My 2013 Christmas decorations: stars

Each year I make a few new decorations for the tree. This year, inspired by some that I saw in a Haskins garden centre, I'm making stars. Very simply made, a pile of stars using a cream calico fabric. Lightly stuffed with the contents of an old, lumpy pillow and embroidered around the edge with blanket stitch in bright colours. They still looked a little plain so I added a dorset button to the middle of each. I like them.

If I were to be picky I wouldn't use the large buttons again, the smaller ones look best. But as these are for my tree I'm keeping them as they are.

Dorset buttons are a type of button that used to be produced within Dorset. Mine are based on the blandford cartwheel and made using whatever rings I had around (I think one was the plastic bit left around the top of drinks bottle, not ideal) and embroidery thread. Looking up a tutorial to share I saw noticed several names used to describe the cartwheel design, I have no idea which is correct. All I can say is that the old ladies who taught me when I was a girl called it the blandford cartwheel and that name has stuck with me. 

My 2013 Christmas decorations: baubles

Decorated baubles, drying

I believe that this is the only craft that my boys helped me with this past Christmas and even then it was hard going getting them interested initially. But once they realised that glitter would be involved as well as a drying line across the room for J to bash his head on they were all for it!

My 2013 Christmas decorations: wreath

After putting up all of this years decorations I looked at what was left in the box, a handful of faux foliage based items that looked chic in our old house but I've never been able to make them work here. So I let them be. Then I watched a 'how to do Christmas' type programme where I saw them using cable ties for many, many uses and I was inspired me to sort out a wreath for the front door using the odds and ends left over.

The wreath base is from an orange leafed wreath that I had purchased many years ago. The orange fell out of favour but I've been reusing this base with fresh foliage for several years. But this year it just felt too wet to gather the greenery so I had been putting it off.

Cable ties are a fabulous way to put this together. Quick, secure, I am so impressed! And if I want to re-do it next year then I can simply cut them at the back and it will simply come apart. So much easier than winding wire or, more usually for me, string around again and again to hold it together. Just a quick wrap of ribbon and it was finished. 5 minutes tops.

I still prefer fresh foliage wreaths but it wasn't going to happen this year so this has been a great compromise and has coped well with the bad weather that has hit us over the Christmas season.

My 2013 Christmas Food: Chocolate Yule Log

Yule Log

I have just found lots of photos that I haven't yet shared so though my decorations may now be down and packed away Christmas is not yet over on this blog!

First to share is this Chocolate Log. It was so easy to make that I highly recommend that you give it a go. Don't worry about making a swiss roll, just bake a normal sponge cake and leave it to cool completely. Then you can attack it with your knife, shaping it as you wish. My Yule log was made in two loaf tins, one small and one large. Despite this good start they both had to be carved quite a bit to resemble the correct shape and fit on the plate. Then they were sliced horizontally to sandwich in a couple of layers of plum jam. Finally I let my youngest have at it with lots of cocoa butter icing. Yes, an eight year old iced this cake. If he can, you can. The icing on the ends was a little that I had saved prior to adding all of the cocoa to the icing mix and I carefully smoothed this onto the 'cut' ends.

Don't bother trying to make the icing smooth, the rougher the better. A final dusting of icing (I used a tea strainer) gives a good finish.

It only lasted one day.

It tasted that good.

Christmas: what does it mean to me?

What does Christmas mean to me?

I don't celebrate it as a Christian festival. Christianity comes into some of our traditions but it is more of a background thing. When you look at the holiday celebrations most of the traditions are blatantly pagan anyway! But even though I don't see it as very Christian I also don't see it as a time for worshipping at the alter to the great god of commercialisation. It could be for some but not for me.

I see it as a festival for celebrating family. For spending time together playing games, singing, having fun. A time for visiting family and friends. Midwinter can be such a miserable time but planning for Christmas some how helps to alleviate this, by focusing on the good it helps drag me through those short days and long, dark nights.

I also enjoy the opportunity to craft, decorate and curl up in front of the fire with a good movie. Sometimes I'll panic before Christmas but when we're settled in on Christmas Eve I relax and just go with the flow. If I've forgotten something it's too late.

And following Christmas day is that short period before the first of January where, despite yourself, you start planning what you want to get on with, what you would like to start and what you would like to change in the coming year. It's a great time to reflect on where you have been and where you want to go forwards.

