All the homemade Christmas people over here please, lets share our ideas :) - SECOND EDITION :)

[BabyDubsEverywhere]

OLD THREAD

We were all on about pinterest, jars, and where we are up to in our christmas planning :)

Lets go...

Thanks Trills, I'll play safe this year and just do a litre - see how it turns out [hsmile]

Just made some Christmas pudding rum and some balckberry vodka, whilst listening to Nat King Cole Christmas CD and sipping hazlenut flavour baileys. DH is out for the night, so thought I would indulge in all things Christmas

When I was in WHSmith earlier, I spotted some lovely looking glass jars (some screw top, others kilner-style) filled with various types of sweets and tied with a red & white ribbon. They were basically exactly what I am aiming to make as some of my gifts. They were on 3 for 2 at £3.99 each upwards. I almost wonder why I am bothering to go to all the effort of making stuff, as by the time i buy the jars and the contents and ribbon, I may as well have just bought them from WHS

We bought some of the candy canes from the 99p shop when we saw them, can't quite remember what's supposed to be doing with them now though!

Trying to think of some biscuit/food type gifts that could be made and would last. Any ideas of the cinnamon honey butter and how long it would last if made now? Store in the fridge?

Quick question: I've made Christmas pudding vodka and bottled it up. I've a pile of fruit left and it smells fantastic. Some of it is going to get mixed into nice vanilla icecream and tucked away in the freezer for emergencies but I'm wondering if I could use some as the basis for mincemeat, or would it be to boozy?

Trills - Those bottles are exactly what I want for the spirits we've made. We looked in Lakeland today but I just couldn't bring myself to spending 2.99 each, when I know we can get the job done a lot cheaper.

I don't think I'd feel so bad if I didn't have visions of family chucking the bottles away a few months down the line... would it be bad form to ask for the bottles back once their done? lol

BabyDubsEverywhere - Did you taste the Jaffa Cake Vodka, if so, what was it like? We've got far too many on the go now, but if it was nice I don't think I could resist making some :$ How long did you leave it stewing? Ours have been going for a few weeks now at least and I've not even thought of bottling them up yet!

I think screwcap bottles might end up in the recycling, but surely no-one would throw away the lovely pop top bottles?

Ooh Jaffa cake vodka sounds divine!

Ive got Xmas pudding vodka in my cupboard just now and it it taking all my willpower not to drink it

I had a test run at making home made nutella with the kids and it is amazing! Not sure how practical it would be as a present though as it would only last a couple of weeks.

I bought some bottles from Ikea and am going to experiment with some more vodka flavours this week

WholeLottaRosie tying them onto presents rings a bell, thank you!

Still looking for mugs to make snowman soup in, definitely making some and possibly the candy canes were for them too? Hmm.

Those of you who have made the button Christmas tree decorations - where did you get the star bead to go on top from? Also, what did you use to thread the buttons onto? Went to make one and realised I didn't have a clue what I was doing

I used ribbon i had lieing around and for the star a bead from the childrens section in hobbycraft. It was the only place i could find them! But pound shops sometimes have them? (we don't have one in our town! :()

What's snowman soup? Sounds fun!

How do I hget in to Pinterest - think this could get additctive!!!!

If you PM me your email address I'll sent you an invitation madamecastafiore (and yes, it is addictive) :o

addictediam - Snowman Soup :D

Yes that's the general idea of the snowman soup, I'm going to look for some snowman/santa mugs to put it in :)

WholeLottaRosie - I bought candy canes to crush for peppermint bark?

Have decided to go off piste now, I'm going to make a car roll for DS instead of a crayon roll - wider spaces and I reckon I can get 5 or 6 little cars in there. Might sew a 'road' to go along the top out of felt, too.

Oh, that sounds great, Rue

You'll hafta do show off pics!

For those thinking about making mustard there are a couple of recipes in the new Jamie O book

Jaffa cake vodka:
A bottle of asda own vodka and two packs of smart price jaffa cakes! £6. total :)

On the advice of fellow mumsneters i removed the cake part and (ate it :) ) and bunged the rest of the choc and orange part in a jar with the vodka, put the jar in a bowl of boiling water and give it a good shake so all the jaffa cake desolves. Ive left it for two weeks, and have done the boiling water bath four times. Worked pretty well, tastes very chocolate orange :)

Christmas pudding brandy also a success, its on its last strain as it was quite powdery from the spices. Ive bunged a cinamon stick in the bottle for presentation and spent last weekend tying together dried orange slices and cinamon sticks for attaching to the bottles.....really hope my ungrateful bastard rellies appreciate all this!
:)

I tried a recipe for breadmaker panettone today but the bread came out about as heavy as my granny's fruit cake (which is fine for dark fruitcake that's been marinating in brandy for four months but not a fluffy airy panettone!

Does anyone have a good recipe?

Ittybittysmum try this Disclaimer: I haven't actually tried this recipe but it has lots of good reviews and I am planning on making one or two of these - don't think they'll keep long though...

Right i'm trying to keep up now!! Between the old and the new thread!!! Love the idea of the vanilla brown sugar body scrub, now what size jar do you think i'd need? And this would keep ok till christmas now would it?

Next up I'm waiting on the waiting list for the pinterest :(

There is soooooooo many ideas, i'm not sure which ones to do!!! I have a brownie mix in a jar recipe that i'm going to do for my cousin.

And and and, i want sparkly jam recipe now!!!

Just answering my own question, in case anyone else wonders - yes, you can indeed use the vodka'd fruit from your christmas pudding vodka to make mincemeat. It is indeed very boozy but I don't think anyone's going to complain : )