With Christmas just days away, you're likely focused on wrapping gifts, baking cookies, and setting the holiday table. But by the time you've polished off the fruitcake and returned all those ill-fitting sweaters, it'll be time for another celebration: New Year's Eve.

To help you ring in 2010 in a stylish, stress-free way, we've gathered all our favorite recipes, drinks, and party ideas:

Throwing a party but don't want to break the bank? In our Luxe-for-Less New Year's Eve feature, Katie Brown shares her best recipes and tips for entertaining on a budget. Speaking of saving money, check out our picks for the Top 5 Affordable Sparkling Wines.

Maybe your wallet isn't what you're worried about. What if you've never even hosted a party before? Relax and tune in to the Epicurious Guide to Entertaining. In this 9-part video series, lifestyle expert Clinton Kelly (star of TLC's What Not to Wear) shows you everything you need to know, including making centerpieces, setting up a buffet table, and creating a home bar.

And, if you're an experienced host or hostess, but need some fun new recipes to impress your guests, we have hundreds of celebration-ready dishes. Plus, we have guides to lucky foods from around the world and shopping for and cooking with caviar.

For more recipes, drinks, and party ideas, check out our Ultimate New Year's Eve Guide.

Thank you for voting in our Tailgating Recipe Contest! Today we announced the top three contenders:

Emily Barre's Stuffed Jalapenos

Danielle Williams's Braised Pulled Pork Sandwiches and Caramelized Onions and Apples on Spicy Cheddar Cheese Biscuits

Patterson Watkins's South Philly Chili with Homemade Whiz Wit and Pretzel Croutons

These three talented cooks are headed to Fort Lauderdale to compete in a Super Bowl weekend cook-off at the Taste of the NFL event. The lucky winner gets a Blue Ember iQue Digital Grill and the runners-up receive SonarQue Propane Fuel Monitors.

Looking for more tailgating ideas? See our Complete Game-Day Guide for the best recipes, beer, and gear.

Having a "calories be damned" kind of day? Then you'll want to dig right into one of the pull-out-the-stops "splurge day" recipes in our new feature Comfort Food Recipes for Splurge Days or Any Day. We've got recipes for burgers topped with bacon, cheese, and a creamy sauce; crispy deep-fried chicken; pudding made with heavy cream; and 12 more decadent dishes.

But we haven't forgotten about you and your comfort food needs if you're watching your calories, fat, cholesterol, or sugar today. Step aside iceberg lettuce salad and carrot sticks and make way for one of our diet-friendly healthy comfort food recipes. For each "splurge day" dish, we have a less caloric, but no less delicious, "any day" counterpart: a bison burger with a creamy low-cal sauce; crispy "unfried" chicken; deceptively rich-tasting chocolate-hazelnut pudding made with low-fat milk; and a dozen more main courses, sides, and desserts.

What are your favorite "splurge day" and "any day" comfort foods?

If it's getting to be that time of the holiday season when you're feeling a bit bloated and gross and you want to clean up your diet for a few days, check out our Detox Diet Recipes and Tips. For the feature, I interviewed the star of 30 Days, Morgan Spurlock, and his wife, Alex Jamieson, who is a holistic health counselor, chef, and the author of The Great American Detox Diet. The two shared tips and recipes from the eating plan that Jamieson developed to help Spurlock lose weight and return to wellness after he ate nothing but food from McDonald's for 30 days for the movie Super Size Me. Jamieson helped Spurlock lose the 25 pounds he gained during the filming. "I truly believe that she helped save my life by nursing my body back to health with care, kindness, and delicious food," he says.

Do you ever feel like you need a few days of "clean eating"? If so, what are your go-to recipes?

For more ideas on eating well throughout the rest of 2009, check out our complete list of Holiday Healthy-Eating Tips and Light Party Recipes.

Whether you're shopping online today, Cyber Monday, or just browsing for gift ideas, food makes a perfect present, and not just for the usual "showing your love through cooking" reason (though that's a good one too). Edible gifts are ideal because they disappear. That means there's no struggle on the part of the giver to figure out the right size and color of sweater that the giftee will be wearing for years to come, and no guilt on the part of the receiver about how long to wait before donating said ill-fitting sweater to Goodwill. All there is to do is eat and enjoy (even regifting will bring joy to somebody).

Epicurious's new Edible Christmas Gifts to Make or Buy slideshow features recipes for a dozen edible gifts, plus online sources for the best alternatives to homemade. Our picks include a make-it recipe for Bittersweet Chocolate and Walnut Fudge with a buy-it option from Murdick's Fudge (both pictured above). Other gifts include jam, chocolate truffles, New Orleans pralines, Cheddar shortbread, and lemon liqueur. Click through the edible gift slideshow and let us know what you are planning to make or buy for the holidays this year.

