Customer Reviews

Real Simple: Celebrations

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Real Simple scores again with this gorgeous, oversized hard cover book, "Real Simple Celebrations"! Over the years I have found the Real Simple books to be lush & lavish yet perfect for explaining special touches to make life more lovely! And Real Simple Celebrations does just that.

In this book you will find lots of unique ideas to make your occasion more fun. Even though I have read more than my share of women's magazines, holiday books etc. I found lots of ideas in the book I had never thought of!

The book covers 3 different types of Celebrations. The first section is on Annual Celebrations and includes Thanksgiving, A Holiday Open House and A New Year's Eve Potluck. The Occasional Celebrations section includes A Shower, Milestone Birthday and Summer Barbecue and the Anytime Celebrations Section includes a Cheese Party, Dinner Party and Dessert Party. Each of these celebrations can be adapted to other occasions.

Each Celebration is described in detail with information given on invitations, decorations and set up, the table, food and drink, activities, etiquette, and wrap up.

The book includes beautiful full color photographs a Real Simple trademark. Many yummy recipes are included from chunky guacamole for the Summer Barbecue to beef bourguignonne for the Dinner Party to Elephant Ear cookies for the Dessert Party.

One unique feature included in the 192 page book is the party planning wheel at the back of the book. Just dial the removable wheel to a food or beeverage item like wine, beer, cheese etc and it will tell you how much to stock for 6, 12 or 24 guests! A great feature!

Overall a terrific book to make entertaining fun and easy for your special celebrations!

Lee Mellott

I really, really enjoy this book! I adore looking at the pictures of Martha Stewart magazines with a wistful "someday." But, this book brings me "today!" The ideas are fabulous, but manageable and affordable! I consider myself inept at any creative decorating for the holidays, but always envy those who can. The book gives fabulous, yet simple, methods for making every party a success, whether for your two-year old or your annual neighborhood bar-b-que. Excellent pictures (and lots of them) and helpful tips!

first off, i should say that i'm a huge fan of real simple, the magazine and several of the books. i personally love, for example, their cookbook and highly recommend purchasing it.

that all said, this book left me underwhelmed. there are some solid ideas inside, but it felt a little too bland. the genius of real simple is that they are generally very good at showing you how to get a real "pop" out of simple ideas or activities. but the celebrations outlined in this book seemed to be missing that "pop" to me. some stuff, like the sections on etiquette or trouble-shooting were very strong. but i didn't see a lot of "oh wow!" simple ideas with bang.

personally i would recommend checking this out in your library or carefully at a bookstore before you decide to make an actual purchase. it's not quite up to the usual standard, IMHO.

This book has lots of creative ideas, described in a comfortable,yet thorough and entertaining, style. The illustrations are helpful and attractive as well. The book is well-designed too, with a durable cover and a pretty ribbon to mark my place.
After recently purchasing my own copy and enjoying it so much, I'm returning to purchase additional copies for special friends who also like to "celebrate" life.

This is a great book. Beautiful pictures, great ideas, very easy looking, approachable yet appealing recipes. I actually bought it, and ended up returning it after I saw basically the same thing on the magazine rack at the supermarket. In fact, if I'm not mistaken, the magazine version has great Thanksgiving recipes in it that look great and aren't in the book, though I can't be certain because I've already returned the hard cover. Anyway, just thought some of you might want to know this information. Whichever version you end up getting, it's great! But I'm glad I spent less on the softcover/magazine format version.

This is a great book full of clever, easy party ideas. Every detail is covered, from invitation design to seating arrangements to games and entertainment ideas. The recipes are simple yet sophisticated. Can't wait to use it!

This is the best book I could find that had party planning and entertaining tips, tricks, recipes, decorations etc. Not only is this a gorgeous book to look at, but it really contains some useful and fun info inside!

The book is divided into 3 celebration sections: Annual Celebrations (holidays), Occasional Celebrations (shower, BBQ, Birthday) and Anytime Celebrations (Cheese Party, Dinner Party & Dessert Party). What is awesome about this book is that it takes you through the ENTIRE planning process from when to send out invites and also an example of an invite, to the seating charts, decoration ideas, when to start preparing for the party in days prior, a sample menu and recipes for the party, even games for the party. They even go into detail such as which kind of utensils or platters you might need/want, how much to make for a crowd of a certain size, etitquette questions and even clean up and wrap up suggestions. I don't think there's anything this book has not thought of or included! I love it, and my sister borrows it every chance she gets.

My favorite part about this book is that there are SIMPLE and EASY tips for those of us who aren't professionals or naturals at entertaining (yet)! There's actually recipes I could make and not pull my hair out, as well as party favors, invites, decorations I could see myself using. That is a rare find when often many books go to the other side with way too elaborate planning ideas. Not to mention, the 4 color pictures in this book are gorgeous and the instructions/tips included are easy to understand. This is a great book for anyone who likes to entertain, or who would like to make entertaining simpler, easier and their parties a bit more unique and fun!

This is a really great book full of simple but really cute ideas! I have already given 4 copies to friends for Christmas gifts and they all love it- I need to order several more copies!
Highly recommend this book!

Although I did not see "Celebrations" myself because it was sent out as a gift, the recipient was very pleased. She described it as very user friendly; easy to find what you want quickly. She said the book had some new and interesting ideas that she was already putting to use. She went on to say that it was one the best of this kind she had seen in a while (and she sees quite a few).

This beautiful book does a great job of presenting nine fun party ideas. Nice touches like a ribbon book mark, and a "party by numbers" wheel that tells you how much an an item to buy based on number of guests attending make this book a must have. For the crafty- make your own invitations at the website ([...]). The best part of the book is the etiquette portion, which is all about handling sticky situations that can arise at a get together, like when someone is snooping through your medicine cabinet or letting their kids assault your glass coffee table. All in all a great party book.