Well it’s curtains for Christmas, everyone. Now we get to focus on New Year’s Eve. With our more casual society, it has become so rare these days for women (and men, too) to have the opportunity to get really dressed up. New Year’s Eve is the exception. It is the time of year when stores actually stock cocktail and evening dresses, going so far as to even display them in the shop windows.

Along with the perfect dress come the perfect accessories, so today I am concentrating on the leg wear that goes along with that snazzy clothing. The huge shift in this area has been away from sheer stockings towards all kinds of black textures and semi-opaque or full opaque stockings – and I’m talking with those dressy dresses now. Women are even wearing tights with their elegant clothing, tucking them into formal shoes and boots. The one exception is that fishnet stockings are going gangbusters these days.

For more casual parties, you might want to wear leggings under a tunic or a skirt. You can buy them with a bit of lace at the bottom and in different lengths. For that New Year’s Eve party, you can buy the ones with lurex threads going through in gold or silver.

Sox Box Accessoires, 1357 Greene Ave. at Sherbrooke St. Phone: 514-931-4980. Hours: Monday to Friday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. (Only open Sundays September to December). If you are searching for just the right type or colour of stockings, pantyhose or socks, this is the place for you. For women (mostly), men and children, there is an entire store full of patterns, opaques and sheers. The domestic and imported (Italy, France, England, Switzerland, Germany, U.S.) high and low end hosiery will complete any outfit you may have. Downstairs, you can shop for exercise clothing, sports bras and undies.

Pieds Nus, 705 Ste-Catherine Ouest in the Centre Eaton at McGill College Ave. Phone: 514-845-6508. Hours: Monday to Friday 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., Saturday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Now owned by Sox Box (see above), this show has been around for twenty-one years. Women who work downtown have been happy to buy their sox (women 4/$10) and stockings (Dim, Mondor, Suncee, Wonderbra, Filodoro, San Pellegrino, Cocot, Hue, Silks) here. Ask for their frequent buyer card to get $5 off your next purchase after you’ve made ten purchases – and – a chance in a drawing.

Underworld, in Place Ville Marie at University St. Phone: 514-874-0811. Hours: Monday to Wednesday 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., Thursday and Friday 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., Saturday 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. (Also Sunday 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. for the month of December). This is a small but convenient downtown location for stockings (including seamed nylons) by Filodoro, Wonderbra, San Pelegrino, Sarah Borghi, Jockey, Silks, Mondor, Hanes and Dim. For body revealing dresses, Hidden Assets is a line of plastic bra straps, nipple covers and, adhesive bras for strapless tops, and the Ubra is a new Australian line of push-up bras. Check out the wall of camisoles (Arianne Papillon Blanc, Donna) to go under all those filmy tops. You can add some undies by Le Jaby, Change, Volage, Chantelle, Triumph, Passionnata, Jockey, Elita and Wonderbra. Danskin workout wear is here as well as swimwear by Nygard, Christine and Baltex.

Coin des Bas, 807 Mont Royal Ave. East at St. Hubert St. Phone: 514-521-1631. Hours: Monday to Wednesday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Thursday and Friday 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. This long narrow store is perfect to showcase the wall of socks and stockings by: Dolci Calze, Hue, Maya, Mondor, Suncee, Bleu Foret, Filodoro, Dim, Viola and more. The rest of the store, open 31 years, offers you garter belts, dance leggings, some bras and accessories like hats and gloves.

By now the holidays are upon us, and panic has set in. If you’re the one in charge of the food preparation and want to make these days special, why not head to a real farmer’s market to scoop up all your cooking needs? Somehow the sterility of a supermarket does not evoke the nostalgia of past holidays compared to meandering through the stalls of an old-fashioned real food market.

