[.ca] Decorating for the Holidays (ISBN 0609803360)

From Amazon.com:
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

A waste of money:
This is an old book, so it looks dated. And the instructions are unclear and full of errors.

Pretty to look at !:
I have found that Martha Stewart books are to be viewed rather than used as a basis for trying to make anything because her instructions and recipes are often convoluted and/or incorrect. I just do not understand why, with her vast resources, Martha does not hire better and more thorough editors and testers. So now I just look at her books for the visual pleasure they bring me! That way I avoid any frustration associated with implementation. And this one gave me lots of beautiful things to look at: the fruit wreath, the silvery pine cones, the beautifully done petits fours, the handmade ornaments, the gorgeous cookies. Even if the directions were perfectly clear, I know I still would not make many of these things...but a gal can dream, can't she?

Can't be trusted once again!:
I was saddened and surprised to discover that instructions for both of the first two projects I attempted in this book were flawed, one mildly, the other catastrophically. The first project, the beaded wreath gives an inaccurate number of needed bead leaves by at least twenty. However, the template for the fabric covered Christmas ornament is completely unworkable. She instructs using 6 pieces of fabric to cover the ornament yet her template does not have the needed 1:3 ratio of height to width necessary. After ruining lots of expensive velvet fabric following her instructions I finally figured out what was wrong. Until the editors can check on accuracy in the instructions I suggest you pass up on this book.

Pretty neat stuff in here!:
Although, like the rest of the "Christmas with Martha Stewart" books, they are republished features from the magazine, this one is pretty good. You do not have to use red and green every year; Silver, white, and even pastel colors can be used festively. I love the neat snowman article; unfortunately, here in Houston, we don't get much snow! Cookies. . .oh, I licked my lips over the snowflake wafers, but I've never made them.

It's Classic Martha!:
Even if you aren't a true fan of Martha, you will enjoy her book filled with decorating and crafting ideas that you can either incorporate into your own traditions or expound upon to revise them to your personal taste. It's a great book for your crafting collection!