Martha Moments Members Celebrate the Holidays

Every year at this time, I'm always so impressed by the talent and imagination of members of the Martha Moments Facebook group who do the holidays with such flare and verve. Inspired by Martha's vision of Christmases filled with beauty and delicious foods, so many of the members enjoy the process of filling their homes with festive decorations, baking and good cheer. These photographs were compiled from the Facebook group. Thanks to everyone who makes that group a fun, safe and inspiring place to be!

Louie Villar decorated a beautiful tabletop tinsel tree using Martha Stewart ornaments. 

Hayden Regina's tree was similarly decorated with an assortment of pinecone ornaments. 

Tabletop trees were popular this year! Julio Torrado's tree looks so whimsical in traditional green and red; it rests atop one of Martha's faux-bois plant stands. 

Bernie Wong's natural tabletop tree looked gorgeous dressed in silver and white ornaments.

Jeremy Lambertson's maximalist style of tree decoration leaves no branch unadorned! I love the explosion of exuberant colour.

Christopher Baker's living room is all decked out with three small trees. Orange was his theme this year. The two surrealistic portraits on the walls were his inspiration. 

Bernie Wong found the perfect spot for his collection of bottle-brush Christmas trees!

Chris Tamez used a pyramid of Martha Stewart cake stands to great effect in this festive display in his kitchen!

Concha Velasco Lomas set a beautiful table on her balcony this year.

David Siza adorned a collection of silver and glass candle sticks with festive decoration for a lustrous, elegant display.

Krista Jeanne decorated her impressive mantel with real boughs of conifer clippings, red ornaments, berries and feathers.

Julio Torrado's bookshelves are aglow with twinkle lights! Martha's polar bear figurines playfully examine a disco ball!

Chris Tamez tried something similar in his window, which is fronted by "Martha's village" - a collection of tin houses made in the image of Martha's summer house, winter house and stables. 

Some of Bernie's smaller bottle-brush trees found their way to this display of brown transferware. 

Laura Guisebert-Clark made a delicious looking bouche de noel.

Steven Fraser also made one, complete with meringue mushrooms.

Chris Tamez used Martha's cake stands to glorious effect to serve his assortment of festive cakes, cookies and chocolates.

Todd Hall made Martha's gingerbread recipe and fashioned giant snowflakes from the dough using Martha by Mail snowflake copper cookie cutters.

Bernie Wong also made gingerbread snowflake cookies and decorated them in his signature palette of green and white.

Krista Jeanne's front entrance looks inviting with its fresh garland and mini lights. 

Click here to join the Martha Moments Facebook Group and be sure to answer the two required questions for membership approval. Happy New Year, everyone! Click here to read more about Entertaining. 

Readers Share Their Holiday Martha Moments

Every so often it's nice to showcase the talent of the wonderful people who read this blog and who take part in the Martha Moments discussion group on Facebook. There are so many talented people out there who turn to Martha for ideas and inspiration and then fuse that vision with their own creative designs for a meal or a table setting. I'm lucky to have connections to so many of these great people from all over the world, united by our interest in Martha's books, television shows and magazines - and all of the ideas they proffer. Below are some highlights from the holidays, submitted by Martha Moments readers from France to Australia and throughout the United States! Enjoy!

Martha by Mail ornaments mix with Martha Stewart Collection ornaments and Martha Stewart Everyday ornaments on Bernie Wong's feather tree in Wisconsin. It's a vision of pure elegance!

Along with Martha's ornaments are collectibles that Bernie discovered at tag sales and flea markets.

 Bernie and his friend Dennis Landon decided to make Martha's chocolate snowflake cutout cookies this year for the holidays. It was a Martha Moment from beginning to end, starting with her chocolate cookie dough recipe and the use of these Martha by Mail snowflake cookie cutters.

Dennis has kept all of the spice tins from the Martha by Mail catalogue days and continues to use them to store his spices. (There's even one from Dean & Deluca in New York).

Dennis's Martha by Mail Kitchenaid mixer in "Martha Green" was put to good use this year!

Anthony Picozzi, in Rhode Island, also made some Martha cookies this year. This recipe is Grammy's Chocolate Cookies, one of Anthony's favourites.They look beautiful stacked on this Martha Stewart cake stand.

John Roberts's Martha Stewart cake stand and "Martha Green" mixer play backdrop to his beautiful croquembouche, which he made for the first time this year. John lives in Michigan.

Maria Newcomer loves Martha's gingerbread recipe from her new book "Cookie Perfection." She made three batches of it!

Sue Mauro made Martha's classic sugar cookie recipe with royal icing.

Paul Neumann did a fabulous job on Martha's Birch de Noel - a variation on the classic Yule Log - complete with meringue mushrooms, coconut snow and sugared thyme 'boughs'.

 Here is Bernie Wong's pretty version.

