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...

Ruede tutorial here for car roll there are some great ones if you can get road printed fabric too. HTH

thank you asec will give that a go at the weekend!!

I started my first batch of vanilla extract last week and super easy, if anyone's doing baking gifts. It's just cheapo vodka with two split vanilla beans in per litre. Shake every few days.
So far it smells lovely and has started to turn a nice caramel colour. Presumably I'll have to strain it at some point (I haven't made this before).

Found you!

Looks like my homemade Xmas is being downgraded due to money but will keep up with the thread and think about all the things I want to do next year.

Hey everyone, anyone else going to make a christmas stocking - or two?! Thinking of buying something like this cotton bag and decorate it with the boys' names and some lovely buttons, etc. This would hopefully be their stocking bags for years to come. Anyone else got any ideas for making stockings? Ideally I'd like it to look like a sock shape but it would also need to actually contain their stocking presents, i.e. be big enough!

MrsJamin, could you alter the bags and cut a wide stocking shape, then re- stitch the new seams? They should still be able to hold a reasonable amount of gifts if you use as much of the original bag as possible.

mrsjamin if you're going to unstitch the bags anyway, you'd seriously be better off buying fabric and making them from scratch. it would be easier to decorate the panels if they weren't stitched together. I made quite a few personalised stockings last year so happy to help if you do decide to start from scratch

Hello! I agree that its a false economy to pay 7 pounds per bag and then alter it....you can buy cheap fabric by the metre for a couple of pounds. Or cut up somethiing you already have.

There are tonnes of stocking ttemplates online and they're easy to sew.

FWIW, my mum made a stocking out of felt for my little brother (because it was easy and she had toddlers wanting to help). It's cheap and looked great with very little work because felt is the easiest thing ever to cut and sew - and still looks great over 20 years later! So if you are looking for shortcut fabric, that's it!

The bags MrsJ wants are made from strong canvas type organic cotton, so not expensive for what they are. But I agree if she can get the same quality fabric cheaper by the metre it would be better value if she wants to make stockings.

I feel I let the tone of the thread down with my slacker option there, didn't I?

Sorry, back to your organic cotton everyone ....

Lol ella I was thinking the same thing (about the felt!)

Ella, not letting the thread down, the stockings were still homemade, and some people might be pushed for time.

I have been planning on making a 'shortbread selection' for each member of my family and had got as far as deciding on a plain version and a dipped in chocolate version. So I was pleased to see that the masterclass in this month's 'Olive' magazine is on flavoured shortbreads. There's a recipe for rosemary and demerara shortbread, with variations for (from memory) salted caramel, preserved ginger and fennel and lemon shortbread, as well as lots of other suggestions in the text. Which all sounds a lot more interesting than what I had in mind.

What's also helpful is the method. Once you've made the dough, you just roll it into a sausage and cut into rounds, so no messing around with rolling pins and cutters and having to waste some of the dough. This means that I can make the sausages the right height for the boxes I plan to present them in (probably the 6 for £1 'takeaway' boxes from Wilkos, tarted up with some glitter and ribbon). I can also freeze the raw dough, in sausage form, and just cut and cook on Christmas Eve, so the biscuits will be lovely and fresh on Christmas Day, and also take up less space in the freezer in the run up to Christmas than if they were already cooked and boxed.

Just passing this on in case it's helpful to someone.

treats - I wish I had a freezer, that sounds so practical! I love that you'll have bespoke-sized pieces for the boxes too.

After the mention of lemonade yesterday I was wondering - does anyone know how long it keeps? DH can't drink during Advent or on Christmas Day so I would love to make something a bit special for him to enjoy at that time.

Oooh I posted about shortbread/cookie recipes & freezing in the xmas thread. Love the idea of not having to roll out although if dd is around think we'll end up rolling & cutting! Can they be cooked from frozen or do you have to defrost first does anyone know? I am currently trying to find the best recipe, only want plain & choc/choc chip as we have such a lot of boring, fussy eaters in our family! So am eating lots of biscuits at the mo, not very good for the waistline though!

Thanks all for your input! I could probably make the stocking myself but I have this horrid feeling that I wouldn't get round to it due to the fact I can't really sew around my small boys and I tend to just sit in a heap in the evening! So if I just do the decorative stuff it will be easier to get around to doing before decorating the house in December. The bags don't need to be organic (!) but it was just what came up in an ebay search, I just wanted something that will be durable from years of frantic children trying to get to their presents! I didn't think felt would be up to the job but perhaps I was wrong.

I found this site this morning-loads of good ideas and recipes :)
www.lovelychristmas.co.uk/

Oh dear, think my christmas pudding vodka has gone the same way as your lemon vodka EllaDee I also used a veg peeler to get off long strips and now it just tastes of very strong lemon and not christmassy at all. Just bunged in loads more sugar and some christmas spices to see if it can be rescued before I read this thread but now I'm thinking I better strain it out and take out the large pieces of lemon peel so it can't do any more damage. In fact, off to do that now!

Damn you.... i am now addicted to pintrest. lol

I am hoping to make lots of christmas gifts this year, and now have lots of ideas. :o

Ooh, Treats that sounds fantastic. I'm (hopefully) going to be working full time in a few weeks so having freezer-friendly shortbread dough would be brilliant. Time to go recipe hunting. Especially for the salted caramel type!

Mrsjamin When DH and I were young and penniless I bought us cheap felt stockings from a dollar store. We have had them for 11 years, they look brand new and I honestly wish they would fall apart as they're ugly and I'm so tired of them! IMO if you're planning a long-term stocking, don't be swayed! Make it what you want!
(No offense meant to felt-stocking-lovers. It's not the felt, it's the horrible colour!)

I will double check but, yes - I think the biscuit dough can be cooked from frozen. Will return with details when i get home later.

LOVE the Pringles tubes! Think I'd have to eat a lot of Pringles to have enough and would then have to make quite a few biscuits to fill them, but it's a brilliant idea.

roundabout - have already made some star-shaped tree biscuits with DD. I rolled out and cut the biscuits, and she copied what I was doing with her Play-Doh. She's only 2.......

Treats Tesco do a cheap version of pringles (they are just as nice) and less than half the price around 90p a tube iirc so slightly cheeper. (I'm planning on using them I think)