We are fortunate in Montreal to have two big ones (Atwater and Jean Talon www.marchespublics-mtl.com) which could cover all our needs, but the Jean Talon Market is much bigger and has a special feel, with its combination of rusticity and sophistication. Jean Talon Market is like a little city square, with its four encircling sides lined up with food delectables. More food stores and other related businesses ooze out from the square as well, and the whole thing spills into Little Italy with even more eating options. Started in 1933, it sits between Jean Talon St. to the north, Belanger to the south and Casgrain Ave. and Henri Julien Ave. to the east and west.

To get you started I have chosen a fish monger, a poultry specialist and a cheese store for your basics, and then I threw in one just for fun – full of Quebec homegrown gourmet goodies. As you circle the square, you will bump into just about everything else you need – veggies, meat, by-the-pound basics, bakeries, herbs, sausages, chocolates and even a cookbook store to help with recipes.

Poissonnerie Shamrock, 7015 Casgrain Ave. at the SW corner of the market. Phone: 514-272-5612. Hours: Sunday to Wednesday 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., Thursday and Friday 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. If you sell at the Jean Talon Market, (and they have since 1959), then you had better be up to snuff, since the restaurateurs and shoppers who come here are going out of their way to get the freshest ingredients. The one way traffic down the middle of this narrow shop first passes the prepared fish dishes like tilapia marinated in orange and salmon in brandy or lemon/pepper/dill, then goes past the fresh fish, lobster tank and the showcase of sixteen kinds of caviar. There’s beluga, of course, but also tabikko for sushi making. The wall of frozen fish and seafood has advertised specials. Look for the enormous easy peel shrimp or the scampis, both four to six per lb. Some highlights: octopus or seaweed salads, smoked yellowfin tuna, lobster oil, squid ink, stuffed escargot and good old salt cod. For your holiday meals, you can serve salmon tournedos, stuffed sole or oysters Rockefeller. Other location: Marche Maisonneuve, Fillets Express.

La Fromagerie Hamel, 220 Jean Talon St. East at Casgrain Ave. Phone: 514-272-1161. Hours: Monday to Wednesday 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Thursday 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., Friday 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., Saturday 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sunday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. www.fromageriehamel.com This cheese shop, open since 1965, is always bustling. About five hundred cheeses are stocked from France, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Great Britain, Ireland, Scotland, Greece, Italy, Germany, Sweden and Hungary. Some special cheeses you can serve for the holidays might be: Stilton with port, a “winter” cheese (made only from November through March) called Vacherin Mont’or, or Cabriolet, a goat cheese from the South of France. Cheese gift baskets can be ordered too (at least two days ahead), and can have other items added, such as wine, crackers, chocolates, oil and vinegar, jam or pheasant terrines. Other locations: 2117 Mont Royal Ave. East. (514-521-3333); 9196 Sherbrooke St. East. (514-355-6657); Repentigny, 622 Notre Dame St. (450-654-3578).

Zinman Chicken Market, 7010 St. Dominique St. at Mozart St. Phone: 514-277-4302. Hours: Monday to Wednesday 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., Thursday and Friday 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Located one block outside the market and open for the last ninety years, this poultry market sells to at least three hundred local shops. They sell all the specialties you may want to serve for your holiday meal: rabbits, quail, ducks, hare, guinea hens, turkeys, pheasant, Cornish hens, partridges and pigeons. Their chickens are prized, as they are fed no mineral supplements, just old fashioned corn and grain, which might make them cost twice as much as the supermarket variety, but then they taste twice as good.

Le Marche des saveurs du Quebec, 280 Place du Marche du Nord at Henri Julien Ave. Phone: 514-271-3811. Hours: (This week only) Daily 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. until the 24^th). Regular hours: Monday to Wednesday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Thursday and Friday 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., Saturday and Sunday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. This airy bright jewel in the Jean Talon market brings you gourmet flavors, but only from Quebec. The tastes run from foie gras ravioli, to peach coulis or wild mushroom mustard. Some flavors for your holiday table might be dandelion or wild cherry wine vinegar, pheasant pate, smoked emu, rose jelly, oignon jam or carrot confit. They stock Quebec wines, and if you’re dying for some – caribou soup. This week there will be two to three tastings a day from some of their suppliers. Le Verger du Clocher will show off their apple muste products. The apple reduction is a yummy syrup good on salads, meats and fresh fruits. Nutra.fruit will showcase their cranberry treats: a cranberry confit d’oignon, sesame oil with cranberry, rosemary and garlic and a cassis and cranberry oil.