James Richmond in Hollywood had quite a spread at his holiday gathering, which was used to gather donations for a local toy drive.

Todd Reyes says that Martha was the inspiration behind his Jadeite-laden table setting for his holiday brunch this year.

Jeremy Lambertson makes beautiful Christmas vignettes throughout his home in Cleveland.

Jeremy's Christmas trees are utterly, fabulously maximalist!

Josh Modory created this whimsical forest scene on his entrance table using faux-bois planters and beautiful pine cone pyramids he made himself.

 Deborah Ann Hrubesch used this classic Martha "Good Thing" to display her holiday cards.

Lisa Foust made a beautiful wreath for her front door this year!

Aude Ihcseb in Paris, France, also made her own pretty wreath.

Kathleen McCarthy's Martha by Mail feather tree looks beautiful dressed in vintage glass ornaments.

Todd Hall hangs his Martha by Mail kugels outdoors in his Japanese maple tree to striking effect.

Inside, Todd put up one of Martha's gold tinsel trees and dressed it entirely in blue and green ornaments.

 Yen Neri Arboleda's tree is so expressive and exuberant!

Ramona Barry in Australia used the Scandinavian themes and colours featured on the cover of the December issue of Martha Stewart Living to guide her table setting this year.

I hope you are all having a happy and memorable holiday season!

A Holiday Feast (For the Eyes!)

Every year I like to share images taken by some of the members of the Martha Moments Facebook group - a community forum that is an extension of this blog. The members of the group, most of whom have been readers and viewers of Martha Stewart for years, never fail to inspire me with their holiday decorating and culinary creations. I've selected just a few images to share here on the blog so that they can be archived for posterity. Merry Christmas to Martha, all of the readers of this blog and to all of the members of the Martha Moments Facebook group.

Matt Lara in California used Martha's cookie cutters and her recipe for gingerbread to make these festive cookies.

They look as delicious as they do beautiful!

Stephane Simon in Alaska made Martha's classic marshmallows. They look as light as air!

Stephane uses her Martha Stewart Everyday storage containers from Kmart to keep some of her holiday cookies.

Edith Tayag in Maine made Martha's Christmas 'snowballs' for the first time. I'd say it was a success! They look perfect.

Steven Fraser in Ontario, Canada, made a flurry of Martha's snowflake cookies, using her cookie cutters and her gingerbread recipe.

Christmas is one of Bernie Wong's favourite holidays, as you can well observe! A classic goose feather Christmas tree is adorned with an assortment of green bulbs, many of which are by Martha Stewart. He also made a gorgeous bouche-de-noel, numerous batches of Christmas cookies and has decorated his Georgia home in gorgeous shades of green.

Many of the ornaments Bernie uses are from Martha's former "Everyday" collection from Kmart. He also has numerous items from Martha by Mail.

Here is more of Bernie's ornament collection.

Linda Morrow made Martha's apple galette as well as her scrumptious-looking carrot cake, below.

Josh Modory in Illinois created a beautiful little Christmas village with his homemade gingerbread houses. I love the effect!

Karen Sabine-Reyna in California turned to the Holiday 2003 issue of Martha Stewart Kids for this delicious-looking fudge recipe.

Janet Cooper-Bridge in North Carolina treasures these ornaments from the Martha Stewart Collection she purchased in 2008.

I love how Dennis Landon (Wisconsin) has used Martha's wall-mounted tree planter from QVC for his outdoor Christmas display. I think it looks wonderful with the boughs of pine and clusters of pine cones.

Jeremy Lambertson in Ohio made this adorable Santa cake for some of his holiday guests. I love it!

Jeremy's trees are always laden with multitudes of ornaments, many of them antique. It looks extraordinary with all those gifts piled underneath!

Similarly, the tree of my friend Kenn LaFramboise in Michigan is a gorgeous vision of festive delight. But how on earth will he transport all of those gifts to the holiday gatherings he's been invited to?....

....Using Martha's extra-large heavy-duty tote bag from QVC, of course!

My friend David Pantoja in Pennsylvania is a master at the art of cookie decoration. I'm in awe of his talents. Just look at these extraordinary confections!

They look absolutely perfect.

In my own home in Ottawa, Canada, I continue to be dazzled by the extraordinary blossoms on my amaryllis plant. I always plant three bulbs in one large pot for maximum floral impact!

And although our family uses my great-grandmother's recipe for fruitcake every year, I decided I would use Martha's recipe for the topping this year. It was adapted from her recipe of Mr. and Mrs. Maus's fruitcake: a layer of dried apricots and pecans is glazed with an apricot jam reduction. I think it turned out quite well!

John Roberts in Michigan also usually makes fruitcake for the holidays. He uses Martha's recipe for Mr. and Mrs. Maus's fruitcake and the results look so wonderful.

The home of Anthony Picozzi in Massachusetts is always so beautiful at Christmas. His attention to detail always inspires me.