The Utmost Taste in Yuletide Tips
As the holidays approach, Tiny Tim types entertain visions of festive days: joyous hours filled with red-cheeked children, glossy food, and pretty little packages. These happy few, the dreamers among us, are also known by another name -- guests. For those who have to host the holiday gatherings, the guests' thrills of expectation can inspire anxiety, as thoughts of unfluffed pillows and rock-hard Parker House rolls dance in their heads. It's time for them to call on Aunt Martha.
Once the inspiration just for domestic goddess-wannabes who swooned over the use of gold leaf on pastries, Martha Stewart has dazzled the everyday homemaker through her cleanly designed magazine, high-end catalog product line, and overwhelming presence in Kmart's housewares section. Her Web site (www.marthastewart.com), though curiously spare in images, delivers the Martha message to its online audience: You, too, can entertain as if you were born to it. And yes, that's a good thing.
THE BASICS. The tone of the site, not surprisingly, is one of supreme comfort, soothing nervous party-givers with soft colors and gently worded phrases. It's easy from the very beginning: At the home page, the host-to-be picks one of five sections to explore. Search, Share, and Tune In let Martha-ites search the site, chat online, and see Stewart's TV schedule. The other two sections, Learn and Shop, mesh together, giving a cooking lesson while hawking the bakeware needed to do it.
Although Stewart has a reputation for taking on projects average people would think stupefyingly complicated or time-consuming (she once retiled her pool on The Today Show), her site sticks to basic tasks regular Joes and Joannes can handle, like making holiday cards and ornaments or trimming the Christmas tree. In the Learn section, under the title "Cooking 101," are recipes and planners but also quirky tips that sound a bit like advice from an older, wiser relative. Such helpful hints make one think, with admiration, "Where on earth did that come from?"
The divine Ms. M describes how to get evenly shaped holiday cookies every time (she suggests chilled dough and an ice-cream scoop), what to serve at a Hanukkah dessert buffet, and she even throws in a recipe for the perfect hot chocolate to have on hand -- you know, for carolers.
EXTRA CREDIT. Even if no one comes a'wassailing to your door, she has plenty of other holiday-specific activities to keep a host feeling jolly and bright. The grande dame of organization, Martha features a holiday planner thick with links to recipes and advice, but not so intimidating as to contain the "I'm smarter and better than you" tone Martha-haters think she takes. Although it includes reminders to design your wreath and make your own candles for the centerpiece, these feel more like extra credit than requirements. For those who want to make ministockings for the 24 days of Advent, the project may sound intimidating, but the supplies are fairly easy to obtain (felt, pins, chalk, and you're almost there), and the directions well laid-out.
Other items on the holiday planner range from the ultrasimplistic, like "hang wreaths," to the bland, like "order turkey from butcher for Christmas dinner." To-do items like these, so easily done and checked off the list, make planning seem more like a series of fun errands and less wearying. However, some items do seem a bit too amusingly simple. The only planning task for New Year's Eve is "host open house." If only it were that easy.
Perhaps because the holidays turn so many people into anxious but ambitious hosts, the site's sections on cooking and baking are toned down when compared with the happy homemaker's magazine, Martha Stewart Living, which usually features lavish culinary undertakings that involve use of pastry blenders and imported foodstuffs. However, the site's section on "Keeping," as in keeping house, comes much closer to the sometimes over-the-top verve displayed in the magazine.
"ALL ABOUT GLUES." A feature on making guests comfortable includes striking suggestions like putting a selection of books suited to your guest's taste on the bedside table. Lady Chatterly's Lover, perhaps? Here, too, are projects that could make guests wonder if you've ditched your day job. One can learn how to make "soap cubes" using an old ice-cube tray and a generous helping of glycerin. Perhaps of more use is kindling arrangement, so painstakingly described that it rivals Jack London's tragic To Build a Fire. Most notable, in a homey, charming way, is a section titled simply, "All About Glues."
Don't be fooled into thinking this is a nonprofit site dedicated to aiding the budding homemaker. Every page comes with opportunities to get your spending self over to the shopping section. Supply your guest with a small alarm clock, the advice soothes, and on the right-hand side of the screen is just such an item. But such seamless integration between commerce and domestic arts has always been a hallmark of Stewart's empire.
