If you’ve ever donated to a good cause online, you’re no doubt familiar with the last step—the potentially anxiety-inducing decision of whether to make your donation public, or keep it anonymous. If you’re anything like me, all kinds of conflicting thoughts rush in.
Most people go to the local Christmas tree lot with no idea what they’re looking for. Just embarrassing themselves, going, “Uhhmm, that one looks good, I think?” Do not be a Christmas-tree ignoramus any longer. Check out the list below so you can confidently walk up to that guy with the knit hat and rugged flannel and…
Food on boards is very popular, perhaps more popular than it’s ever been. Search “grazing table” on this world wide web, and you’ll find lots of photos of very large charcuterie and cheese boards, along with many blogs insisting that they are not just “big charcuterie boards.” Grazing tables are a different, new…
Last month, Universal delighted few, annoyed many, and baffled all but those with a pragmatic view of movies-as-product when it announced Chris Pratt will be taking over the role of Mario in an upcoming Super Mario Bros. animated movie. The actor was also recently cast as loveably outrageous cat stereotype Garfield…
There’s only so much you can control when it comes to travel, especially during the holidays. Whether you’re embarking on a road trip to see family, or simply worried about driving through the snow to the other side of town, the cold winter months typically mean the start of increasingly dangerous road conditions.
Chances are good you are less popular than your friends. Poorer, too. Probably they are also better looking. Sorry. This is called “the friendship paradox,” and it’s just logical fact.
The rise of screen use has raised a number of concerns, especially when it comes to eye health and the impacts of blue light on the eye. But what is blue light, and how much is it really to blame for the strain our daily screen activity is putting on our eyes?
Holiday lights are a cozy tradition—as the days get shorter, a few sparkly strands can really brighten up the endless evenings. While this holiday tradition is worth keeping, traditional filament light bulbs are not. Here’s why you should make the switch to LED lights this year.
At the end of each year, Spotify’s Wrapped feature takes over social media, as seemingly all of your friends start sharing their year in music—the one song they played the most, the artists in their top 5, the genres that define their taste. Unfortunately, you use Apple Music, so you’re out of luck.
Well, not…
We recently asked Lifehacker readers “What’s the Worst Christmas Gift You’ve Ever Received?” and the comments were...disheartening. I mean, some were funny (a toilet seat, a family member’s headshot, an unwrapped DVD of Footloose) but many brought a sting to the eye. Stories abounded of parents ostensibly trying to…
We all juggle a lot of online accounts these days. From streaming subscriptions, to multiple email addresses, to accounts for movie theaters, airlines, and restaurants—if it has a website, you likely have an account for it. If you’re like me, you hardly use most of these accounts, if you use them at all. Even still,…
Bright red poinsettias are popular holiday-season decor, and like a lot of plants, have particular preferences when it comes to placement in your home. To help your flowers survive and thrive throughout the season—especially if plant care isn’t your jam—make sure you know how much water, sunlight, and heat your…
Whether a smartwatch or a ring, many of us now wear fitness trackers, which means we have collected a lot of data on how much we are moving and sleeping, as well as how our heart rates change with our activity levels. All of this information can be a good motivator for getting you moving more regularly and monitoring…
The idea that success, money, and power spring from hard work and dogged determination has been hard-wired into America’s cultural DNA since the founding of the country, when Ben Franklin wrote, “Energy and persistence conquer all things.” But every now and then, even old white guys with granny glasses are wrong:…
If you’re one of the millions of people who somehow acquired a guitar during their life—a guitar they have dutifully moved from place to place with the sincere intention of someday learning how to play it—you probably know it’s not as easy as rock stars make it seem. If you’ve actually made any attempt to learn the…
You’re likely seen the memes: A collage of posters for a bunch of Hallmark Christmas movies, all of them featuring nearly identical images of blonde white women and brown-haired white men in variations of red and green sweaters. As a brown-haired white man with an acting background, I do not think it is bad that these…