Last month, Epicurious hosted its first Epicurious Entertains NYC event. The 5-day food extravaganza included dinners prepared by Mario Batali, Daniel Boulud, Paul Liebrandt, and Marco Canora, plus the Ultimate NYC Lunch Break, a day of football and barbecue (from Chef Zak Pelaccio's Fatty 'Cue), and cooking demonstrations from some of our favorite chefs and experts. At each and every demo, we kept hearing the same thing: "Where can we get the recipes?" Lucky for you, many of our great chefs and experts agreed to share their recipes with Epicurious. See below for recipes from Chef Michael Psilakis of Kefi, Anthos, and Gus & Gabriel, Cooking Teacher Lourdes Castro, Magnolia Bakery, BR Guest Mixologist Eben Klemm, Chef Marcus Samuelsson of Aquavit, Jean Georges Pastry Chef Johnny Iuzzini, and more.

Lourdes Castro's recipes from Simply Mexican:

Crab Tostadas

Chicken Tamales

Homemade Mexican Crema

Chipotle Chile Sauce

Creamy Salsa Verde

Michael Psilakis's recipes from How to Roast a Lamb:

Chickpea Spread

Tzatsiki

Tanya Steel's recipes from Real Food for Healthy Kids:

Peachy Keen Chicken

Edamame Succotash Salad

Chocolate Chip Flying Saucers

James Cury demonstrated Camper English's cocktail, The Cure

Marcus Samuelsson's recipe from New American Table:

Maple-Glazed Tuna with Pear-Potato Salad

Magnolia Bakery's Vanilla Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream Icing

Eve Felder's Roasted Fall Squash Ravioli with Brown Butter and Crispy Sage

Johnny Iuzzini's Chocolate Noodles with Peppermint Broth and White Chocolate Sorbet

Eben Klemm's cocktail recipes:

Pine Needle Daiquiri

3-Second Ramos Gin Fizz

Now that it's November and Halloween is officially behind us, it's time to focus on what many call their favorite holiday: Thanksgiving. While plenty of hosts look forward to turkey day, for some, the day is synonymous with stress. Yes, there is a lot to do, and if your guest list is large, it can be that much more complicated. But trust us, hosting Thanksgiving doesn't have to be a nightmare. With a smart menu and a do-ahead plan (a little help from your guests won't hurt either), the holiday can be a whole lot less hectic.

If you choose fresh, natural food for yourself, chances are that you have the very same high standards for your children, including and maybe even especially your youngest eaters. And yes, there are natural, organic and/or healthy baby foods on the market, but you can also make your own baby meals at home. This allows you to tailor the food to your child's preferences, and more importantly, ensure that baby eats only the very best ingredients. To help get you started, we consulted Tanya Steel and Tracey Seaman, authors of Real Food for Healthy Kids (Tanya Steel is also our Editor-in-Chief). In Making Baby Food, they share their simple and straightforward guidelines for which foods little ones, 6 to 36 months, can and cannot eat, and 5 baby-friendly recipes:

D is for Delicious Baby Cereal
F is for Fruit Purees
R is for Rich Rice Pudding
S is for Spinach
W is for Whole-Wheat Teething Biscuits

Have you ever made your own baby food? Tell us about it.

For the complete guide to baby food (and more photos of the adorable baby shown above) see Making Baby Food.

Halloween (and the weeks leading up to it) is a perfect time for fun, kid-friendly kitchen projects. Here are a few of Epicurious's favorite ideas:

Homemade Halloween: Cookbook author and mother of two Sharon Bowers shares recipes for easy, edible Halloween crafts (Monster Eyeballs, Funny Bones, and Glowing Jack-o'-Lantern Cookies) and offers tips for safe and stress-free baking with kids.

Halloween at Dylan's Candy Bar: Dylan's Candy Bar founder Dylan Lauren uses candy to create a haunted house and owl and pumpkin brownie pops. Plus, she takes us on a tour of her famous Willy Wonka-like sweets emporium.

Caramel Apples and Spiderweb Cookies: Editor-in-chief Tanya Steel, with help from some young friends, demonstrates how to make caramel-dipped apples and spiderweb cookies.

For more Halloween recipes, plus a chocolate candy taste test, and Amy Sedaris's spooky entertaining ideas, see our complete guide to Halloween.

Epicurious loves a party and for a while now we've wanted to create the ultimate guide to entertaining. In addition to sharing tips for stocking the bar, advice on how much food to make, and ideas for decorating the table, we also wanted to give you a feel for our entertaining personality, and to show you just how fun (and easy) it can be to host a great party.

Enter Clinton Kelly, the host of TLC's What Not to Wear and everyone's favorite advice giver. It turns out that Kelly's expertise isn't limited to overhauling wardrobes. He's actually a bit of a renaissance man with a wealth of lifestyle savvy. And, eager to share his ideas, Kelly has written a book called Freakin' Fabulous: How to Dress, Speak, Behave, Eat, Drink, Entertain, Decorate, and Generally Be Better Than Everyone Else.