7 tips for a beautiful Christmas tree
An elegant Christmas tree in St Petersburg
Decorating a Christmas tree is a once-a-year activity that gives pleasure to many, and is worth spending a bit of time on.
I think there are two techniques or models for Christmas tree decorating – the throw on as much as possible model (often experienced when children are involved!) and the classy or stylish model. That is, some people just want colour and glitter while others want it looking a certain way.
Personally, I think both approaches look good and have a special place. However, today’s tips are for the more deliberate Christmas tree approach – although adding them to a more chaotic tree is good, too!
Creating a stylish Christmas tree
- put larger ornaments and thicker tinsel lower on the tree, leaving the top half for smaller and finer ornaments
- hang things towards the centre of the tree as well as on the outer edges – it gives more depth and interest (and gives you more hanging space overall!)
- hanging lights first makes it easier to hide the cords and get them evenly distributed. It’s just easier to do, too. Again, remember to put lights towards the centre of the tree as well as on the outside – twinkling lights behind the tinsel and decorations adds some magic
- work with one colour at a time when hanging ornaments to get them evenly distributed – for example, hang all the green balls then the red bells to spread red and green across the entire tree.
- no matter how stylish you want it to be, remember Christmas is about family, magic and memories so don’t hide away your treasured mementoes just because they are not your theme colour or style. Put one or two as a centrepiece or off to the side where you will see them when sitting in your favourite chair. As well as the sentimental value, they will make your tree unique and interesting – and could serve as a nice conversation starter, too
- stand back occasionally and look at the tree as you go – if you get each stage looking good, the whole will be balanced and effective
- avoid fragile ornaments on the bottom branches as they are likely to get knocked around when presents are put under the tree.
If you are serious about a colour theme for your tree, you can even choose wrapping paper so the pile of presents under the tree will match 🙂
So, how do you achieve a ‘perfect’ look for your Christmas tree?
Do you have other tips for decorating Christmas trees?
* Image courtesy of 123rfToddler’s Christmas dessert
This is a variation of a simple dessert I have made for all my kids while they were toddlers – and they all still love it actually!
Vida_Ilevares – I hope your toddler enjoys this one 🙂
This quantity is feeds a toddler and an adult or two small adult serves. For older people, I’d probably count this recipe as suitable for 1 adult or 2 kids as a dessert so multiply it as required!
Baked Christmas Custard
Green grapes, red cherries and baked custard – healthy and yummy!
1/2 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 egg
2 drops vanilla essence
cinnamon
1 or 2 tablespoon dried cranberries {or use 6 – 10 fresh cherries, pitted and sliced}
6 – 10 grapes, pitted and sliced
Put the milk in a microwave proof bowl and cook for 1 minute on high – if you can’t see tiny bubbles around the edge, try another 5 -10 seconds. You don’t want the milk to boil.
Whisk the sugar and essence with the egg.
Pour a little of the hot milk in with the egg and mix.
Pour egg mix into milk bowl, stirring as you go. Mix in the dried cranberries.
Sprinkle with some cinnamon (I use nutmeg most of the year, but cinnamon is more Christmassy!)
Cook on a medium setting for 2 minutes.
If not set, cook for another 30 seconds.
Serve in a bowl with sliced grapes (and cherries if you use them). Obviously, cut the fruit to a size suitable for the age of your child – halving them is enough for older kids.
My two and four-year olds love watching the custard change from runny to set so I let them help by sprinkling on the cinnamon, adding the cranberries and serving the fruit – the rest is a bit tricky for little people.
Christmas can be a great teacher for kids
Christmas is magical and fun, but it can also teach kids a lot.
Kids get excited by the magic of Christmas and decorations
So why are some people trying change Christmas and avoid those lessons?
First, we had the Mothers Union wanting to cancel writing to Santa instead of teaching kids how to write good letters instead of just greedy lists. All because they don’t respect parents to be able to say no…
Ally Fogg disagreed and rightly took the parent’s responsibility of refusing expensive gift suggestions, but was perhaps a bit negative about Christmas being about soul-destroying disappointment.