Despite the constant nudge toward shopping, the site is actually helpful for easing frazzled holiday nerves. With its low-key color palette and careful advice, it seeks to bolster the courage of a certain type of host, the kind who wonders about making those packages prettier and those foods glossier. The kind that really does want to know all about glues. God bless them, every one
Once the inspiration just for domestic goddess-wannabes who swooned over the use of gold leaf on pastries, Martha Stewart has dazzled the everyday homemaker through her cleanly designed magazine, high-end catalog product line, and overwhelming presence in Kmart's housewares section. Her Web site (www.marthastewart.com), though curiously spare in images, delivers the Martha message to its online audience: You, too, can entertain as if you were born to it. And yes, that's a good thing.
THE BASICS. The tone of the site, not surprisingly, is one of supreme comfort, soothing nervous party-givers with soft colors and gently worded phrases. It's easy from the very beginning: At the home page, the host-to-be picks one of five sections to explore. Search, Share, and Tune In let Martha-ites search the site, chat online, and see Stewart's TV schedule. The other two sections, Learn and Shop, mesh together, giving a cooking lesson while hawking the bakeware needed to do it.
Although Stewart has a reputation for taking on projects average people would think stupefyingly complicated or time-consuming (she once retiled her pool on The Today Show), her site sticks to basic tasks regular Joes and Joannes can handle, like making holiday cards and ornaments or trimming the Christmas tree. In the Learn section, under the title "Cooking 101," are recipes and planners but also quirky tips that sound a bit like advice from an older, wiser relative. Such helpful hints make one think, with admiration, "Where on earth did that come from?"
The divine Ms. M describes how to get evenly shaped holiday cookies every time (she suggests chilled dough and an ice-cream scoop), what to serve at a Hanukkah dessert buffet, and she even throws in a recipe for the perfect hot chocolate to have on hand -- you know, for carolers.
EXTRA CREDIT. Even if no one comes a'wassailing to your door, she has plenty of other holiday-specific activities to keep a host feeling jolly and bright. The grande dame of organization, Martha features a holiday planner thick with links to recipes and advice, but not so intimidating as to contain the "I'm smarter and better than you" tone Martha-haters think she takes. Although it includes reminders to design your wreath and make your own candles for the centerpiece, these feel more like extra credit than requirements. For those who want to make ministockings for the 24 days of Advent, the project may sound intimidating, but the supplies are fairly easy to obtain (felt, pins, chalk, and you're almost there), and the directions well laid-out.
Other items on the holiday planner range from the ultrasimplistic, like "hang wreaths," to the bland, like "order turkey from butcher for Christmas dinner." To-do items like these, so easily done and checked off the list, make planning seem more like a series of fun errands and less wearying. However, some items do seem a bit too amusingly simple. The only planning task for New Year's Eve is "host open house." If only it were that easy.
Perhaps because the holidays turn so many people into anxious but ambitious hosts, the site's sections on cooking and baking are toned down when compared with the happy homemaker's magazine, Martha Stewart Living, which usually features lavish culinary undertakings that involve use of pastry blenders and imported foodstuffs. However, the site's section on "Keeping," as in keeping house, comes much closer to the sometimes over-the-top verve displayed in the magazine.
"ALL ABOUT GLUES." A feature on making guests comfortable includes striking suggestions like putting a selection of books suited to your guest's taste on the bedside table. Lady Chatterly's Lover, perhaps? Here, too, are projects that could make guests wonder if you've ditched your day job. One can learn how to make "soap cubes" using an old ice-cube tray and a generous helping of glycerin. Perhaps of more use is kindling arrangement, so painstakingly described that it rivals Jack London's tragic To Build a Fire. Most notable, in a homey, charming way, is a section titled simply, "All About Glues."
Don't be fooled into thinking this is a nonprofit site dedicated to aiding the budding homemaker. Every page comes with opportunities to get your spending self over to the shopping section. Supply your guest with a small alarm clock, the advice soothes, and on the right-hand side of the screen is just such an item. But such seamless integration between commerce and domestic arts has always been a hallmark of Stewart's empire.
Despite the constant nudge toward shopping, the site is actually helpful for easing frazzled holiday nerves. With its low-key color palette and careful advice, it seeks to bolster the courage of a certain type of host, the kind who wonders about making those packages prettier and those foods glossier. The kind that really does want to know all about glues. God bless them, every one