There comes a time in every gift shopping list when you hit the wall. It’s either because you realize you have run out of time or because you really cannot think of anything to get that person. But don’t despair, I have an easy way out of your dilemma.

This is the moment you let your fingers do the walking to your phone. Look at the list below, and call up one of the gift basket companies. Gift baskets have come a long way since someone wrapped up some fruit and nuts in a wicker basket and covered it with plastic wrap.

One of the huge success stories in this industry is La Premiere Compagnie de Paniers, where seventeen years ago Hope Milner started out making gift baskets in her basement. When the business outgrew her home, she rented some space on Bord du Lac on the edge of Pointe Claire Village. Customers started asking her if they could buy her goodies without the baskets, and she suddenly found herself turning into a gift store business.

This precipitated a move into the center of town. A few years later she had to double her space while venturing into other retail areas such as toys, jewelry, home decor and Premier Moissan baked goods, turning it into an old fashioned country style store Then came the coup de grace – her store was given the “Best Gift Store in Canada” award. You might think that was the happy ending, but there is a coda.

Last Spring, Hope was approached to sell her business, and she accepted. She is still on the scene though, as she is consulting for the new owners in order to continue the story of the “little basket company that could” as they grow into an online store and franchise the concept.

In all these years, she and the other companies listed below have learned how to take the likes, interests or taste buds of your gift recipients and turn them into a gift basket. Sure, they still fill them with chocolate, cookies and toiletries, but you might also find ones with: soup, pedicure supplies, martinis, anti-oxidant food, movies, gardening tools or sugar-free delights, all beautifully and precariously piled into a basket, a fry pan, a car, a vase or an Adirondack chair for example.

La Premiere Compagnie de Paniers, 300 Bord du Lac at St. Joachim St., Pointe Claire. Phone: 514-695-7038. Hours: Monday to Wednesday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Thursday and Friday 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., Saturday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. This basket company lives in a huge gift store which is chock full of gourmet food items, kitchenware and gifts. Baskets are easily assembled from the jams, hot sauces, condiments, Rogers chocolates, scented items, housewares, toys and much, much more. Popular baskets over the years are the Bord du Lac, Mont Tremblant, Decadence and The Classic. www.thepanier.com

Cornucopia, 85 de Castelnau St. West at St. Urbain St. Phone: 514-276-4712 or 800-977-4712. Hours: Monday to Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and by appointment. Open since 1977, this is the oldest gift basket company in town. The company offers their basketed gifts ($29.95 to $230) in a kid’s riding toy, leather magazine rack, salad bowl, a champagne bucket or a wicker rocker. Send an anti-stress basket, a cinema lovers, a sugar-free or fat-free, anti-oxidant or organic, a martini one, a healthy fresh fruit one, a personal care kit, the chocoholic or one just for the kids. You can choose from their colorful brochure or online at www.cornucopia.ca

Basket Greetings, Phone: 514-323-7213. Always popular at this Italian-inspired company are the very healthy fruit baskets or the decadent gourmet ones: coffee, tea, cheeses, smoked salmon, cookies and chocolates. Themed ones for a gardener, for a pedicure, or baskets just for men can be prepared too. Baskets are ready for all occasions, including new babies, hospital visits and birthdays starting at $35 plus tax and delivery. Corporate accounts are welcome. www.basketgreetings.com

