Ideas & Tips — Ideas & Tips

Some simple preparation can help you avoid the stressful rush of trying to find a last-minute birthday gift for your sister-in-law, a housewarming gift for your best friend or a Christmas gift for your family. Huffington Post contributor and editor-in-chief of Gifts.com Dana Holmes recommends designating some space for your gift stash, and filling it with universally appealing. "To avoid spending every spare moment gift shopping, I like to stock up on fun gifts and match them with their rightful owners when the time comes," Holmes writes. "I call this my 'gift closet.' I have a few shelves stocked with...

Thanksgiving's here, and you've followed all your family's traditional recipes, or maybe just looked up how to cook a turkey online. In any case, you've just pulled the bird out of the oven, it's sitting imposingly on your dining room table: Now what? If you've never carved a turkey before, approaching it from the first time can be a harrowing maze of sinewy, bony roadblocks. Here's our step-by-step advice for getting the most meat out of your bird: Set the bird down breast-side up and remove the legs. Use the carving knife to slice the skin between the legs and the...

When you think about food that's popular around this time of year, salads don't usually come to mind. With all the traditional cookies, candy and meat-heavy meals, you could easily go the entire season without touching a leaf of lettuce. However, for those of us who prefer eating healthy, or simply for a palate-refresher after all that heaviness, there are a whole bunch of seasonal salad recipes that combine the flavors of the holidays with essential veggie-borne vitamins and minerals. Here are just a few: Spinach pomegranate salad: For this particularly easy salad option, toss together spinach, crumbled walnuts, pomegranate seeds and...

The thought of a smoothie usually calls to mind the bright colors and tart flavors of the various fruits that are commonly used in blended concoctions, but the smoothie is so much more than that. Namely, the form of a smoothie can be used to convey any number of flavors and ingredients, including thematic seasonal blends. Also, seasonal smoothies are often much healthier than their non-smoothie counterparts, such as pumpkin pie and eggnog, so they are a good choice for people looking to stick to a diet without missing out on the flavors of the holidays. Don't put your blender...

When you spend Thanksgiving at someone's home, you know they've spent all day cooking up a feast and preparing the house for guests, so you'll want to bring something along to show your appreciation of their efforts. When choosing a host gift, it's important to consider your host's particular tastes, but there are a few categories that many good host gifts fall into. Useful in many situations, sometimes even during the meal itself, these versatile host gifts will make your hosts want to invite you back next year: A serving bowl: Oftentimes, hosts who are taking on the Thanksgiving meal for...