I do love Christmas.

Christmas: food

Icing fondant snowman

It is amazing the wide variety of traditions that different families have. Over the years I have taken on some that I grew up with, tried to incorporate J's and have tweaked them over the years to suit us. I have also learnt not to get quite so picky with creating a perfect day!

Christmas: dressing the table

Our Christmas table.

This is something that I forgot about last year until the last minute when I suddenly turned into a whirling dervish grabbing mismatched table cloths and napkins. I was determined to be more organised this year.

I like the table to be dressed with a table cloth and/or runner. Also place mats, napkins and candles. Part of what makes this meal so special is using all of these little extras. The table cloth and runner were made from an old curtain, the runner simply had a pre-washed gold ribbon sewn around the edge. The napkins were created from a lovely light fabric I bought two years ago but wouldn't sew well on my machine. Thankfully the over-locker made light work of them. For napkin holders I sewed yet more ribbon into simple loops. Out came my favourite plates, added the christmas crackers and our table was laid.

Dressing the table takes place just before I serve food. I enjoy taking these five minutes to kick everybody out of the kitchen and appreciate the peace before we eat.

I think that it is these little things that make Christmas for me, not the presents but taking the time to do something a little different from every day life to make the day special.

Christmas: presents

Bottled plums for Christmas gifts?

This was a long, long post about what I think of the expectation of Christmas presents. It was also a bit boring and lecturing so instead I'm going to share a quote from a great book I used to have by Jo Robinson and Jean Coppock Staeheli. It's called 'Unplug the Christmas machine' and within this they give a set of tongue in cheek Christmas present rules.

Tree: real or artificial?

Holly tree.

I can't imagine Christmas without a tree. So much so that when we were snowed in 3 years ago we cut our own from the garden, a rather garish variegated holly that I couldn't wait to get rid of. It made a fabulous tree.

Christmas: decorating

Christmas tree in it's stand.

I love decorating for Christmas. But it is surprisingly hard work! As J loves to have a large, real tree it inevitably requires some kind of reorganising of our living room. I love that Christmas trees are wrapped nowadays, so much easier to deal with in the car and for dragging through the house than it used to be.

Christmas: Nativity

Playmobil Nativity

As a child I always wanted my own nativity set. I saw them in other peoples houses but for some reason (most likely cost!) we didn't have our own. As an adult I finally have my own nativity. A playmobil one!

This has been a surprisingly good purchase. My children look forward to it coming out every year and it ties in with the rest of our playmobil, primarily Romans and ancient Egyptians. I love the fact that as it is a toy I'm not too precious about letting children play with it, in fact I'm never quite sure which scene I'll see next. Did Santa visit?

Christmas pud

Z zesting the oranges

A couple of weeks ago I felt like being organised so I dragged out my mothers old recipe and made this years Christmas pudding. These are so simple to make and always taste better than the bought ones but in recent years it has been a task that I have put off until it is too late.

Christmas de-brief

Our nine foot tree in a seven foot room!

I love Christmas. It helps to drag me through the dark of winter slush and dampness. I look forward to my children's excitement and anticipation, I enjoy the preparation and the fantasy of the perfect Christmas. Of course, we don't get the perfect Christmas but that's okay, I still enjoy planning for it.

However, this year was a bit different. Much got lost in my manic desire to decorate both my bedroom and our parlour for Christmas. This target was not quite achieved but was good enough to host a spectacular Christmas tree. The day was very pleasant, I had made the decision to have our main meal in the evening and this was a great idea. Instead of having that post lunch bloat we were able to enjoy the day though the weather meant walking was out of the question. Our TV was banned (though many programmes were recorded) to ensure that it remained a family day, not a staring at the box day.

How would I like to improve on it next year?
The day was maybe slightly too sensible, my boys are getting older so perhaps I no longer need to keep things quite so simple.
I forgot about dressing the table!!! The table did get dressed but this, a task I usually enjoy planning, was just chucked together at the last moment. Not something that bothers the blokes in the house but it did bother me.
See more people. I didn't feel like tramping all over the country to visit family but with hindsight I wish that we had done.
Charades. These were on the crackers and was a surprise hit so I may purchase some idea cards.

I think that this is a post I'm going to have to return to as I get more ideas :-)