I need to lose 17 lbs by 12/17, any suggestions? tips???

That's about 1.5lbs per week which is very doable. Just set your goals at wanting to lose that much per week and MFP will tell you how many calories to eat.

my first piece of advice is cut out any beverages other than water unsweetened tea or unsweetened coffee. if you drink alot of coke or juices it will help you alot to get rid of them.
second piece of advice is cut out fried foods. grilled always has about 1/3 of the calories!

Welcome! This site is so very helpful, I have to say :-)
My biggest pointers -
Log Every Single Thing that you eat into here. If you have a smartphone, download the app - that has made things soooo very much easier for me. Sometimes I use it to look up food calorie and nutrition content before eating to see if I really want to do that to myself.
LIke many others have said, cut out as many of the liquid calories as you can. Drink Lots of water - often we feel like we're hungry but we're actually thirsty. If you hate water (I used to), still try to drink some plain, but feel free to add crystal light, and make tea or coffee and sweeten with splenda, truvia or some other low or non-calorie sweetner.
I drink coffee every morning with splenda and two tablespoons of coffeemate sugar free french vanilla creamer... for only 30 calories. Yay! It tastes like a sweet treat to me, but has so few calories! To be fair, fake sweetners generally aren't super-good for you, but I prefer that vice over consuming lots of calories, personally.
Exercise. You don't have to go buy a gym membership - maybe just go for walks and bike rides! When you visit friends, take bottles of water (crystal light?) and go for a walk while talking instead of meeting at a restaurant or house and eating while talking. If you have family, get them to go for walks/bike rides with you. Walking burns a few calories, but also generally speaking when you're out walking, you're not eating... so it kinda hits two birds with one stone :-)
Keep positive - if you're weighing yourself and you don't show any weight loss for a week, or even two weeks, stick with it anyway. Re-evaluate to make sure you're logging all of your calories and everything, but stick with the plan - sometimes our bodies just hold onto water weight and that kind of thing right before we weigh... if you're keeping with the plan and your weight doesn't budge for a week or two, it's almost certainly going to show a nice big drop the next time you hit the scale. Also remember that muscle weighs more than fat but is less bulky, so if you are working out and building up muscle, you may be losing significant fat (and inches) without the scales showing that you're losing lots of "weight."
If at all possible, get a friend or two to start being healthier with you - it's way easier to get healthy with the support of others.
Eat TONS of veggies. Just make sure you don't smother them in oil, butter, or cheese :-) A little parmesan can add lots of flavor with just a few calories, but even better try sprinkling on some spices - there's lots of pre-mixed spice options at the store that make things yummier.
Sorry for the super-long post... if you want more ideas, just let me know :-)
Aloha!