Now a Melbourne paper is running a story about avoiding tearful disappointments. Not much of the article is visible online but it suggests that kids’ expectations can never be met (well how about we teach them to have realistic expectations? And teach them that sometimes we don’t get everything we want or have to work for it?) and that they shouldn’t see toy catalogues ‘so they don’t know what they’re missing out on [or] learn what a cheap skate you are’.
My son loves junk mail (he calls them magazines!) and looking at all the pictures entertains him for hours. Sure he has asked for a couple of things but I say no or ‘we’ll think about it’ so he knows he doesn’t get everything he sees.
Seeing things we don’t have can inspire our imaginations and motivate us – some we can dream about without real expectations of getting and others we want to can find a way to earn them. Why should kids not get that opportunity too?
And I totally resent being called a cheap skate because I don’t buy my children everything they (would otherwise) see in catalogues.
They don’t need everything and do need to learn they can’t get everything so of course I say no to some (many) of their requests. That doesn’t make me a cheap skate.
If I don’t buy something because I can’t afford to, that also does not make me a cheap skate. But calling me that is exactly the sort of commercial pressure that stresses parents more than writing a letter to Santa does.
Let’s get back to Christmas being positive
Christmas is fun and magical.
Santa is a loving, generous person who can teach our children to be generous and loving if we let him.
The magic and wonder of Christmas, which includes writing to a hero like Santa, is important against the amount of solid information kids get the rest of the year – so says parenting expert Michael Grose.
Writing to Santa can teach kids letter writing and communication skills (which includes caring about who you write to, not just yourself) as well as be a time to manage expectations, spend quality time together and develop some motor skills.
Kids also enjoy giving
Teaching kids to be grateful for what they are given – making them use basic manners, sending thank you letters to Santa, letting them see others have less, and so on – is a valuable lesson. That will not only do more to stop greed for Christmas but make them better people.
Help parents teach
I would prefer to see all these ‘support groups’ and media support parents learn how Christmas can be used to help children.
Parenting is a tough job, and making rules that are hard to enforce (and that parents don’t actually want to enforce) isn’t helping.
Let’s help parents (and I need as much help as any other parents) make Christmas magical.
Let’s make Christmas a time to share and be happy.
Let’s concentrate on helping others and show our kids that is what Christmas and Santa are really all about.
How can we help parents help and teach kids? What ideas do you have?
These moves against letting kids learn from Christmas are really irritating me (can you tell?) but I shall hop off my high horse now and wait for you to share your ideas…
Simple Christmas decorations made by kids
A while ago I worked as child carer in my own home. Leading up to Christmas, I wanted to do some Christmas activities with the kids, as you do!
I was also on a budget but I found this activity worked really well – it cost nothing as I had stuff lying around, the kids were amused for hours and got creative (and developed fine motor skills of course), and by their nature, parents had somewhere to display their work (there are only so many paintings that fit on a fridge!)
Cardboard Christmas Tree decorations
As I was working with two year olds, I did a lot of the preparation work and divide the instructions for an adult and kids. If you have older kids, they may be able to do some of the earlier steps as well.
instructions for the adult
Cut out Christmas shapes from cardboard (cereal boxes work but washing powder boxes are thicker cardboard so are better). Stars, stockings and bells are easy, but get as creative as you want!
Punch a hole near one edge (poke the hole with scissors if you don’t have a hole punch).
instructions for the kids
Decorate the shapes! Glue on bits of coloured paper, tinsel and cotton wool balls, add stickers, glitter and paints.
Let it dry.
Thread gift ribbon (or string) through the hole and tie into a loop.
Hang the loop on the Christmas tree (or a door handle).
Stand back and admire your beautiful work 🙂
Love Santa says – send us photos of your creations, too!
hohoho with Santa!
Christmas fruit muffins
Yummy muffins that have red dots to look Christmassy and fruit mince to taste Christmassy – easy to make, nice to leave out for Santa or offer guests or just send to school in lunch boxes.
They take about 20 minutes to make plus cooking time so fit into our busy family life 🙂
For fun, you can ice them in red icing with chopped green spearmint leaves on top or in white icing with coconut sprinkled over the tope for a snow look.