Cooking and serving a large piece of meat for a holiday meal can make one feel like an (evil and rich) Dickens character, but buying large cuts for a crowd is far more cost effective (and less wasteful) than buying individual steaks or chops. But scale is not enough: These large animal parts deserve to be permeated…
Tech loves to talk about the future, and if you’ve been paying any attention to recent industry headlines, you’ve probably seen the phrase “Web3” bandied about. It’s not a new term, but as the hype around cryptocurrency, NFTs, and the “metaverse” spikes, Web3 is getting a lot more attention. And while Web3 is …
If you’ve ever had a toddler, chances are, you’ve been the lucky recipient of their “screaming phase.” Note, I didn’t say tantrum phase. No, there is a brand of toddler screeching that has little or sometimes nothing to do with a full-on meltdown about not being able to take home the Paw Patrol water bottle they’ve…
It’s becoming increasingly common for homeowners to invest in security cameras, but there are also privacy laws that limit where all those cameras can be pointed. If you’re looking to install security cameras in and around the perimeter of your home, you’ll need to consider those laws as much as your own security, so…
LinkedIn never passes up an opportunity to flood your inbox with emails. Even if you do your best to unsubscribe from every message you receive, the service always seems to find a way to send you even more of them. If you’d rather keep LinkedIn’s updates out of your inbox, it is possible—if difficult—unsubscribe from…
There are two types of Christmas-observing families: Those who are serious about stockings, and amateurs. Like most things, my sisters and I view stocking stuffing as a competition, but we will never beat our mother, who has had three decades to perfect her stocking stuffing methods (with her children as test…
You might know about Apple’s feature that lets you automatically unlock your iPhone using the Apple Watch (when you’re wearing a face mask, at least). But you may not have known that this feature has also existed for years on the Mac. As long as you’re wearing your Apple Watch—and it’s unlocked—you can sign in to your…
As long as we’ve had cameras, we’ve tried to take the perfect group photo. You set the camera on a stand, turn on the timer, run back to crowd, say “Cheese!” and hope no one blinked. Of course, someone often does, and you have to take the photo all over again—that is, unless you have a phone that can automatically…
Growing up, there wasn’t a strong Christmas ornament tradition in my family. Or one at all, really. There were no hand-crafted trinkets with sentimental value, or delicate keepsakes passed down through generations. The main thing I remember about our tree was its comical 1980s artificiality of sparse, rigid branches,…
In theory, winter running is easy: It’s just normal running with extra layers. But sometimes it’s tough to find exactly what layers you need. Fortunately, a bunch of cold-dwelling redditors have come through with their recommendations to keep you toasty all winter long.
Apple’s Messages is probably one of the most-used apps on your iPhone that you spend the least time thinking about. After all, it’s just texting.
But this humble messaging app is actually remarkably feature-packed, and if you spend a few minutes poking around in your settings, you’ll be able to unlock lots of useful…
Pulling yourself from arm’s length up to a horizontal bar is a phenomenal exercise for your back, your arms, and your core. But there’s more than one way to do it, and I’m not just talking about the fact that “pullups” and “chinups” are technically two different exercises. There are countless variations to make the…
If you’ve got an alcove, corner, or otherwise awkward empty space in a room that needs a little extra storage or decorative touch, the best solution may be a simple floating shelf. Floating shelves are cost-effective to make—and are fairly easy to install—and they can finish off a space that needs a little something.
In some ways, money is the perfect gift. It’s liquid, which means the recipient has total agency to do whatever they want with it. Cash is the easiest way to give money, and no one’s going to be mad about getting a box full of twenties for their birthday—but unless you’re Robert Deniro in a Scorsese film, giving cash…
The idea of surgery can be daunting. You’re unconscious while someone cuts into you, more or less, and there is nothing you can do about it—it is the height of helplessness. For some, none of that is a big deal. For others—especially first-timers—surgery can be really scary. Here are some tips for how to prepare for…
Tired: “My favorite Christmas movie is Die Hard.”
