I may be 34 years old but I still love Christmas! I get so nostalgic about it and always wish I could go back in time and re live Xmas's past.
I used to get obsessed and watch holiday films months ahead of December.
My favourites were A Christmas Carol and National Lampoons Christmas Vacation, I still watch these every year! Another great nostalgia about this time is glitter! Every time I see the fine shiny stuff I feel like a child again mesmerized by the beauty of it.
As I reached my late teens and twenties the 24th of December became more about going out with my friends to bars and staying in nightclubs until the early hours of the morning but I still spend the man day with my family, all sitting together round the table having our amazing home cooked lunch.
I look forward to dinner on the 25th of December all year and it is huge consisting of lentil and smoked ham soup with homemade rolls, a lovely big turkey with little sausages wrapped in smoked bacon, brussel sprouts (yes I really do love them) roast potatoes cooked in goose fat, mashed potatoes, roast parsnips, carrots, cauliflower with bread sauce and stuffing balls.
Not sure if I missed anything out.
For sweet we make something different each year from profiteroles to meringues or cheesecake but one thing I always make now is a cake, I don't like the traditional fruit cake so it's either a chocolate or vanilla sponge that I decorate quite garishly with bright red and green colored icing.
With a family all working different hours and days we rarely get to see each other at the same time.
Mainly just at weddings and unfortunately funerals.
My Grandparents have now passed away, this will be my first year without my Grandfather who passed away last month so I will be doing my best to make sure we still have a lovely time as family is so important.
My son is 5 and my daughter 4 so they are at that perfect age where the holidays are completely magical to them and Santa Claus exists.
Last year we made some decorations using homemade dough, some glue and lots of glitter! We will be doing this again this year and I will be trying out some different shapes, we just made star shapes last year which were lovely but I am thinking of doing some angels too this year and maybe some characters from films if possible but these may be beyond my childish artistic skills! (I was thinking maybe doing some Olaf ones, perhaps just plain old snowmen would do) This is so easy to make and you can even do it using a microwave for quickness like I did last year, the only problem with this is that the dough will puff up a bit due to the speed of it cooking.
I personally like this effect but if you want a flatter shape (this may be better for more intricate designs and names) then baking in the oven or leaving to air dry will be the best bet just remember this will take far more time so start this project a few days in advance.
Here are the instructions and recipe.
1/2 a cup of salt 1/2 a cup of water 1 cup of flour paints, glue and glitter to decorate Mix the dry ingredients together then slowly add the water until it is easy to handle without it sticking to your fingers but ensuring it is not so dry that it will crack when shaping it.
Lightly flour a flat surface and roll out the dough.
(if you don't have a rolling pin use a thick glassed bottle like a wine bottle) You can then use cookie cutters to make a lovely shape or make your own shapes using a knife.
If you have young children then it may be an idea to invest in some of these tools, you could get a cheap set of cutters and a plastic rolling pin from Walmart or even a dollar store.
Remember to put a hole into the decoration for the ribbon or string to go through for hanging it up, just use a pencil or knitting needle or even a straw to pierce through the dough To harden the decoration you can either leave to dry in the air which will take around 24 hours, Put them onto a microwave safe plate and blast in the microwave for 3 minutes or put onto a tray and into an oven for 3-4 hours at a low temp, about 100 degrees.
Remember these will obviously be hot out the microwave or oven so wait until they are cool before decorating them.
This is the fun part and you and the children can go glitter crazy! I like to use metallic paints first then either apply the glitter straight onto the wet paint or put some kid friendly glue on the decoration then sprinkle lots of glitter all over it.
After that all that is left to be done is to put some string, ribbon or arts and crafts pipe cleaners into the hole and hang them up.