Christmas is a time for extravagance. From cocktail hour to afternoon quaffing, enhance the mood with these wonderful wine pairings. Click the links below for LCBO availability.

Toast: Premier Brut Champagne ($319), Louis Roederer: www.champagne-roederer.com

Starter: Non-Oaked Chardonnay VQA, Henry Of Pelham 2009 ($6.95). We watched a program about this estate and it looks great.

Main course: Pinot Noir, Dan Aykroyd ($14.95) from Niagara Peninsula—goes beautifully with Turkey.

Pudding: Inniskillin ice wine ($79.30). One of Canada's best! www.inniskillin.com

Cheese and afternoon quaffing:Cabernet Rose VQA, Peninsula Ridge 2007 ($14.05). www.peninsularidge.com

Scrapbooks are great, but who wants glue ruining a perfectly decent manicure?

A new website, blurb, creates gorgeous colour photo books (from $18.95) ready to print in less time than we’d spend at a craft shop.

Options include wedding books, baby books or a book to chart your trek to Machu Picchu. With plenty of ways to individualize your design, the blurb experience is creative minus the nail-chipping hassle.

Sounds like our kind of art project.

www.blurb.com

Last week we brought you spicy gluvine. This week we’re celebrating the festive season with gallons of rich and creamy eggnog guaranteed to get everyone feeling warm and fuzzy—even Uncle Ebenezer.

You will need:
20ml bourbon 

30ml spiced rum
65ml whole milk 

35ml double cream 

1 free-range egg, cracked into a bowl 

3 tsp white sugar

1 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

ice to serve



Method


1. Place all of the ingredients, except the nutmeg and ice, into a cocktail shaker and shake it all together.

2. Strain the mixture into a short, ice-filled rocks glass.

3. Serve with a sprinkle of freshly grated nutmeg.
Recipe is for one. Double, triple, etc. as required.

Cin, cin!

Crimbo comes but once a year, so why not go all out and gussy up your pad with baubles, sequins, feathers and festive blooms?

Let’s start by styling the spindles. After all, a staircase sans sparkle is like a reindeer without antlers.

Take your very favourite baubles (this year we raided Pottery Barn) and weave a piece of ribbon through each one (Mokuba has a wonderful selection of silk, velvet and sparkly varieties). Then, at varying lengths, suspend each one from a spindle.

Doesn’t it look jolly? If it weren’t bad luck, we’d leave them there all year.

Mokuba, 575 Queen St. W., 416-504-5358.

www.potterybarn.com

Sick of all the syrupy sweet Christmas tunes playing on the radio? We’ve compiled a cringe-free mix to get you through the holiday season without barfing.

Tracks available on iTunes.

Let’s pretend we’re on the sunny slopes of Gstaad, sipping gluvine while we wait for our bratwurst to arrive.

Gluvine Ingredients (serves six):
1 bottle red wine
½ cup demerara sugar

1 cinnamon stick

grated nutmeg

1 orange, halved

1 dried bay leaf

Method:

Put the wine in a saucepan with the orange, sugar, bayleaf and the spices. Heat gently until the sugar has dissolved. Taste to see if you want the wine sweeter, and add more sugar to taste. Turn off the heat and strain into heatproof glasses. Serve at once.

Note: mulled wine is best served strong and sweet, so don’t be shy with the sugar.

While it’s tempting to dress your kid as baby Santa all season, child’s gotta have a little dignity, too.

We love the offerings from Australia’s Oobi, like red polka dot Smitten Mittens ($27), a pom pom striped sweater dress in marshmallow and canary ($54) and snowbunny pants with little red hearts ($44) that reflect the holiday spirit without being too literal.

Cause you wouldn’t wear a sequined Rudolph sweater, now would you?

Shop for Oobi online at Victoria, B.C.’s www.purlmama.com