Homemade Christmas

VfM4meplse

I remember having fun as a child making tree decorations from egg boxes and foil

[Deleted User]

Lovely little soft padded felt hearts to hang on the Christmas tree are so pretty and easy to sew by hand, you can embroider a snowflake on them if you want to add glitz but they're pretty just in red felt and you can make Christmas bunting to hang along the front of a mantle piece with red, white and green scraps of material, and 'bringing in the green' is an age old custom and something we do now rather than use paper/foil decorations, we go out on Christmas eve and get holly, ivy, evergreen, conifer, seed heads, really anything that will look nice and festive, raid the garden for bay and rosemary to make things smell nice and decorate the house with these and white candles in votives/small jars, it looks so pretty and is 'free' for the effort of going and gathering it in.

kathrynha

Over half of the presents I give are homemade (struggling to make the 3DS XL my daughter wants ). Decorations are homemade, as are cards. All the food is homemade, although I will buy the roll out icing to go on the cake, and the puff pastry for the vol au vents.

pigpen

If you are good at crafting there are several skill swap groups on facebook.. I have just negotiated yarn bowls, paper cuts, book folds in return for knitted items and hand dyed yarn... What skills can you trade??? .. hunt me down Yarnbaa .. I'm happy to trade skills and can point you at a group or 2 if you wish.

Kathrynha.. I'm throwing 2 pink 3DS's XL's at ebay later this month.. got to find and pic them first.. ... you could trade your skills for one.. something like decorating a room.. or clearing a garden.. a days work in trade .. it's not always cash that needs to change hands! and try here.. http://www.graingergames.co.uk/consoles/nintendo-3ds/g23355-nintendo-3ds-xl-pink they aren't much known but I've used them with no problems

I'm struggling to build a guitar!

CAT££

I'm looking for a recipe to make some chutney ready for Christmas. Anybody have any old favourites?

sesw75

CAT££ Delia has a recipe for Christmas Chutney which is delicious. Its in her Christmas book but is also on her website, if you just put Christmas Chutney into the search tab on her website it beings up the recipe for you x

mardatha

Two years ago I did baskets of jam, shortbread, cake, rocky road, tablet, even handmade chocolates. I added some jellybabies and shop bought sweets and gave them to the grandchildren, who loved them.

chella

I make homemade candles. I collect pretty jars and vintage tea cups to make them in.


I also make lovely Christmas crackers, you can really go to town with these and they look so beautiful on the table.


I still string the popcorn and put in on the treeand tie cinnamon with ribbons, also oranged spiked with cloves look pretty and smell lovely.

thriftwizard

Have been dying to answer, but spent the afternoon grappling with a busted keyboard.

We've never done it yet as there are just too many of us, but I have no doubt that a completely home-made Christmas can be done & would be hugely enjoyable! We've always had completely home-made food (including brandy butter) and mostly HM drink - usually ginger beer, elderflower champagne and wine - and largely HM decorations, including a lot of "green" from the garden but also old favourites like paper chains. We started doing this to keep the kids busy & occupied in the dreaded festive run-up, and now they're all grown up they still want to do it. This year's plan for the tree is to decorate mainly with odd bits of junk jewellery - odd glittery ear-rings, broken necklaces etc. - that have come my way in the job-lots I've bought in for my business. HM crackers are a delight - you can tailor the contents, especially the hats, to the recipients and cracker snaps only cost a pound or two. Made with loo roll inners & bits of wrapping paper & saved ribbon, they can be filled with HM sweets & terrible jokes &/or anything else you fancy! The hats are very easy, just scissors, wrapping paper & glue (or sticky tape) and decorated however you choose that will fit inside the roll.

Presents; the best ones are often home-made. I've done quilts for various of the Offspring over the years, usually when someone's leaving or has just left home. I'm absolutely no expert; straightforward squares in reclaimed fabrics in colours to suit the recipient is about as much as I can manage, but they seem to be loved & well-used. I do hampers of preserves etc. for my wider family; jars of pickles & unusual jams & jellies from garden fruit & foraged goodies like crab apples, for example. Last year DS1 surprised us all with home-made perfumes & aftershaves; they were fantastic! But I know he spent quite a lot on supplies. DD1 makes HM chocolates & fudge for everyone, and hand-bound notebooks from reclaimed paper, card & fabrics. DD2 makes patchwork cushions from scraps & old cushions - and so on & so forth.

We do also buy stuff & spend money; DS2, for example, doesn't have a lot of time on his hands so will raid the nearest chemist's shop for us all. But most of us haven't got very much cash, & those who have don't want to make the others feel bad about it. So we keep expenditure low (offspring saving up for house deposits etc.) & just make stuff, play games & have a lot of fun instead.

candlelight_2013

I was born in 1945 and money was very short during my childhood.

I was the eldest of 3 girls, Mum couldn't knit but my Nan could, beautifully. She would knit our jumpers and cardigans for school, and doll's clothes for Christmas. She also made the most wonderful tea cosies, and continued to make those well into her 80s. She was almost 99 when she died.

Mum used to make pickled onions and red cabbage and these were put into large glass sweet jars ready for Christmas. She made a good Christmas cake as well, I can't remember whether she made the pudding as well. She made dozens of mince pies. Her pastry was wonderful, and no matter what I do mine is never as good as her's was.

Although there wasn't much money we always had several presents, always in a pillow case at the bottom of the bed. We always had a new pencil case, fountain pen and crayons and usually a stationery set so we could write our thank you notes:). Dad always bought us one of the classics which I used to devour because I loved reading.

When our 2 daughters were young we didn't have much money either, so I used to make bedding for their dolls pram and cot, I used to make stockings for them and fill them with little presents which I had either made or bought cheaply.

Mum always made my Christmas cake so I didn't have to worry about that. My Nan taught me how to knit so I always made their jumpers, hats, scarves and mittens, and I also crocheted ponchos for them, but for the life of me I can't remember how to crochet now. Will have to look at Youtube.

Do you know I am always very pleased if I have a gift that someone has made for me and really thought about it, rather than just rushing into the nearest branch of B**ts.

In recent years I had made lots of Christmas cards and really enjoyed doing them. You do need a few things to get started, namely card blanks or card, but my answer is YES you can do it, food, gifts and cards, and I think you will really enjoy the challenge, go for it.

Like Lyn says, decorating your home with greenery, cones, ivy, holly and white candles is just magical and you only have to buy the candles.

All the best and do let us know what you decide

Candlelightx