Florence is at its very best at Christmas, when the city is ablaze with colored lights, and the aroma of roasting chestnuts fills the streets.

More than mere holiday how-tos, these books reconnect us with the true purpose of the “holy days.”

Let there be lights, warmth, and good cheer for Nuremberg's medieval holiday market.

Louis Diat, once the celebrated head chef at New York's Ritz, as well as a prolific Gourmet contributor, offers a behind-the-scenes peek at the posh hotel's old-world holiday traditions, complete with 11 recipes for ritzy Christmas specialties...

The pie came with our ancestors from Europe. But it has learned a lot from the Indians and the climate from being so long over here.

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year! Say it in Mexican, say it with tamales—four kinds of tamales, kit-packed, yours for gift-giving, to keep handy for those special occasions.

The evolution of our Christmas dinner is a story of robust, merry feasting, of wholesale hospitality reaching down the centuries.

Christmas moves in, and as if determined to fill all hearts with joy the bells ring louder.