Australian celebrity chef Curtis Stone shot this video for AOL Food in time for American Thanksgiving, but there's no reason you can't pick up some tips that you can use for your own bird come December 25th. The secret to his roast -- and it factors heavily in the sausage and fennel stuffing, too -- is lots and lots of butter. And bacon. There's also a clever trick with slices of orange. Sounds delish.

Hark, what is yon sound? 'Tis the sweet tooth singing "Hallelujah!" For between the sugar plums, the candy canes, the gingerbread and the chocolate oranges, Christmas is a veritable blizzard of granulated sugar. Looking for some new ideas to enliven your table this year? Try some old ones. Check out our gallery of traditional European holiday desserts. And if those inspire you to make them at home, scroll down past the gallery for links to recipes.

Santa likes to spread goodwill and cheer, but that's all he wants to spread.

The Ontario provincial government unceremoniously trotted out the URL for information about the flu at this year's Santa Claus parade in Toronto. But as disconnected as Santa and the flu sound, taking the children to Santa's workshop in the local mall may put them at a particularly high risk for exposure to the H1N1 virus.

This is a fact that is not lost on mall Santas across North America, who are scrambling to find ways to protect children and themselves (and them's elves). Many will be providing hand sanitizer stations where parents pay for their pictures; in Regina, a mall-Santa hire was strongly advised to get the vaccine for himself. In fact, a U.S.-based association of mall Santas in petitioning to get its members priority access to the vaccine.

There's nothing wrong with "cheaping out" this holiday season. Recession. Layoffs. Work slowdowns. Poor stock performance... Hello: It's a miracle anyone even feels festive at all!

One recent US Gallup poll showed that 35 percent of Americans plan to spend less on holiday presents than last year. And one in five Britons plan to spend less this season compared to last, according to one recent UK study. It's fairly safe to say Canadians are likely to be similarly cautious as we wait out the recession.

This year, more and more media outlets' holiday guides (including our own) are advocating shopping local this season. But does our decision to buy local rest on the fact that: A) We care about the environment? B) We care about smaller merchants in these tough economic times? or C) At least on some level, we're buying into marketers' efforts to get us to loosen the purse-strings for another holiday season?

When shopping for Christmas gifts, you may get lax on the deal-hunting front -- whether it's because you don't have time in your harried last-minute schedule, or because you don't want to sacrifice a present's thoughtfulness for a lower price tag. It can take a lot of time and energy to source flyers and run from sale rack to sale rack trying to find the perfect bargain, only to come up empty handed.

But this is one area that Twitter -- the chatty web tool that broadcasts super-short updates to subscribers -- is incredibly good at. Its short-form format and instant delivery are perfectly suited to notifying you about price drops.

It can be overwhelming, but preparing a Christmas feast might also be your chance to shine. Such is the message behind the 'Julie and Julia' phenomenon in which nine-to-five office dwellers aspire to culinary greatness. But those of us who didn't spend years perfecting beef bourguignon at the Cordon Bleu could do with some sage words from a professional or two before attempting high cuisine in our own kitchens. We asked a couple of chefs who run high-end bistros on opposite ends of the country how they go about entertaining and also what kind of advice they would offer to a novice making the leap from foodie voyeurism into full-on host.