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.
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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One spreadsheet, one order, one invoice. The bulk order form column by column: 40-character address limits, three-line gift messages, preferred dispatch weeks a
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What the $300 FBT minor benefits threshold means for staff gifts, with the ATO ruling it comes from: what counts towards it including GST and delivery, why it i
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The dates a corporate Christmas gift order actually runs on, from a September brief to a December dispatch: what 19 November means, why it is not a delivery dat
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Two shopping seasons, six weeks apart: corporate hampers from October, household hampers through November, fresh food in the last week. A month-by-month calenda
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What a Christmas hamper actually costs in Australia, band by band, what the money buys at each level, and eight boxes from $59.95 to $199.95 with what is inside
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The fish shaped jug that gurgles as it pours, and the reason it does it. What a gluggle jug is, why the sound stops near the bottom, and how to pick a colourway
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Leaves, starch, summer fruit and something shaved: four salads that are genuinely four different things. Which dressing belongs on each, the ratio to start from
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A picnic Christmas is easier if most of the food never needed a fridge. The five part menu, what to pack the night before, what melts, and the cold half that go
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Cold seafood is the easiest entree on Christmas Day. How many prawns a head, three sauces made from one jar each, and everything you can get done the night befo
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The packing room rule holds in a car boot: anything that melts rides cold, anything sealed rides dry, and nothing heavy goes on top. How to load an esky, what t
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Two sides in the oven, two on the stovetop, three that need no heat at all. Christmas side dishes sorted by what the kitchen has to do rather than by vegetable,
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Easy at Christmas means assembled, not baked. Seven desserts finished the day before, from a sweets tray with the coffee to a no bake cheesecake and tarts you c
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Cheese is spoiled by the wrap it came home in more often than by time. How to store brie, blue, cheddar, feta and parmesan through Christmas week, how long each
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Children eat the plain end of the catalogue. What actually gets finished at the kids' table at Christmas, a seven item plate with prices, how to fill the ga
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Pavlova topped at the table, trifle in glasses, something frozen and a board that never sees an oven. Seven Christmas desserts built for an Australian December,
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Boxing Day is a sorting job before it is a cooking job. What to do with the cheese, the cold seafood, the sweets and the half-used jars in the fridge door, how
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Cold prawns, a glazed leg ham, salads and pavlova, with a board out from 11am and bon bons over the top of it. The Australian Christmas menu in the order it arr
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