue. An incisive and engaging history of giftgiving, The Modern Christmas in Americaalso examines the differing traditions of giftgiving to friends, employees, the poor, and among entire communities. Handsomely illustrated with dozens of historical photographs, this book is not only the perfect holiday gift but will also be of interest to any student of American history and culture.

Each stage in a child's development has its own ups and downs, and its focus. We often wonder whether our children will ever pass the 'terrible tens' or the monosyllabic fourteens! Our role is to bring them to maturity, and some degree of independence, by their eighteenth birthday. There are many subtly different shades of management that apply to each stage, during this eighteen-year journey. It is one of the greatest tasks with which the human being is confronted. It is genuinely life altering. We are all products of our parents, yet few, if any of us, have any training in parenting. Former Daily Mail columnist Peter Gilchrist takes us through the trials and tribulations that can occur when our children are growing up, and offers invaluable advice on how to deal with the trickiest of situations.

Boys are curious, hyperactive creatures. To keep the young men in your life entertained, this book contains a collection of ideas and instructions on activities and figurines you can make with household supplies.