Try as I might to keep my indoor plants alive, I am not a natural plant mom. If you’re similarly incompetent, but still want to keep a little slice of nature in your home, let me present to you: the glorious ecosphere.
Letting in some natural light can really brighten up your home, especially during the winter months. However, while traditional skylights are an option, they can be costly and add to heating and cooling costs. Tubular skylights are a good alternative, providing natural light year round without losing as much…
Fact: people love latkes. I wish I was one of them. Fried potatoes should be a slam dunk, but most of my Chanukah memories involve skipping the latkes for the applesauce they were served with.
There is an unspoken rule dictating that any Christmas comedy must include a scene where one of the characters gets completely tangled in strings of holiday lights. And while that situation may be funny onscreen, when it’s happening in your living room, it can be hard to find the humor in it.
There’s nothing like curling up on the couch and enjoying one of your favorite childhood movies. Sure, you already know the plot and can recite half of the film from memory, but that’s part of the charm. Most of all, it’s comforting.
Whether you use your garage as a place to park your vehicles, or as more of a workshop, now’s the time to get it ready for the winter season. But either way, it can be a daunting task, and you may not know where to start.
Maybe you’re the type of person who, at the end of each holiday season, washes all the stockings and other festive fabric decorations before putting them in a carefully sealed container, so everything’s ready-to-go the following year.
While there have long been diehard fans of vintage and antique furniture, the furniture shortage and resulting delivery delay throughout the COVID-19 pandemic has made higher-end secondhand shopping even more competitive. And with the increased demand has come a flood of fakes, Sydney Gore writes in an article for…
Are you getting bored with our current units of measurement? Do you constantly weigh the pros and cons of the United States switching over to the metric system, and wonder if there was a better option?
Thanksgiving is over, which means the inflatable lawn turkeys will soon be replaced by inflatable lawn candy canes and holiday lights. And for those who celebrate and decorate for Christmas, it’s time to decide whether to chop a real, live outside tree and bring it into their home for a few weeks, or dust off the…
When everything is working the way it’s supposed to, you might assume that tap water is pretty consistent across the board in terms of what’s in it, and how it can affect your home and your body. But in reality, that’s not the case. There are multiple ways tap water can differ depending on the community, but today…
Whether you’re in the market for tools for yourself, or to give to others as gifts, you’re probably keeping an eye out for sales and special offers—especially over the next week or so. But unfortunately, not all tools sold online are what they say they are.
Thanksgiving leftovers are more fun to eat than the actual, proper Thanksgiving meal. The leftovers are where you can get creative, inspired, and unhinged. Sandwiches, soup, fried rice, and pot pies are all fine and delicious, but they’re almost as traditional as turkey and dressing. If you’re looking for new and…
Many people think of their furry, four-legged friends as being part of their family, so it can be hard to leave them for the holidays. But with holiday travel being hectic enough on its own, it’s not always clear whether to add your mutt to the mix.
Not everyone is on the same page when it comes to food allergies and intolerances, and dietary restrictions and preferences, and that’s never more evident than at a holiday meal. While your immediate family may know you’re vegan or lactose intolerant, that’s not necessarily the case with extended family, friends, or…
Having people over is always more work than you think it’s going to be. Even if you go in with the intention of keeping it casual, there’s usually the moment about a half hour before guests are set to arrive that you realize that your home—which you initially didn’t think was that bad—actually looks pretty sloppy.
Hopefully, we all know to avoid politics and religion at holiday social occasions where guests of varying ideological and spiritual leanings have gathered, for a good, festive time. But there are plenty of other verboten subjects and lines of questioning from which you should probably steer clear—that is, unless you…
The line between private and public information has never been more blurred, whether you blame reality TV, social media, or perhaps a global pandemic steadily chipping away at all of our emotional states. Chances are good that at one point or another, you’ve been guilty of oversharing, which the New York Times…