Welcome to the Love Santa Blog

We share lots of Christmas related ideas, recipes and crafts in the Love Santa blog. You are welcome to comment or submit your own Christmas stories, too.

Klejner (danish Diamonds ) recipe

Another traditional Christmas treat from Denmark…

Klejner

.5 cup butter

1 cup sugar

3 eggs

.25 cup thickened cream

3.5 cups plain flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

.75 teaspoon ground cardamon

.25 teaspoon ground nutmeg

oil

icing sugar

Keljner biscuits on a boardCream the butter and sugar.

Beat the eggs then whisk in the cream. Slowly mix the egg mixture into the butter/sugar.

Add dry ingredients to form a dough.

Divide dough into four and tightly wrap in plastic wrap. Leave in fridge overnight.

Work with one dough section at a time…

Roll dough out to about 6 mm thick. Cut into strips about 5 cm wide and then into diamonds by cutting the diagonals about 7 cm apart.

Cut a small slit along the length of the diamond and tuck one end of the diamond through the slit until it is a diamond shape again with just a little twist in the middle.

Keep refrigerated while doing the remaining batches.

Heat oil in a pan or deep fryer until hot. Add a few diamonds at a time (about 5 but it depends on the size of your pan) until they are puffed up and golden brown on both side – don’t forget to turn them once!

Drain on paper towel then roll in icing sugar.

Store in layers with grease-proof paper in air tight containers. This recipe makes about 4 dozen so I think I’ll reduce it when I make them!

Danish Doughnuts ~ Christmas recipe

At one of the Christmas functions I went to, a friend of a friend turned up with some Æbleskiver.

Æbleskiver are Danish Christmas treats similar to our doughnuts. These were really yummy so I begged the recipe from her! Just don’t ask me to pronounce the name in Danish – she had to write it out for me!

Note this recipe needs a special cast iron pan  – like a frying pan but with circles in it like a patty cake tray. I haven’t figured out what alternatives would work yet…

Æbleskiver (Danish doughnuts)

510 gram plain flour
1 Tablespoon of white sugar
0.5 teaspoon of salt
2 teaspoons of baking powder
4 eggs
2 cups of buttermilk
oil
icing sugar

Combine the dry ingredients then add the eggs and buttermilk.

Heat the pan then add a little oil into each circle. Put enough dough in each hole to  fill it about 3 quarters of the way to the top.

Once it starts to bubble around the edges, turn them over with a fork or something think like a knitting needle (apparently the traditional tool!).

Sprinkle with icing sugar and serve – if you can bear to give any away! They’re nice with jam, too.

** I was told you can put in slices of apple or apple sauce  or blobs of jam when turning them during cooking. So many variations to try! Once I find a pan anyway.

Taking down the decorations…

Ah, it’s a sad task but the Christmas decorations can’t stay up all year.

I mean, I’d love the magic and spirit of Christmas to be with us always, but it wouldn’t be so special if we saw Christmas trees everywhere and lived with tinsel around our houses all year.

So it needs to come down, be packed away carefully and stored until next December.

But when should they come down?

I have heard many times that it is bad luck to still have them up on/after the 6th January, and others say it is bad luck to start the new year with the Christmas decorations still on display.

The twelve days of Christmas ends on the evening of January 5 – just as Christmas starts at night fall on the 24th December (traditionally, days ended/started with the light, not at midnight.)

Traditional decorations were mostly ivy, which were believed to hold the spirit of the trees. Taking down the decorations and putting the ivy outside releases the tree spirits back into nature; leaving the tree spirits trapped in the house for too long would prevent plants growing and the arrival of spring (obviously not an Australian tradition!)

When do you take down your decorations? Do you make it fun or is it just a task to get done quickly?

Your best gift

What was the best gift you received this Christmas? And why do you call it your best?

Don’t go by anyone else’s standards – the best gift you got may have been the cheapest, the least practical or the ugliest, but if it has meaning to you, we’d love to hear about it 🙂

What is Boxing Day?

The 26th of December is known in many countries as Boxing Day, in particular, Australia, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Canada.

Some say it originated as the day when Christmas was packed up – things put away, boxes thrown out, etc.

In England, it was tradition that on Boxing Day gifts were given to employees and the poor. The theory being that staff would work hard to give you a nice Christmas Day so on Boxing Day you thanked them with a gift.

It is a public holiday in Australia* so most of us don’t work unless we are in essential services or retail…

How do you celebrate (or not) Boxing Day? What does the term ‘Boxing Day’ mean to you?

* In South Australia, they have a Proclamation Day holiday instead of Boxing Day but it’s still the 26th of December.

Aussie Jingle Bells

This was sent to me by e-mail. I don’t know who wrote it.

Dashing through the bush,
in a rusty Holden Ute,
Kicking up the dust,
esky in the boot,
Kelpie by my side,
singing Christmas songs,
It’s Summer time and I am in
my singlet, shorts and thongs

Oh! Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way,
Christmas in Australia on a scorching summers day, Hey!
Jingle bells, jingle bells, Christmas time is beaut!
Oh what fun it is to ride in a rusty Holden Ute.

