Poncetastic Christmas 2014

[HopeAndStories]

(Posting FellatioNelson's OP from previous years )
_

OK, first of all, I know it's still September by we need to start this thread now because as you all know, having a truly Poncetastic Christmas involves precision planning, strategy, bravery, heroics, and frequently martyrdom. A bit like the war in Afghanistan, only with nicer food and sparkly shoes.

So, if you, like me, actually want to make the next twelve weeks of your life a misery by hand-crafting your cards, finding a huge bucket for Nigella's turkey in brine, pickling pears, shrivelling oranges in a low oven for those rustic au naturel decorations, dragging half a holly bush back from the woods, and just generally being a smug annoying jobsworth ponce, join me on this thread.

Feel free to post photos of previous tree-trimming, cake icing or table centrepiece triumphs, discuss this year's bauble colour themes, debate the merits of Delia versus Gordon, road-test a selection of canapes and cocktails, (all in the line of duty) and link to lovely inspirational photos/craft ideas for a truly Poncetastic Christmas.

Warning: If your idea of a good Christmas involves Pizza, ITV, gravy granules or anything with 'Aunt Bessies' on the packet, this is not the thread for you.

Hope you feel better soon hope!

I have also been poorly the last few days and haven't been at work. In between sleeping I have been plotting pinterest-inspired December things. DP just keeps rolling his eyes and looking vaguely worried. Whether I will actually have time to do any of these things is another matter.

Ooh, that's a good idea Zebra! Might have to pinch it

Thanks Guitargirl :) I hope you feel better soon too!

Gosh so many poorly people - hope you all get well soon.
Glad it's not be who finds solace in mild planning and Pinning,

Hope the stamped dough looked really good in the pics!

Hope you are all on the mend soon.
DH just called to ask if I fancied going away the last weekend in November and to my utter shame my first thought was 'noooooo, that is my Christmas decoration time' .

Ha, Wild but surely it's the perfect excuse to get your decs up sooner, AND you could have a christmassy themed weekend away, eg xmas market, somewhere wih Xmassy shops...

TheSpottedZebra, are you my DH's secretary (?!?), that's what she suggested!

Weekend away is Christmas themed... St Nicholas Christmas market in York (28th/29th Nov) so I will just have to be super organised and put my decorations up on the 26th/27th so it is all lovely when we return home late on the 30th.

We are in Edinburgh the following weekend to see Stick Man and enjoy more festive fun so really need to get a crafty wiggle on!

Ahhh, that will be lovely to go away somewhere Christmassy and have all the decorations up to come home to

I think that sounds lovely Wild.

Healing thoughts to you too GuitarGirl.

Am VERY excited about Christmas this year and really enjoying all the inspiration here. Its our first time of hosting and we have a house full of relations so I'm on a mission to get organised and poncey :-) Have so far cut and pasted the cushion cover tree-skirt, chicken wing gravy and am pondering whether I could get dh to agree to a brussel sprout wreath... thanks all x

Umlauf, that's where I got the idea from! We are already booked in to go to Penshurst and I am so excited.

You should go too - after all, Christmas is really for the adults, isn't it??!!

A belated thanks to MrsFox for garland info - I'll go and look for the pic.

We've made our cake... Next stop, pastry. Not sure whether to make the mince pies and freeze, or just freeze the pastry. Does anyoen know which works better?

Hi everyone. There are some great ideas here. Love the idea of the chocolate vodka. I'm going to make as many presents as I can and probably make a batch of chilli and onion jam. I might make a christmas cake but I am the only one who eats it.

Ooh I love these threads! I generally just lurk and ooh and ah at all the poncetasticness, but I might actually manage a bit of poncery myself this year as I will have a NEW HOUSE to festoon with Christmassy fabulousness! Sorry for shouting , but we are moving the day after tomorrow and I'm a bit excited!

MehsMum, I watched a Delia Christmas programme recently and she showed the things she keeps in her freezer. She had a tupperware box of mince pies... so if Delia recommends freezing them, then go ahead!

