Filed under: Parties, Books, Cookbook of the Day

Real Simple: Celebrations is a collection from the publishers of Real Simple magazine that covers all the details of major events and occasions that come up during the year, presenting ideas to make them as simple and easy as possible. It's probably a bit late now to take them up on their Thanksgiving ideas, but they also cover birthdays, graduations and just about all major holidays - at least, all the ones that are usually associated with food and large gatherings. All of the events are arranged in chapters by holiday, so while you can mix-n-match ideas from all over the book or use one of the several multipurpose plans, you can also easily just stick to their outline for a particular party.

As far as the planning goes, some people find Real Simple to be like "Martha Stewart-lite", since every detail from invitations to decor and cooking to cleanup is covered. The "lite" part comes in because the recipes and instructions always seem very do-able, rather than daunting. Since it never hurts to have a little peek inside a new book before you give in and make the purchase, you can download a few pages (pdf) from the Real Simple website and take a look for yourself.