FN's Ponstastic Christmas Thread part Trois....

[FellatioNelson]

....will be officially open for business on September 24th. I am just firing up the engines and dusting down the control room ready for action in case I forget to do it on the 24th

Do not post yet. Do not. Sit on your hands, ladies.

On your marks........................

Lord Flasheart, instead of making glittery snow play dough, why not make glittery snow cloud dough? It's a bit messier but much easier and you can make actual snow men out of it and then knock them down!!

Add some cut out felt scarves, some little twigs from the garden for arms and raisins for eyes and you could make your own mini christmas scene that won't melt!

Cloud snow looks scarily like moon sand MOON SAAAAND!!! THE HORROR!

Moon dough is horrific stuff - I freecycled it to some other poor unsuspecting soul without DS noticing

I love that link to cloud dough. I'm going to make some up in jars like blatherskite says with bits to male a snowman and give them as gifts labled Snowman in a jar. Thanks blatherskite :)

I actually don't give a shite if it makes a mess. My dcs are too old for the stuff :o

It is an awful lot like Moon sand - only cheaper and smells nicer :)

We play with it on trays in the kitchen so it's easy to clean up.

I'm going to do the mini snowmen with my kids but love Voldy's idea of giving it in jars too. What a fab idea

Mini snowmen, what a fab idea :)
I may make some salt dough that's full of glitter and food colouring, give it to the dc's to make probably unwanted Christmas tree decs for rellies.

it does look pretty and the idea of making snowmen is great. As long as i can erase the memory of the hideous grey moon sand ds was given i may have to make some :-)

Ohhh I want some of those gold stars Zeeky. Might just have to dash to Lakeland tomorrow in time for my chutney-making extravaganza the the weekend. Christmas chutney with gold stars?

Also sourced some quirky shaped ribbon on e-bay

And hooray - unexpectedly found some frozen Cranberries in Sainsurys. no trip to Waitrose required

I'm thinking of doing 2 smaller joints for dinner this year rather than 1 big Turkey.

My Butcher does an amazing stuffed and rolled Turkey crown enough about 8, I have 12 and 2 of them don't like Turkey anyway. I have the choice of Beef of Pork (they don't like lamb either)

My initial thoughts though are gravy, will I need 2 separates or do I find one that goes well with both, or do I do the usual big whole Turkey and a small chicken for the others? Thoughts please.

I am distracting DD at the moment (as in, the evenings at this point in time, not right now) with making Hama bead shapes that we will iron into tree decorations as her presents for the DGPs etc. It keeps her busy, she can be quite creative, and she's rubbish at saving but has expensive taste and is generous about ensuring everyone gets something, so I want to save MY purse!! We will ponce them up by using the glow in the dark beads in some, and also using lots of lovely ribbons from my stash to complete them - maybe even for added decoration as well as hanging loops!!

Titaslina, would the ones who don't like turkey accept spiced beef? (Assuming you can get it in the UK). It's a big favourite here at Christmas and makes lovely cold sambos later too. I would do 1 proper turkey gravy though, and just put a sauce suitable for the other joint out too (is it bread sauce for beef, I know it's apple for pork) - but that they should serve themselves gravy too.

We have a shop called home sense here, I'm not sure if its chain or not but its kind of like Home bargains but better. DP returned home with a cookie press that comes with 50 shapes and there is a Christmas selection included so now I can make darling little Christmas cookies easy.

Re gravy/sauce - it's horseradish for beef here, I always have my own bread sauce out (because its lush) and cranberry anyway for roasts. I'm wondering if there is a really nice veggie gravy around to cater for everyone.

I want to join! So far I have made 2 christmas cakes, 4 batches of soap, Christmas pudding vodka is in the fridge stewing, my kilner jars arrived today for layering up cookie/brownie mix, my bags have arrived for snowman soup, I won a nice christmas mug on ebay for cheap so that will be a great prezzie for my cousin along with the snowman soup! I have also tried my recipe for turkish delight..looked great and tasted great apart from the lumps but i think i'll seive it next time and that problem should be solved. Hooray for poncey christmas!

But what is snowman soup?!

It's special!

It's just hot choc with chocolate drops and marshmallows and a candy cane to stir. But for kids it's nice. Actually, I told my DP what I was doing and he said "But I want snowman soup!" so he will get some too come christmas day!
So, in the cone bags (i got off ebay for cheap) you put in the drinking chocolate powder then on top of that you layer up the choc chips and marshmallows then tie with a ribbon and attach the candy cane :) There is also a poem, google it and you will find it, and attach it to the cone too.

I made about 200 pound last year selling snowman soup.:o

I used cadburys highlights which cost 2.00 in B&M for a huge bag. Mini marshmallows from the cake isle, Hersheys kisses were half price in Asda and cone bags from eBay.

I put 12 teaspoons on hot chocolate into a cellophane cone, tied it off with a food tie and trimmed the remainder of the bag.

I then popped the bag inside another cello bag so the powder didn't go all over the marshmallows. I put a good layer of marshmallows in and topped with 3 Hersheys kisses. Tied the bag off, made it pretty with curling ribbon and a mini bauble and Bell (poundshop) added a candy cane and little poem explaining snowman soup and voila :)

I sold them for 2.00 Next were selling something similar for 3.00 which were not half as nice. DD got 50p for each one sold as she helped make them. :o

Most people bought them instead of selection boxes and said they were very well received. I think ill definatly be making them again this year.

Sounds fab! :) I'm off to Makro soon so I'll grab the stuff and do one for the nieces and nephews and my dcs. c

Yeah that's what I'm planning on doing although I was just going to make for friends and family. Though i do think I could actually sell them at work! You've got me thinking now Voldemort.

Making money on xmas sounds like a good idea to me!

I'm not sure who I could sell to, although the charity very close to my heart sell the bags of glittery reindeer food every year to raise money, I wonder if this would be a new thing for them to do to raise funds?

Yep, sounds like it would do well. What is glittery reindeer food?!

Titsalina, HomeSense is TKMaxx - always worth a look for Christmas stuff.

It's raw oats, glitter (I use edible for the birds!) and cinnamon/nutmeg.

You can also use red and green coloured cake sprinkles, chopped nuts/breadcrumbs.

Basically edible things for birds/wildlife that you mix together and bag up (we use little organza bags tied with curling ribbon) and there is a poem about "feeding Rudolph" the DCs sprinkle it in the garden in Xmas eve and it feeds Rudolph and shows him the way to the house. :)

If you google it there is 100's suggestions. We make £££ from a very cheap basic recipe sell for donations outside Tesco for charity :)

Aw that's nice. When I have kids I will do that with them :)

I ended up selling them by accident last year. I work in the day nursery attached to dcs school. Every year at the Christmas fair, we are in charge of the chocolate tombola, so my donation was ten bags of snowman soup.

One of the staff from the school thought they were lovely and asked if I would sell some to her. Word quickly spread and soon other were asking for them. So after a little market research of how much they would cost to make and what people were prepared to pay, I started taking orders.

I'm now being asked what I'm selling this year. Any ideas :o

Het fellow ponceurs, check out this poncetastic giftwrap from Wilkinsons

here

It's good quality brown crafty-type paper and the deer look fab, like you've stamped them yourself or somthing.