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Christmas Decorating Ideas

by Minds Eye Book Club

Christmas Decorating Ideas - Edible Ornaments


Although it is now more decades away than I care to admit too often, there were four things I loved most about my childhood Christmases in England:

1. the excitement of the Christmas gifts being put under the Christmas tree, and then the family opening of the gifts on Christmas morning;

2. the food; all the special sweets being put out Christmas Eve; Christmas Lunch with the turkey, lots of roast potatoes, brandy butter, and Christmas pudding being set alight at the table;

3. all the Christmas ornaments and decorations going up before Christmas, and most especially putting up and decorating the Christmas tree; and,

4. the games we would play.

Food, though, did play a major part, and still does in English homes today. So, really, it is no surprise that food even became part of the Christmas ornament repertoire. Food, in one form or another, became part of the decoration of Christmas time.

From my memory, edible Christmas ornaments were usually in the form of chocolate with a silver or gold coloured wrapping that sparkled on the tree. Chocolate coins were popular, sometimes more than one in a brightly coloured string bag dangling temptingly from the Christmas tree.

I must admit, any edible ornament on the tree became a prime target, as I anxiously awaited the all clear from my parents to start devouring whatever I wanted.

Later, though, a greater variety of edible Christmas ornaments emerged, such as candy canes; then, as the popularity of edible ornaments increased at Christmas, people started to use their imagination to make their own, or the local baker would make more elaborate ornaments for sale.

Cookies, or at least cookie dough, make a good base for ornaments, as they are easy to cut into shape. You can use your imagination on adding the colour, such as with Smarties or other colourful sweets. Adding a frosting effect is not too difficult either.

If you do make dough based ornaments to hang on the Christmas tree, remember you will need to make a hole in the cookie before it cools; that's the way the cookie doesn't crumble. Then when they do cool, you can thread a decorative ribbon to hang them on the Christmas tree.

The Christmas tea table is often adorned by the prime edible ornament, the Christmas cake. The prettier it is, the better it is for decoration once lunch is out of the way. Cake decoration is only limited by your imagination. However, you can think of other things that are less common to adorn the table as an edible ornament. If you are skilful, you can create simple models with ginger bread, moving up a level from the old gingerbread man.

You will find lots of ideas online and in the stores, but if you can come up with something original, that is even better. Just let your imagination go and see what you come up with. At least, if it does not look too good, you can just eat it before anyone comments!



About Author

Roy Thomsitt is the owner and author of http://www.xmas-ornament.com/

Source: ArticleTrader.com

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Comments

Cheryl Baumgartner Professional Premium   Medical Billing/Coding/Insurance
I still remember sitting with a needle and thread making popcorn garlands.
Dec 12th 2007 16:48   
Lisa G. Committed   Health Wellness & Wealth Consultant
Me too, Cheryl. I miss those days. My boys will think I'm nuts now..lol.
We used to make those construction paper links when they were little.

Dec 12th 2007 17:10   
Jenny Stewart Professional   
For Christmas tree edibles - whatever happened to sugar mice? They were a must!

And Lisa, making paper chains was one of hte best parts of starting Christmas off - it isnt nearly as much fun buying them. My sister and I used to make miles and miles. It kept us out of our mum's hair too!.

We have a tradition over here in Spain, which is part of my childrens' tradition of course, as they were born here - We set up a nativity scene. when my kids wree small, the scenes had rivers and trees and all sorts of things made out of leaves, twigs, tin foil, plasticine and heaven knows what.
We had Playmoabile animals to go with the actual nativity scene and it kep the m enterained for hours

There are people who have enormous scenes of Bethlehem, including Herods castle and even whole villages with lighting effects of up to hundreds of figures. (Ours tops at 75 but now they are bug - I am allowed to have a more sophisticated 5 piece version)

Better than all that shopping and drinking and false glitter any day of the week!
Dec 12th 2007 17:28   
Jean DAndrea Senior   Retired
Jenny, I remember making those paper chains too - sitting at the table
with my sisters, and scissors and glue. Making a mess, but it kept us
quiet for hours, and we felt a great sense of achievement when our
decorations were put up in the lounge. It all added to the
excitement of Christmas
Dec 12th 2007 17:33   
Minds Eye Book Club Advanced   
Paper snow flakes are a classic and always fun to do! : D And yes, the paper link chaines are fun as well.

My father would always bake goodies and me and my brother would take a plate of treats to all of the neighbors on my block.

Ahhh...the memories! : )


Dec 12th 2007 18:51   
Cheryl Baumgartner Professional Premium   Medical Billing/Coding/Insurance
Oh my good they actually let us kindergardners and first graders loss with staplers for those Christmas links. Red and green. We made them every year for the school Christmas tree. I second grade we graduated to making construction paper stocking stuffed with cotton and decorated with glitter. I remember most of us used to rub the glue on our hands, let it dry then peel it off. Amazing what amuses you as a child.

But back to subject we used to do gingerbread men and decorate them for the stockings.
Dec 12th 2007 22:52   
Jenny Stewart Professional   
And chocolate covered sugar mice!! Am I the only one who remembers that far back? lol
Dec 13th 2007 19:07   
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