The whole Christmas set is in the stories below, newest first. These are the four things people are usually trying to work out, with the guide for each. The full plan lives in The Australian Christmas Guide.
Read The Australian Christmas Guide or shop Christmas food and Christmas hampers.
Eight packets, six of them sweet, and not a jar of anything in sight. What is actually in the box, and what somebody who cooks can do with each item once the ri
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Eight sweet packets that open by hand and sit on a table at room temperature, which is why this box works when a six-year-old and a grandparent have to be pleas
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Nine pantry items arrive and the cheese is yours to buy. Three cheeses, about 600g between them, and the box itself tells you which ones to ask for at the count
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One box is two Australian ales, savoury snacks and something sweet to hand round. The other is four flavour makers for the grill and nothing sweet at all. Which
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One box of treats, four different bottles, and a price that runs from $99.95 to $299.95. Why the food is identical in all of them, and which pour suits which re
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Five boxes, two fixed food line-ups and the bottle bolted on afterwards. What separates the Nibbles hampers from the Gourmet Selection hampers, and which one su
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Three states in one box. Where the cabernet, the two Victorian beers, the honey popcorn and the macadamias in the Taste Australia hamper are made.
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Ten things to eat and drink, and nothing in the box doing a job another item already does. Every item named, with its size, and the order to put them out in.
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The savoury half of this hamper is two boxes, and it runs out first. How to lay the Gourmet Bites Hamper out as a board for six, what to buy to go beside it, an
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Work down six things you might already know about the recipient and stop at the first one that fits: each points at a bottle. What is identical in both boxes, a
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The six Luxury Finest hampers hold exactly the same ten things. Only the bottle changes, which turns six decisions into one: Barossa shiraz, sauvignon blanc, Mu
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Two bottles in one hamper are not simply more wine. When the $299.95 Ultimate Gourmet box is the right call, how to serve champagne and Barossa shiraz across on
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Sea salt crackers, smokehouse BBQ chips, rosemary almonds and cocoa dusted truffles: the ten things in the alcohol free snack box, and why it suits a shared off
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Twelve sweet things and nothing savoury, which makes this box exactly right for some people and slightly wrong for others. Who the Sweet Sensation Hamper suits,
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One box, three waves, nibbles for about three on its own and six once cheese and fruit carry the load. What goes out first, when the truffles come out, and what
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Seventeen things to eat and drink, four of them crackers doing four different jobs, and not a bottle of wine among them. The box, item by item.
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The French Blue box holds seven things: the bottle, the crackers, the olives, the peanuts, the fig pyramid, the popcorn and the truffles. What each one is for.
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The same 180g of shortbread comes in a $12.95 tube or a $19.95 tin, and the gap in price is the container. What each format is for, and where the chocolate fits
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Seven collections, one decision: match the cracker to the table you have already set. How to choose between gold and silver, why foil and full sun disagree, and
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Valley Produce Company started at a Yarra Valley farmers' market and now covers seven cracker styles, three fruit pastes, shortbread, chocolate, boiled loll
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The two Candy Kittens pouches we range, what each one tastes like, and the full ingredient list for both. Sweets this chewy with no gelatine in them at all.
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Ham quantities without the guesswork: 250 g on the bone per person, 2.5 kg for ten, and what a half leg actually leaves you once lunch is over. From the people
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Buying inside Australia beats posting a parcel from where you live. How to pay in Australian dollars, beat the timezone, add a video message, and what to send.
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Where to buy Jen's Biscuits online in Australia: all 17 varieties on one page, 16 of them $9.95 a pack. What each one is, and which to buy first.
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Ground spice fades long before it spoils, and whole spice holds far longer. How long spices really last, how to test a jar in five seconds, and what to replace
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Two people do not need a smaller version of a table for twelve, they need a different shape of meal. Buy by pack size instead: one hot dish built for four, six
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Ten things to do with one jar of Belazu Rose Harissa, from a butter pushed under chicken skin to a ten-second yoghurt sauce, each with a dose, plus an honest co
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What harissa paste actually is, how hot it really is, how rose, green and smoked chilli styles differ, how much to use, and how to keep an open jar.
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Chutney is cooked down soft and sweet, relish keeps its texture and its sharpness, jam is the sweet end of the same method. What that means at the table, jar by
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Pull a Crackertoa and it pops rather than snaps, throwing confetti across the table along with the hat, joke and gift. How the mechanism differs from an ordinar
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Six components go into a Christmas cracker and only one of them costs real money. What homemade actually costs, the shelf price per cracker it has to beat, and
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One per seat plus two spares is the rule. What that costs by seat count, which size fits which end of the table, and why the children's end and the pets wan
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Most of Christmas lunch can be made or bought before December. A month by month cook's calendar from October to Christmas Eve: what to bottle, what to freez
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