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Here at the Gardening Cook , we love to celebrate with holiday decor and food! Each of the holidays is special here on the blog.

Our site has loads of decor ideas, recipes and gardening tips for each season and holiday of the year.

From special cocktails for New Year’s Eve, through to patriotic recipes, spooky Halloween projects and pretty Christmas decor projects, every holiday is so much fun.

These easy projects will dress up your home for the holidays and give your friends some special food treats in no time flat!

Check out these holiday ideas

If you are looking for some ideas for food and decorations for the holidays, one of these ideas may interest you.

With October comes the cooler temperatures, falling of leaves, and of course pumpkin carving time. For the perfect carved Jack O Lantern, be sure to familiarize yourself with this list of the best pumpkins for carving. When it comes to choosing pumpkins for carving projects, not all pumpkins are equal. As a matter of fact, …

Read More about Best Pumpkins for Carving – Tips for Picking the Perfect Pumpkin

How to preserve a pumpkin carving is a problem unique to fall. Autumn is the time of the year when temperatures drop, pumpkin harvest is here, and leaves start to change color. It’s also the time for homes to start decorating for Halloween and Thanksgiving and this includes carving pumpkins. It’s not unusual to see …

Read More about How to Preserve A Pumpkin Carving – Making Jack O Lanterns Last Longer

As Easter approaches, many families are looking for fun and creative ways to celebrate the holiday. One popular activity is an Easter egg hunt, but why not add a twist to the traditional hunt with some Easter egg hunt clues and riddles? In our blog post, we’ll be sharing ideas and tips for an Easter …

Read More about Easter Egg Hunt Clues for Teens – Easter Basket Scavenger Hunt

Would you like a list of winter spices or wonder what the best herbs for Christmas are that you can grow and use in recipes? This Christmas spices list is for you! The holidays will soon be here and a home cooked dinner, along with all the trimmings, is on many menus this year. Whether …

Read More about Winter Spices – List of Christmas Spices Plus Best Herbs for Xmas

These tips for poinsettia plant care will make sure your pretty holiday plant will continue to delight you all through the holiday season and into next year.  More poinsettia plants are sold during November and December than the yearly sales of all the other potted plants, other than orchids. There is a good reason for …

Read More about Poinsettia Plant Care – How to Grow Poinsettias

 A holiday cactus is a short-day plant which produces flower buds when daylight hours decrease. Fortunately for gardeners, this happens when much of the garden is not blooming, just in time for the major holidays – Christmas, Thanksgiving and Easter. There are three different types of holiday cactus plants, Christmas cactus – schlumbergera bridgesii, Thanksgiving …

Read More about Holiday Cactus Types – Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter Cactus

These Christmas plants will have your home full of color, beauty and good cheer this year. Even though the outdoor garden season has ended for many of us, that doesn’t mean that holiday plants can’t be front and center right now. December 12 is National Poinsettia Day. It is fitting that the most popular Christmas …

Read More about Christmas Plants – List of 27 Flowers and Holiday Plants for Xmas

Would you like to know the best herbs for roasting turkey? Thanksgiving is coming soon and a roasted turkey is on many menus. If you are cooking turkey for the first time, you may find yourself asking “what herbs and spices go with turkey?” You can just place a turkey in your oven and roast …

Read More about Herbs for Roasting Turkey – Best Fall Spices – Grow Thanksgiving Herbs

It’s time to get your spook on – with black plants, creepy flowers, Halloween plants and all sorts of growing things that are sure to make you feel a Halloween mood. Traditional Halloween decorating is done with just a few plants and colors. This time of the year is cold and plants in most areas …

Read More about Halloween Plants – 21 Scary Plants to Set A Spooky Mood

One of my mother’s time honored traditions was to serve a pumpkin cake each year, for both Thanksgiving and Christmas, with her special toasted coconut frosting. She is not with us now, but that does not mean the cake will be missing! My whole family takes turns at making the cake for our Thanksgiving celebration. …

Read More about Pumpkin Cake with Toasted Coconut Frosting – Thanksgiving Dessert

This recipe for steaks with a Cuban mojo marinade combines spices with orange juice, olive oil and grill mates seasoning for an easy and spicy main course dish. I love the sweet, tangy and savory flavors.  It makes grill night or a camping trip meal something special. We grill every Saturday’s night at our house. My …

Read More about Steak with a Cuban Mojo Marinade – Easy Grilled Recipe

This Leprechaun Hat Centerpiece gives me a chance to celebrate both St. Patrick’s Day and spring in one pretty project. The centerpiece can be made with either silk flowers or fresh flowers for two different looks. I love to make craft projects out common household items. In this case, my project started with something that …

Read More about Leprechaun Hat Centerpiece – St. Patrick’s Day DIY Table Decoration

