From the editors at Southern Living, warm and welcoming holiday recipes and creative ideas for decorating, entertaining, and handmade gifts

Discover fun and creative new ways to decorate, entertain, and handcraft gifts for the holidays. Sparkling menus and easy décor ideas, along with more than 100 brand-new recipes from the professionals of the South’s most trusted kitchen, make entertaining a breeze for celebrations of all sizes. Inside, the editors of Southern Living reveal their favorite cooking tips and make-ahead secrets that take the pressure off hosting and put the focus on family and friends. There is also a special gifts-from-the-kitchen section with recipes for treats to wrap and share. More than 200 photographs show off dazzling holiday decorations and table settings to try, plus inspired designs for holiday wreaths, trees, centerpieces, and mantel arrangements. Christmas with Southern Living is the go-to resource for everything you need to make your holiday bright.

Amazon * B&N * Abrams

If you are a Christmas fanatic, then you need to pick this book up for a variety of ideas from decoration to food. This is my second year to receive this book as part of the Abrams Dinner Party (new book each year, not the same one each year!) and I love the colorful photos, decor ideas, menu ideas, and the notes section at the back for gift ideas, space for notes on what worked or didn’t work, and a party planning guide.

Each photo is accompanied by notes on how they created the look or the history of some of the ideas. It looks like this year’s ideas are blue and rustic with a few other things thrown into the mix.

Of course, anytime I receive a book I have to look at the food portion first. There are so many delectable recipes and I have only just begun to dive into the various dishes. I have made two so far and they were from different menu suggestions, but they worked well together in my opinion. I made the Chicken Thighs with Parsnips and Oranges and the Goat Cheese Grits. Both were delicious and dishes I would make again. I did cut the grits recipe down since there are just two of us at home, and it was still a lot of food. But who doesn’t love leftovers?

For the chicken recipe, I did also add in some carrots with the parsnips for a little color and possibly a vegetable my husband would eat…yeah that didn’t happen. The recipe calls to serve over mashed potatoes or rice, this is where the grits came in and I served it alongside and not under the chicken.

There are several restaurants in town that serve a jalapeno cheese grit side dish that I order every single time. This was my first time making grits at home and it really wasn’t as hard as I thought. There were a few things I realized later on that affected the recipe such as my chicken stock was unsalted. I couldn’t figure why I needed to add so much salt until I read the packaging a couple of days later and it was light a lightbulb went off. I do have a tip for reheating these grits that made them even better – I added a little half and half to the amount I was reheating and the grits tasted even creamier. I didn’t add a lot, maybe 1/4 at the most. Next time, I might add some diced jalapenos for a little kick to the dish. This is definitely going into my rotation.

Each year my book club has a sweet treat exchange. I have noted several recipes that I might just try out such as the Mighty Mint Pinwheels, the Raspberry Palmiers, Mocha-Mint Sables, and the Fruit-and-Nut Icebox Cookies. The last one even has alternate combinations should there be any specific nut allergies.

This book is definitely geared toward those that love the holidays and go all out. But I think anyone could find a few ideas and recipes here that would put a whole new spin and might impress your friends and family.

We give this book 4 paws up.