Engine’s getting hot;
we dodge the kangaroos,
The swaggie climbs aboard,
he is welcome too.
All the family’s there,
sitting by the pool,
Christmas Day the Aussie way,
by the barbecue.

Oh! Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way,
Christmas in Australia on a scorching summers day, Hey!
Jingle bells, jingle bells, Christmas time is beaut!
Oh what fun it is to ride in a rusty Holden Ute.

Come the afternoon,
Grandpa has a doze,
The kids and Uncle Bruce
are swimming in their clothes.
The time comes ’round to go,
we take the family snap,
Pack the car and all shoot through,
before the washing up.

Oh! Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way,
Christmas in Australia on a scorching summers day, Hey!
Jingle bells, jingle bells, Christmas time is beaut!
Oh what fun it is to ride in a rusty Holden Ute.

Thank you 🙂

My kids received their letters last week and they were just gorgeous! They were so excited to know that Santa really had noticed their good behavior during the year – and very hopeful about the potential gifts me mentioned, too!

The little surprise added in was lovely, but the craft idea on the back was fantastic. Not only have we made many versions, they are wrapped under the the tree for grandparents, aunts & uncles. It was a beautiful way to spend time with my kids and for them to learn the real value of Christmas gifts – it isn’t the price tag but the time and love that goes into them.

So thank you Santa’s Elf – and I for one am glad Santa asked for your help (not that his own letters wouldn’t be just as good!)

Where’s the spirit gone?

For many years now, our family has done a Kris Kringle for the adults – each family still gives something to the kids.

My mother has suddenly decided that this is the last year – from now on we won’t give any presents. When everyone else argued against her decree, she muttered about ‘saving everyone the hassle of choosing a present to give’ – nice to know that’s what we mean to her. Especially as even the KK has shrunk as family members have moved away and can’t join us anyway…

In the end, we overruled her and Kris Kringle lives – and with a higher budget, too (yep, Mum’s idea to reduce it to $20 a few years ago. I mean the idea of introducing KK in our family is to get one decent present instead of many small ones – not so good with a $20 cap!)

But it just made we wonder – where is the spirit of giving? The ‘it is better to give than receive’?

I’m dreaming of a wet Christmas…

With the amount of rain falling on Melbourne over the last two days, it doesn’t take much dreaming to envision a wet Christmas! Forecasts are for fine and 25, but I suspect it will be wet underfoot in many places still and the tree/ earthwork damage will still be visible anyway.

It reminds me of a Christmas when I was a kid – I only remember bits & pieces of it (and it may have been a family Christmas party rather than on Christmas Day although my memory is Christmas Day) I don’t remember Christmas celebrations themselves affected by rain and water, but going home was a different story!

Driving along Dandenong Road, the road was covered in water – at least ankle deep is my guess. There weren’t a lot of cars on the road, and all were travelling slowly and carefully. I think our engine must have been flooded because I remember Dad walking off through the pouring rain, trudging through the lake of the service road to reach a phone booth and call for help.

I don’t remember who rescued us and can’t imagine who he called for help – my Grandparents would have been closest but they never drove or owned a car! Maybe he just rang the RACV and I can only imagine how long a wait that would have been on such a night.

It was a bit scary – I think the car breaking down and Dad not automatically fixing it broke a few childish illusions 🙂

Here’s hoping Christmas Day this year will be a little less adventurous, as much as we appreciate the rain!

This is why I shop at the last minute..

(or so I read in an email)

Life is very strssful when you have to make a lot of decisions and choices. So I look after myself by reducing my choices to whatever is left in the local pharmacy or supermarket at 6pm on Christmas Eve!

My baby’s first real Christmas

My little girl was nearly two for the first Christmas she really appreciated. I was a single dad and really wanted her to enjoy the day.

She woke up at her usual time (about 8 or 8.30 I think) and I went in to see her. She was happily standing in her cot waiting for me when I walked in with a borrowed video camera filming her.

I put the camera down to open her cot and slide the armchair to be next to the cot – Santa had left her stocking on the chair rather than in her cot (i guess he was as safety conscious as me!)

She babbled away to me like any other day while I filmed her and tried to direct her attention to the chair. It seemed to take forever before she finally realised there was something interesting on the chair…

She looked up as if to see if she was allowed to touch the mysterious things that had appeared over night. I smiled and she was into it!

We then went through her stocking together and had a lovely morning with her stocking until her Grandparents arrived with more presents.

Love Santa - www.lovesanta.com.au

 

Order Cut Off Dates

Please note that Love Santa letters need to be ordered before December 18 to be delivered before Christmas!

Order now to be sure of delivery before Christmas. Keep an eye on our blog for final ordering days as we get close to Christmas Eve.

 

Privacy Policy

Under no circumstances, not even under threat of having to fill in for Santa on Christmas Eve, will your details of any kind be given, sold or lent to any other party.