Gift-A-Gram, 4336 St. Martin Blvd. West at Francoeur St., Laval. Phone: 450-335-2030. Hours: Monday to Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Gift baskets can be based on themes like The World’s Best Soup, Current Events, Coffee Break, Home Improvement, or Sports Jock. On their website you can click by price and they sort them in order for you, starting at $19.95. Since 1980, this company has also been crooning telegrams, with singers in costumes as cupids, gorillas, Batmen, town criers or Barneys, with prices starting at $40. You can combine the telegram, character messenger and baskets as a gift-a-gram or balloon-a-gram. www.giftagram.com

My household has really become enamored of nuts ever since we started writing our Drive I-95: Exit by Exit Info, Maps, History and Trivia book. Down the road a piece in Virginia and North and South Carolina there are family businesses selling peanuts and pecans freshly roasted in classic and also the most original flavors (wasabe peanuts, hot onion and garlic pistachios, for example). We can no longer live without butter toasted pecans in our salads or for snacks, and we have to order them online between our trips (www.goodearthpeanuts.com).

This led me to thinking about where I could find fresh nuts right here at home. We are lucky to have a handful of wholesalers who open their doors to the public as well. The variety of nuts and other stuff they sell by the pound is astonishing. Just walking through the stores is fun, since some still show their wares in barrels (when was the last time you bought that way?).

Since it is all sold by the pound, this presents an easy opportunity to buy tiny tastes of things and not have to invest a pile of money just to see if you or your family might like them. With the holiday season on the horizon, it would be a good time to stock up on all the ingredients you will need for your baking, or perhaps plan to buy some of the yummy new treats to serve as nibbles for your guests.

Basse, 9360 Charles de Latour St at Chabanel St. Phone: 514-387-8828. Hours: Monday to Wednesday and Saturday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Thursday and Friday 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., Sunday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. This Mid-eastern family business, involving five brothers, has been oil-roasting and dry-roasting all kinds of nuts for the past fifteen years. You can choose from amongst six kinds of pistachios, almonds come in tamari, barbeque or candied, and there’s pumpkin seeds, hazelnuts and caramel pecans. Other interesting goodies abound: roasted chick peas, corn nuts, double roasted hot peppers, dried kiwi, peanut/rice crackers and roasted peas. Some mid-eastern groceries are stocked, like blossom or rose water, bags or jars of zaatar, bitter orange jam, stuffed zucchini and, if you need them, gallon jars of hot peppers. Other location: 4555 Autoroute 440 West (at the plant 450-781-1255).

Cananut,1415 Mazurette St. at De l’Acadie Blvd. Phone: 514-388-8003. Hours: Monday to Wednesday 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., Thursday and Friday 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., Saturday 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., Sunday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. With an astounding sixty barrels of nuts, twenty-four of beans, ten kinds of rice and eight of lentils, you can stock up on all sorts of staples here. Some exotic foods here are worth investigating: date paste, dried mango, papaya cubes, barbequed corn, wasabi peanuts, bulgur and couscous. There’s a wall of teas (like hibiscus flower), jarred and canned imported foods and some wrapped candies. Other location: 4913 St. Jean Blvd. (514-624-2324).

Delinoix, 6768 Jarry St. East at Pascal Gagnon St. Phone: 514-324-4227. Hours: Monday to Wednesday 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Thursday 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., Friday 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. (until Dec 31, Saturday 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.). This wholesaler will sell retail, so if you have a hankering for nuts, dried fruits (mango, cranberry, pear, kiwi, cantaloupe), a dozen trail mixes and lots of candies or crystallized ginger, the deals are here. In the nut department, cashews are $7.29 for 500 gr., pine nuts $6.99 for 250 gr., and then there are barbequed or maple syrup peanuts, smoked, chocolate (one with 70% chocolate on it) or yogurt almonds and macadamia nuts. Other interesting items are the dried tomatoes, rice crackers and dried peas. Sugar-free treats come in chocolate covered almonds or hard candies (coffee, strawberry, mint, etc.). Now you can buy some organic apricots, Thompson raisins, sesame sticks and flax seeds. www.delinoix.com