These best of luck wishes and good luck quotes are fun to share with friend or on social media to send good luck wishes to all. St. Patrick’s Day will soon be here and that brings with it thoughts of luck. Motivational quotations on photos of nature are a favorite with the readers of The …

Read More about Good Luck Quotes – Best of Luck Wishes – Irish Quotes – Lucky Sayings

A Mudslide cocktail recipe is a decadent mixture of vodka, coffee flavored Kahlua and Bailey’s Irish Cream. This delicious Baileys Irish cream mudslide recipe is both a drink and a dessert. It is one of my favorite cocktail recipes for St. Patrick’s Day, Christmas, or any special holiday. Making Baileys drinks will guarantee one thing …

Read More about Mudslide Cocktail Recipe – Baileys Irish Cream Mudslide

These Gingerbread House tips will make sure that your next project will be a stunner. From using muffin tins for supplies to choosing the right icing, these steps will make the task of making gingerbread houses quick and easy. The taste of gingerbread desserts just seem to go along with Christmas in my mind. Check …

Read More about Gingerbread House Tips – 15 Tricks for Making Gingerbread Houses

One of the prettiest Christmas plants is a cyclamen – cyclamen persicum, also known as the florist cyclamen. Like some other holiday plants, getting a cyclamen to rebloom after the first year can a tricky task. For this reason, many gardeners simply discard the plant after it is done flowering and purchase a new one …

Read More about Getting a Cyclamen to Rebloom – Why Won’t My Cyclamen Plant Flower?

How are your fudge making skills?  Do you end up with foolproof fudge that forms nice little parcels, or do you find it a challenge?  These cooking tips for making perfect fudge,F will give you wonderful results every time from now on. It’s hard to believe, after a summer of gardening, that the beginning of …

Read More about Foolproof Fudge Tips – Secrets for Making Perfect Fudge, Every Time

This no carve sunflower pumpkin uses the heads of silk sunflowers or any other colorful daisy like flower to cover the outside of a faux pumpkin. This is a great idea for those of you who do not like the mess of a carved pumpkin. It’s also one that gardeners will love!  Fall is my …

Read More about Sunflower Pumpkin – Easy No Carve DIY Thanksgiving Table Decoration

These Halloween Pumpkin Cookies are the perfect treat for your family or neighborhood friends. They have a cute pumpkin face and are filled with rich chocolate frosting. I love this time of the year. Our neighborhood kids are out playing most of the time, and it is a lot of fun to treat them to …

Read More about Spooky Halloween Pumpkin Cookies – Double the Fun!

Are you looking for a drink that takes the flavors of a favorite Halloween candy and puts them into an adult beverage? Try this candy corn martini. This fun Halloween cocktail uses candy corn to make and infused vodka and then pairs it up with pineapple juice and cream for one delicious drink. Candy corn …

Read More about Candy Corn Martini Recipe – Halloween Cocktail with Three Layers

These Halloween cross-stitch patterns are a great way for those who love to embroider to celebrate the holidays with their craft. Halloween will soon be here and that means it’s time for decorating for the holiday. One of the most creative was to decorate is by making a cross stich design.  If this is something …

Read More about Halloween Cross-Stitch patterns – Crafting Spooky Embroidery Designs

Fall is the time for decorating with Indian corn. These rustic ears of ornamental corn are the perfect addition to any Autumn decorating project. Rustic and colorful, this variety of corn has been around for centuries. Keep reading to get some tips for using it in fall decorations. As an Amazon Associate I earn from …

Read More about Decorating with Indian Corn for Thanksgiving – Indian Corn Decorations

These pumpkin carving tips will bring out the artist in any budding Halloween decorator and give you a fun decor item to share in your home. If you have tried your hand at pumpkin carving, you will know that an easy Jack o Lantern design is not too difficult. But attempting more elaborate designs may …

Read More about Pumpkin Carving Tips and Tricks – Carve a Pumpkin Easily

Knucklehead pumpkins, as the name suggests, are covered with warts that are reminiscent of the knuckles on your hand. This type of pumpkin, along with heirloom pumpkins of various colors and shapes, are all the trend right now for decorating. Have you ever headed to to pumpkin patch to get your pumpkin to carve only …

Read More about Knucklehead Pumpkins – Why do Pumpkins Have Warts?

Halloween is right around the corner. Are you looking for some boozy cocktails for Halloween to make for your next Halloween party? These cocktails named after witches are just what you need! For some people, Halloween is all about the candy. I’m much more in favor of a glass of witches brew to get me in the …

Read More about Cocktails for Halloween – Halloween Punch – Witches Brew Drinks & More

It’s time to pick your poison! This Crow’s Blood Halloween Drink is a champagne cocktail that is made even more gruesome with the addition of the lychee eyeballs that garnish the bloody looking brew. Halloween is the beginning of three months of non stop cooking, decorating and entertaining for me. My garden is being put …

Read More about Crow’s Blood Halloween Drink – Champagne Cocktail Recipe