Riverside, California (NAPSI) - If you are looking for ways to make the holidays more manageable, advice from the experts may help.

Here are a few tips from best-selling cookbook author David Venable.

• Decorating: It can take hours—if not days—to decorate for the holidays. To make the most of your efforts, start early-the weekend after Thanksgiving is ideal.

• Entertaining: Make entertaining easy by preparing foods in advance. Select cookware that can go from oven to table, such as the Temp-tations® Vintage Grace Baker with Wire Rack.

• Comfort: Comfort is key when having guests over for the holidays. Help your guests feel at home by finding out their favorite recipe ahead of time and surprising them with the dish.

• Gifts: Fill containers with the ingredients for one of Venable’s recipes. Add a personalized gift tag and you’re good to go!

• Present wrapping: First, find all your favorite holiday music. Second, mix yourself a cocktail (try Venable’s classic holiday eggnog!). Third, make sure you’ve got paper, boxes, tape and scissors. It’s easiest to tackle the wrapping by doing a little here and there when you can.

Venable is the author of the best-selling cookbook “QVC’s Resident Foodie Presents: Comfort Foods That Take You Home.”

Each week, he gives millions of viewers an inside look at his “kitchen” as the host of QVC’s most popular cooking show, “In the Kitchen with David®,” which airs every Wednesday at 8 p.m. (EST) and Sunday at noon (EST). To learn more, visit www.QVC.com/ITKWD.