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Wednesday, November 28, 2007
How do you pick a mail-order food gift?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mail-order food companies have been sending packages to the newspaper for weeks now, with samples of their holiday goodies. It’s big business for them. Consumers increased the number of food gifts they bought by almost 50 percent between 2004 and 2006 according to one marketing research firm, with annual sales near $16 billion.
Getting a positive review in the many newspapers, magazines and web sites that offer holiday food guides can boost sales. So we’ve been opening boxes filled with truffles and candied nuts, organic pears and flavored popcorn, and peppermint in many forms, from bonbons to bark. And endless boxes and bars of chocolate.
After a while, many of them start to blur. A lot of them just aren’t worth the calories; they’re made with mediocre ingredients that can’t be disguised even with the most festive holiday wrapping. So it was a refreshing change to try Enstrom Candies’ Peppermint Cookie Bark. (And really, peppermint bark — not something I usually think of as worth indulging in, not like, say, the Michael Recchiuti fleur de sel caramels that colleague John Kessler writes about in his roundup of high-end mail order goodies.)
The Enstrom’s bark was sweet with a hint of salt, made with a combination of dark and white chocolate and chocolate cookie pieces. It’s fabulous candy, pretty to look at with its layers of chocolate and peppermint, and prettily packaged. If you order before Dec. 1, you get free shipping if you enter PRFS as the source/discount code when ordering. At $18.95 for one pound, it’s not the cheapest peppermint bark out there, but it’s the best we’ve tried this year.
Do you send food gifts? What’s your favorite? How do you decide what to send — is it based on what you like to eat?
Half ‘n’ half holiday
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The advent of the holiday season, of course, begs the question: How are you going to spend your time? If you’ve just recently begun dating someone this season, they most likely aren’t your first choice for prime time on Christmas morning.
But what if you have a significant other who has already met your parents and done the whole Christmas-at-their-house deal? And what if he or she has kids or other reasons for not traveling with you to your family’s place?
My sister’s beau, for example, has a pretty obvious solution. His family lives on the west coast, so flying home for Thanksgiving isn’t worth the travel. Their compromise is for him to spend Thanksgiving at our house with my sister, and then Christmas with his family out west.
But not everyone’s holiday plans pan out like his. How do you divide your “holiday time” between family and a significant other? (If you’re not serious with anyone now, dig deep back into your memory to when you were!)
Do you try to split the week (or day?) in half? Do you delegate one holiday to family and one to your SO? Do children factor into your equation?
Do your family and sweetie both live in the metro Atlanta area, or will you have to do some traveling this holiday season?
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Buying local for the holidays
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Atlanta’s bricks-and-mortar merchants want you to buy local instead of online. But have you considered buying truly local goods, such as jewelry by Atlanta artisans, artworks by local artists or ceramics made by hand right here? (The Freestripe Bud Vases pictured above were designed and handmade by Atlanta’s Cara Gilbert and range from $30 to $50 at Beehive Co-Op in Midtown.)
Spruill Art Gallery in Dunwoody has a holiday artist market that runs until December 24 and promises handcrafted gifts for all pocketbooks. ShopSCAD Atlanta, the retail outlet for students, faculty, alumni and staff of the Savannah College of Art & Design in Atlanta, has its annual “Small Works” art sale featuring small paintings, photographs, collages and other works priced at $500 and under. Of course, you can always buy local art in galleries or in some cases from the artists themselves. One of my most treasured possessions is a tiny 4x6-inch “commission” by an artist friend — it was what we could afford at the time.
Do you plan to buy local this year? If so, where will you shop?
More of ATL Arts blog can be found here.
Permalink | Comments (18) | Categories: Shopping
Do you prefer Zuzu’s petals, a BB gun or ‘This Christmas’?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
When my sons D.W. and Cecil B. were once-wee, we would gather in winter by the warmth of the glowing big-screen TV and watch “White Christmas.”
You know, Bing, the weirdsmobile and the girls they’d put in their show here and there singing “Snow … snow … snow … snow … snow!”
Since the boys have gotten older, we’ve been all about “The Ref” — that perfectly dysfunctional holiday masterpiece with the ever-arguing Kevin Spacey and Judy Davis under a kind of house arrest with robber Denis Leary.
I guess that means, as a family, the Smithees are naughty and nice.
I’ve always loved “It’s A Wonderful Life,” though I’ve given it a good rest. I haven’t seen it and Zuzu’s petals in at least a dozen years. And I’m thinking this may be the year to dust it off and slam it into the DVD player.
I’ve tried to watch “A Christmas Story” (a favorite of so many misguided holiday revelers) and I just can’t warm up to it. I understand the affection for Ralph and his desire for a Red Ryder BB gun, but …
“This Christmas” is likely the first really good African-American yuletide film. I love its “Soul Train” lines, its humor (if Regina King ever picks up a belt, just back away as fast as you can) and both of the songs Chris Brown sings — “Try a Little Tenderness” and “This Christmas.”
So what’s your favorite Christmas movie to watch with the family? “The Polar Express”? “The Bishop’s Wife”? “Holiday Inn”? One of the many “A Christmas Carol” versions? “Miracle on 34th Street”? “Home Alone”?
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Are you using the ‘Santa Threat?’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
We went to a friend’s house to play yesterday. It was four 4-year-old little boys and one baby (a cat and a dog too). You can well imagine the chaos.
I was helping my friend with a computer problem in her office when I heard one of the other moms yell from the kitchen, “You guys better be good. Santa Claus is watching.”
It made me laugh. We rarely pull out the “Santa Threat.” Don’t get wrong - we’ve used it on occasion. In fact, I used it last night at dinner because it was fresh on my mind. Our kids definitely believe in Santa but they don’t seem very scared that he won’t show up.
Do you ever pull out the “Santa Threat?” How many months of the year can you get away with it? Does it seem to work? Do you feel bad using it?
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