Ingredients
Serves: 24
220g self-raising flour, sifted
100g castor sugar
1 large egg
100ml sunflower oil
75ml milk
60g each good quality white and milk/dark chocolate, chopped
1 heaped tablespoon good quality fruit mince (dried fruit works but doesn’t give such good results)
60g fresh (or dried) cranberries (make sure you drain them if use a tin or jar – I haven’t tried this but you’d risk a very wet mix)
To make:
Preheat the oven to 190C and prepare muffin trays or patty pans.
Mix the flour and sugar.
Beat egg, oil and milk.
Pour wet ingredients in with flour and sugar, and stir gently.
Add the yummy things – sorry, add the chocolate, fruit mince and cranberries.
Stir gently to not break up the fruit or get tough muffins.
Put mix into muffin pans and bake for about 20 minutes. Cooked when golden brown.
Put onto a wire rack but nice to serve them warm, too (gooey chocolate, yum!) with a scoop of ice-cream.
Print a non-personalised Love Santa letter
Love the idea of arranging a Santa letter for someone special but left it until Christmas is almost here? It’s easy to do with all the things that need doing at this time of year, but it is disappointing for any child to miss out.
Maybe you just aren’t sure of the details to let us personalise a letter for the special child(ren) in your life?
We have prepared a non-personalised Love Santa letter for Aussie and Kiwi children that you can print off for them – pop it in an envelope in the letter box, hang it from the Christmas tree or have it sticking out of a stocking hung by the chimney.
Professionally written like all our letters, the non-personalised letter also refers to a warm Christmas and the boomers, and of course includes a craft idea and recipe for a Santa snack. We write a new letter every year (but last year’s is still available if you want two different letters – contact us for more than two!)
The more magic we can give children for Christmas, the better! (Did you know that Michael Grose believes Christmas magic is even more important for children than ever in this information age?)
Simply click on the button below to arrange for your downloadable Santa letter, and have a Merry Christmas!
[ebook_store ebook_id=”30337″]
* Note – this letter is dated for 2012. If you would like a previous year’s version to add to a scrapbook or album, please contact us
Santa doing maths…
Santa’s teacher asked “Why are you lying on the floor to do your maths work?”
Santa answered “because you said to do the problems without our tables!”
I told my teacher this one and she didn’t laugh but I think its funny!
Santa thinking about a maths problem…
*Images courtesy of 123RF
Christmas family reunions and gifts
Cheerful wrapping and a nice gift make you feel good – and it’s up to the recipient how they react to your gift giving…
Well I guess we all have that one or maybe two relatives that we can’t stand but we have to put up with their presence every single time there is a family reunion!
Well, since Christmas is coming and my family already planned the whole thing out I was just wondering what could I buy for the two aunts that I deliberately dislike… I don’t know them very well but there’s one thing I know for sure – they love to criticize; so what could I do to please them?
We’re counting down to Christmas – in lights!
Christmas countdown amongst lights (not great quality – sorry! We weren’t expecting to see lights so only had a phone to take images with.)
We saw a very impressive Christmas lights display last night – we hadn’t gone looking for it (still a bit early to expect to find many) but this one stood out so we detoured and checked it out.
One things that particularly stood out to me was a Christmas countdown – in lights!
Sitting in a front window of the house, we could see a count down clock for the days, hours, minutes ans seconds to go until it is Christmas! In red of course, it would be fun to watch as it clicked over to 1 December or Christmas Day!
Have you ever seen a count down clock as part of someone’s Christmas light display? It was a first for me!
Cancel letters to Santa – no way!
The Mothers Union in England has apparently called for an end to children writing letters to Santa.
Let that sink in for a moment – …
A case of bah humbug?
We’ll get to what I think in a moment, but the reason behind their request is to reduce the pressure on parents to buy expensive Christmas presents. And that is not a bad thing, especially with financial concerns around the world.
The Mother’s Union, a Christian charity, has research results indicating about 46% of parents take out a loan or get into financial trouble to ‘please children during the holidays’ (which could mean more than just buying presents but we’ll let slide for now).
Parents take out loans to pay for Christmas?
That staggered me. I can’t imagine taking a loan for presents – the only loan I’ve ever taken was to buy a house!
So reducing pressure on parents is a reasonable motive for cancelling letters to Santa.
What are letters to Santa?
According to the Mothers’ Union, letters to Santa are nothing more than commercialised lists of things children want.