I made our Christmas cake at the weekend. I don't even like Christmas cake but DP does and so do my parents. So we're to have half each.

The chocolate vodka sounds nice but I'm not sure my stomach will thank me. I can't handle creamy alcohol. It comes straight back up When I was 18, a work colleague gave me a drink of Baileys, Tia Maria and vodka. In one glass. I drank it. And it reappeared later on that night on someone's shoes.

I'm going to make mincemeat if I can't find the one I want. I don't eat it but my dad always buys Duerrs Port & Cranberry mincemeat which is getting harder to come by. I've found a Nigella recipe which has port and cranberries in so I'm going to leave it last minute and make that for him if I can't get hold of the Duerrs stuff.

I am in my element today. I was feeling a little better so decided to sort out my cupboard full of crap craft stuff, and now I am sitting at my dining room table with lots of crafts that I want to do :)

I originally went up there to try and find my alphabet stamps so I could make salt dough gift tags with peoples names on (though that's the only thing I couldn't find grr! So I've had to order a new set ) But I did find loads of other stuff. I'm surrounded by 25 pieces of felt, lots of sparkly stuff, a huge box of baubles waiting to be ponced up etc.

Ahhhh

I've also found my Sarah Raven's complete Christmas book :)

hope I am jealous of your haul! I have been ebaying this morning. Polymer clay to make gift tags with (I only have rubber alphabet stamps so I hope they are strong enough to make an impression), Christmassy fat quarters (I don't even know why yet!), and tiny coloured bells. I have also spent my morning watching Kirstie's homemade Christmas.... I wasn't impressed - whilst she certainly has ponce credentials I think the finished products often lack skill. And essentially she just gets experts round to do it all for her.

I might order the Sarah Raven, but I am worried about being overwhelmed!

MehsMum as said above, Delia recommends freezing uncooked mince pies. I've done it and it is great. I froze then in their trays and then, once forzen, took them out of their trays and stacked in plastic boxes. It was lovely being stress free and just being able to pop them out and into the oven.

There's a whole section on Delia's site on wat you can freeze ahead.

what not wat!

Umlauf, you could make little gift bags with the Christmassy fabric. Or sew some squares together for a Christmas cushion. Actually, I quite fancy a Christmas cushion myself.

Betty, the Nigella recipe is delicious with the orange juice but the cloves can be a bit overpowering (if it's the recipe I am thinking of) so I left them out second time around and the overall result was much nicer.

I make my mince pies every October half term and freeze them. It makes life so much easier.

Umlauf, it feels like I've gone to Hobbycraft without having to leave the house Perhaps bunting with the fat quarters? Or make bauble shaped decorations to hang on the tree?

I'm going to make some mincemeat for mince pies I think. If I can manage to buy some jars. Anyone know where is the cheapest to buy them?

Also is it possible to just buy a big bag of mixed fruit for Christmas cake that I can soak myself? I've looked around but think I'm looking in the wrong places. I've only found Aldi ones but they are pre soaked.

We get the keys to our new house on 15th Nov but not officially moving until 29th Nov, but at least we will be in for Christmas. I'll actually have space for a tree this year my current house is so tiny that we couldn't decorate much last year but the new house is HUGE so I'm hoping I've got time to ponce it right up.

The felt that I have is dark brown, cream, burgundy, one sheet of sparkly white, one sheet of green, one sheet of dark pink, 2 sparkly red and a little bit of plain red. Any ideas of what I could make with it?

I looked around Pinterest to see if any decorations stuck out at me to make as I couldn't think of what to do with the felt (except Christmas puddings) and I found a cute little reindeer. So I've spent a little while making one. It's not perfect but I think he's cute :)

I've not sewed anything for ages so I need to practice that...

Betty, Issy and Wild, thank you all for the mince pie advice.
That is DD busy this weekend or at half term - it's time she learned the mysteries of pastry!

I only just avoided this thread's second batch of 'mice pies' - spotted the typo. But I am sure the cat would like them.