Christmas prep

Just finished my gazillionth Christmas pud hat. This one is for my niece ...3/4 months old!

B9exchange … Which hospice is it?
I'd love to buy some from you, but do you know how we can arrange it?

Witzend ... your chest sounds gorgeous! I love that style.
My daughter loves it too so I renovated a coffee table inlaid with brass detailing as a house warming present.
This photo isn’t it but similar.

Do you keep anything in the chest?

Oh by the way please try to post a photo of it sometime, I’d love to see it

Gonegirl … of course it counts!!

I just wanted to set up a thread for any one doing anything at all for Christmas to post on, not only craft, ( really a photo of the dog with some reindeer antlers on would be great!! , or a bag of sprouts bought for Christmas lunch is fine, just about anything)

I love chutney, even though my cooking skills are a bit random (jam doesn't always set etc.,) I just like the thought of home made.

Please don't be intimidated by the very clever people who have shown us all some of their lovely makes.
Just pop in and bring your thoughts and comments and join in!!

Gonegirl …My Christmas cakes are always different.
Every year I strive for consistency, but it's always overcooked or too dry or too wet in the middle so I sit up into the early hours waiting for it to cook through!!
I haven't even made one yet!

Callistemon … ^people who craft are rarely terminally bored!!

and who knows if they're volunteering too,

perhaps you should take the trouble to read the thread properly before criticising hetty.^

Nicely put Callistemon.

I'm not feeling quite so generous,.

Tut Tut hetty you should feel very very, embarrassed.

As your comments are misinformed, unoriginal and meant to cause trouble.

Something a petulant child would say.

I must be terminally bored because I am on GN too much at the moment when I should be completing some crafts.
However, I've had a bad cold and cough so that's my excuse!

I belong to a craft group and we have to take something next month which we've completed.
They are all very talented and I just bumble along in a clumsy way - should I cheat and buy something?

Callistemon go to the next church Christmas fair you see advertised. They have loads of lovely crafty things you could buy. ?

I did not make this but I bought it from a church Holly Fayre. Gorgeous isn't it. The lady is making me a fir cones silver and red wreath too. The one she had on display was already snapped up unsurprisingly.

NamsnannyI think that's the same with most people's Christmas cakes. We just don't make them often enough to become expert. Once a year just isn't enough, no matter how long we've been doing it.

Hetty you were so helpful on Luckygirl's thread too.

Gonegirl ...I agree both about the hetty and the cake!

Ah well, we all have off days.

Fir cone decoration is very Christmassy.

You will put a photo of the finished wreath up won’t you?
Getting into the spirit now!!

Callistemon ... that’s the reason I’ve never joined a craft group (fear of not being good enough!).
The pressure would get to me and i’d Be off ‘sick’ for that meeting!!!
Have you anything you’ve made for family in the past you can borrow to show them?

Will do. ?

Got mincemeat to make next. Then start wrapping pressies. Then it'll be marzipan for the cake. On and on it goes. These next few weeks are gonna fly by!

Callistemon go to the next church Christmas fair you see advertised. They have loads of lovely crafty things you could buy
Great idea Gonegirl - the only trouble is, in a small community like ours, if I do that and show it off as my own work, someone at the craft afternoon is bound to say "Oh, that's odd, I made that and sent it to the school/church Christmas Fair/Charity shop etc (take your pick)

Have you anything you’ve made for family in the past you can borrow to show them? I once made some counted cross stitch Christmas cards which I never went because they went a bit sideways.

Otherwise it's sewing up Mary and Joseph in a hurry or my first attempts at crochet!

sent not went

Gonegirl … is the mincemeat with or without suet?
Not that it bothers me, but I've seen a lot of recipes that don't use suet anymore. I suppose they don't last as long but if it is all used up by Boxing Day it doesn't really matter!

Callistemon … Good luck with all that sewing up!!
Could you just take in a few of them to save you sewing them all up in a hurry?

Hope you don't have arthritis in fingers I have a little in my thumbs and then I give up knitting for a while.

Namsnanny I've got a National Trust recipe that doesn't use suet. I make that one. It keeps fine. Still have a little bit lefty from last year in fact, and will be making mince pies with it when son comes home at the weekend. It's got loads of brandy in it and that must be what makes it keep so well, along with the sugar.

This is my Christmas flower arrangement.
The flowers are fake, but the buds are real. The heat of the hoUse is bringing them on. At this rate they’ll be out and over
Before Dec is upon us!!

I watched Nigella last night making this and that for Christmas.
She had her own mincemeat recipe which seemed to consist of port, brandy, and wine + dried fruit! No fat at all, just sugar and alcohol to preserve it.
Another one without suet.

Should be nice, if a little expensive!

I should imagine back in the middle ages when they actually used minced meat in the mixture, it tasted a bit like a Moroccan tagine. All those spices and fruit together.

Jesus complete and in his crib
Mary needs a bottom otherwise all done but her arms look a bit odd
Joseph needs to be finished.
I haven't been very up to the mark this week.

Callistemon … Mary needs a bottom and her arms look a bit odd!! Sounds like something I would say!

I bet she looks perfectly ok, it's just you are looking for faults.

It's hard finding the energy when you don't feel well isn't it?

As I said earlier I'm a bit of a coward with show and tell.
It's easy on here because a photo doesn't show up the flaws and mistakes!

I love that little fir cone thing!

I was going to make the Delia mincemeat, like last year, but have realised that I still have quite a lot of shop mincemeat lurking at the back of a kitchen cupboard. So will use that up - maybe with a splash of something from the booze stash to moisten - first batch on Sunday the 1st. Shall take some to very elderly neighbours - they've gone down very well before - to save me and dh from scoffing the lot by Monday night.

I have a mountain of wrapping to do before a far-flung-family meet-up soon. Dining room is littered with bags of presents, huge carrier bag of wrapping paper/tags etc. out of the loft, not to mention cards, lists and address book all over the table. Just as well we only eat there when we have guests!

My 2nd Nativity set, made at least partly to use up some of the vast stash of yarn bought for no. 1, went off to Gdcs' pre-school/reception last week. How long it'll be before the tiny Baby Jesus is buried in playdough, or the donkey's legs get a bad case of rickets, I wouldn't like to say, but heigh ho.

I love this thread.
This might sound a bit strange but our DGD made us a nativity set some years ago. She collected about a dozen very smooth and sort of oval-shaped pebbles and painted each one with the nativity figures...including sheep, donkeys, Angels and wise men. She varnished them, wrapped each one in tissue paper and gave us them in a decorated shoe box. Lovely. This is a treasured, wonderful handmade gift, I'll try to take a photo and post it.
Happy Christmas prepping all ❤️??❤️