To be fair, very few Santa letters wouldn’t include a version of ‘could you please bring me…’ so they are lists of requests.
But (actually there are a few buts to this!) the key word there is requests – just because a child asks for the $200 latest gadget it doesn’t mean that child has to get it. Or even should get it.
Santa and parents make decisions about what is a reasonable price to pay and what is a suitable gift for that child’s age, abilities and needs. Sometimes, those decisions mean saying no to kids.
Santa is incredibly generous but the Santa I know is wise enough to realise kids don’t always know best and can learn from not getting everything they ask for.
But letters to Santa offer more than a list writing exercise.
Writing letters to Santa develops writing and communication skills.
With adult direction, letters to Santa are also polite and teach manners and gratitude.Click To TweetA good letter to Santa will ask how Santa is and tell Santa some news, not just list things the child wants.
It can also be a good time to reflect on the year and let the child think about their behaviour. They may be able to apologise in their letter or share pride in achievements and good deeds.
Santa may be an adult that children can trust and express things to in a letter in a time when many wouldn’t write to many other people.
In other words, letters to Santa can be much more than a commercialised list, and perhaps encouraging the positive aspects would be more effective than banning them.
Letters to Santa can be much more than a commercialised listClick To TweetBut not all kids ask for expensive things.
For ten years I have been helping Santa write letters to Australian children at Christmas time.
For many years I have been involved with children – cousins, children I cared for professionally and then my own children and their friends.
I’ve read a number of letters and heard children’s wishes. You maybe surprised how many affordable things children ask for. Books, pencils, lollies, clothes, cooking tools and CDs are frequently on those lists.
And I’ve seen many children delighted over inexpensive gifts.
Stop letters to Santa?
Instead of stopping children writing to Santa, how about we focus on them writing real letters, not just lists?
How about we focus our children on the spirit of Christmas, not the biggest gifts?Click To TweetSomething like our Dear Santa template and notes for writing a nice letter to Santa can make writing to Santa positive. Wouldn’t it better to hand out such tools to all the kids at school than to make a statement that is unlikely to be followed through anyway?
What are you going to do – will you stop your kids writing to Santa to reduce the commercialism of Christmas and the pressure on families?
I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus – the story
Another fun Christmas song most of us know (at least vaguely!) is “I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus” – in fact, I bet you are singing the title to yourself rather than just reading it. I know I hear the song whenever I think of it 🙂
Following on from the story behind “All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth” I thought I’d look into the story of some other Christmas favourites, starting with “I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus.”
The story behind Mommy kissing Santa
Tommie Connor, from London’s West End, wrote the song (music and lyrics).
It was first recorded by Jimmy Boyd (who was 13!) in July 1952 and reached the top of charts that December. The Catholic Church in Boston and other areas also banned it that year because it mixed Christmas and kissing! (I think that conversation deserves its own post so will leave it alone for now…)
Other artists have since recorded the song, including Spike Jones & his city slickers (who did the original front teeth recording), the Jackson 5, Amy Winehouse, John Mellancamp, the Ronettes and Tiny Tim. Although some have only sung the chorus and verse 2 rather than the full song as listed below.
A couple of artists have even sung it as “I saw Daddy kissing Santa Claus”!
This song is amongst the 25 most-played Christmas pop songs on American radio. It’s not played in Australia as much, I don’t think, as it’s not a song I have heard that often on the radio or in shops.
Have you come across it very much?
You can get the sheet music, too.
I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus lyrics
Christmas toys all over the place,
Little Johnny wears a funny smile on his face;
For Johnny has a secret,
And this secret he must share;
He wants to tell somebody,
So he tells his Teddy Bear…
I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus
Underneath the mistletoe last night;
She didn’t see me creep
Down the stairs to have a peep;
She thought that I was tucked up in my bedroom fast asleep.
Then, I saw Mommy tickle Santa Claus,
Underneath his beard so snowy white;
Oh, what a laugh it would have been
If Daddy had only seen Mommy kissing Santa Claus last night.
I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus
Underneath the mistletoe last night;
She didn’t see me creep
Down the stairs to have a peep;
She thought that I was tucked up in my bedroom fast asleep.
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