A holiday brunch at Bedford

Every Christmas season I try to host a few parties: one or two open houses, a cookies-and-eggnog party and a couple of dinners. Because I go all out with my decorating — lots of wreaths, garlands, trees and handcrafted vignettes throughout the house and the farm — I love to share these visions with as many friends as possible. And I love Christmas foods: the roasts, the sweets, the special things that make the holidays so memorable.

For this party, I wanted to include a special tribute and thank you to my longtime editors for the superb job they've done over the past 20 years in the creation of Martha Stewart Living magazine. My editors work so hard all year, creating stories that will inspire charming and memorable celebrations, meals and holiday festivities. Generally they decorate for the holidays out of season, sometimes crafting for Christmas in June and Hanukkah in April.

For this get-together, I insisted we have a real holiday meal at the real time, with snow on the ground and my decorations everywhere. Colleagues were invited with their families because I love to have kids in the house playing with the dogs and searching for the five cats.

I invited everyone for a brunch of delicious glazed ham; popovers with creamed spinach and fried eggs; homemade biscuits, honey fruitcakes and jams; citrus salad; many cookies; and one of my favorite Christmas drinks, pomegranate punch. I had food in the kitchen, in the servery and in the smaller of my two dining rooms. People ate with plates on their laps or in the large dining room, where the red canaries sang merrily in their cage. There were at least two trimmed trees in every room, each decorated in a new way to delight my creative staffers.

Most fun of all was the snowball fight and riding the Kawasaki all-terrain vehicle in the snow. And since it was the time of year for gift giving, I gave each guest a handmade bread board cut to resemble a slice of bread, plus a jar of homemade preserves wrapped in a festive kitchen towel. They were very well-liked gifts, I think. My only challenge? Topping it next year.

Menu:

Pomegranate Punch

Caramel-Coated Brie

Blini With Caviar

Chive and Black Pepper Biscuits

Gruyere Popover Sandwiches With Fried Eggs and Creamed Spinach

Ham With Currant-Rosemary Glaze

Mini Honey Fruitcakes With Mixed Citrus Sauce