The Fourth of July has always been my favorite holiday and what better way to highlight the celebration than by pulling together red, white and blue decor.  A practical investment in Brighter White dishes for every day use can be accented for the holiday by simply adding pieces of Colorware in pure Indigo and Red. [...]

It is never too early to start shopping holiday bargains online. The Little Brown Bag ornament with Santa snow globe (above, $6.00) can be found at Bloomingdale’s.

These delicate bone china snowflake drop ornaments (above, $10 each) are available from Crate and Barrel.

With his handpainted features and tailor-made clothing, the Christian Ulbricht Gingerbread Nutcracker (above, $296) [...]