Whether you pronounce it “poin-setta” or “poinset-ee-ya,” America’s favorite holiday plant brightens any winter room.
Poinsettias—with crimson, pink, ivory or white leaves that look like flowers (they’re called bracts)—start to appear in most garden centers and nurseries just before Thanksgiving.
“You think Christmas, you think red,” says Jill Dinger, general manager at the Hillister, Texas, location of Seville Farms, a wholesale nursery that grows 300,000 poinsettias every year. You’ll find varieties with double blooms and even painted or glittered ones, but most people—roughly 90 percent— choose red, Jill says.
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Sergeant At Yarns
Stitch by stitch, this lifelong knitter sends gifts of love and support to far-flung soldiers.
Paint The Season Red (And White)
Whether you pronounce it “poin-setta” or “poinset-ee-ya,” America’s favorite holiday plant brightens any winter room.
Singing Farmer Gives Back
This country crooner fills bellies and lifts spirits.
Putting Up Below Ground
A modern-day homesteader keeps garden crops fresh through winter using old-time techniques and a basement root cellar.
Join In!
It’s time to give a big shout-out to the country woman who inspires you.
A Barn Full Of Blessings
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Seeds You Need
Supplement your tried-and-true garden favorites with a few new plants this season.
Country COZY
Calling all sleepyheads: Sweet dreams are a sure thing in this friendly farmhouse bedroom.
calling for snow & icing
a fluff of frosting or drizzle of glaze takes the cake—or cookies, or muffins, or giant eclair—to delicious heights.
box full of memories
buttons and baubles recall a neighbor’s well-lived life.
10 Tips to Enjoy Low-Sugar Holidays
For weight control and improved health, follow these strategies to keep your sugar intake to a minimum while still relishing the sweetness of the season.
What to Know Before You Mistletoe
How to make your break Holly Lolly – with or without a BAE.
Share The Love
Hark! Here’s how to spread some supersized seasonal splendor.
The Existential Despair of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
Revisiting the most disturbing Christmas special
There's No Stopping Santa
The middle of a global pandemic might seem like a good time to cut back on holiday excess. But then, we live in America.
The Group Portrait: Rockettes, Spectacular-less
For the first time since its inception in 1933, there will be no Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall.
This Year's Winter Harvest Takes the Cake
Celebration calls for cake
Why Iranians Continue to Seek Refuge in Australia
Shokoofeh Azar moved to Australia as a political refugee in 2010. Her novel The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree (see WLT, Spring 2020, 96), originally written in Farsi, was shortlisted for Australia’s 2018 Stella Prize for Fiction and the 2020 International Booker Prize. Here she recalls her refugee journey from Iran to Christmas Island and reveals why Iranians continue migrating to Australia, despite the absence of war.
Christmas Cactus, And An Early Start To Holiday Decorating
I’ve been asked how you can tell whether you have a Christmas, Easter or Thanksgiving cactus.
The Jolie-Pitts Torn Apart At Christmas
’Tis the season for good will toward men, but not all of Brad Pitt’s kids have a lot of love for their dad