Poncetastic thread

[WaitingForEgg]

Is there a poncetastic thread this year? I am itching to ponce!

Oh hello CiderWithBuda waves! I remember you too, and DashingRedhead although I didn't know that she had passed away. That is very sad.

trixymalixy those Georg Jensen stars are quite nice, but a bit too shiny for me. I basically want my Mum's star, which she NEVER uses in favour of a horrible cardboard painted one my brother made in nursery, yet will she give up the glass one? Will she heck! So if anyone sees a beautiful frosted glass star please let me know!!

I am awful at cooking so will let my ponce guard down if anyone can give me a heads up as to when the mincemeat hits the shelves of... Lidl (don't judge me, I'm abroad!)

I may have just persuaded DP to decorate the lounge before Christmas. For utter poncetasticness. Need to dig out the Christmas wool. I was determined to do a Xmas crochet wreath after seeing zorions last year.

I started looking for a wreath spongy thing and couldn't find one anywhere. So gave up. This is my crochet wreath year!!!

Poncing is cumulative. That is part of the joy!! Just do a bit this year, nosey at what everyone else is doing and pick and chose the bits you like. It makes me feel all in tune with the seasons and the generations. It's a bit about shopping, a bit about making, a bit about arranging and decorating and for me, a lot about eating. My granny died this year so I am feeling like the ties with that generation have loosen (last grandparent) and so want to hold on a little to traditional things.

I'm joining the poncetastic thread a bit late this year. The fact that I'm a day late shows how busy I am. I think I'm going to have to live the pocetasticness through all of you and have no ambitions. I've got beautiful fabric to make stockings with that I bought two years ago!

I think I will at least manage making a cake.

Late to the party but ready to ponce - am letting the side down this year by going away skiing, but will be poncing in the run up and will be doing a post Christmas Christmas to make up for it

I mentioned this thread to DH earlier. I said I do like a bit of Christmas ponce. He did this face . I may have to LTB.

Haha paper! Some Christmases I come very close to leaving mine. Ungrateful git!!

Does anyone else not make a Christmas cake? No one in our house likes it except me, and frAnkly I can't afford the extra calories imbibed from eating a piece after every meal for a month! I did once make a chocolate gateau with white choc ganâche and white choc truffles on top (think alcohol was added); just wondering if anyone has a fab alternative.

shotgun Nigella's spiced chocolate cake is excellent. In her Christmas book but think you can find the recipe online too. I've made it a few times

Shotgun after my beautifully decorated cake was used as a decoration the following year, I don't make a cake any more.

Our pudding on the day is a chocolate pave (basically rich chocolate biscuits layered with cream whipped with melted chocolate, coffee and an unspecified amount of brandy). For the decorative effect the last few years I've done a gingerbread house and then the Lakeland sleigh mould but made of chocolate rather than gingerbread.

I'm hoping to have redecorated my sitting room by Christmas so it will no longer be hideous with a filthy pub carpet but will have a lovely cracking fire and wooden floor with a cosy rug.

I'm finding that simplicity is the key to successful poncing, repeating things that work well and trying new things only if they are simpler/too fabulous to resist.

So, things that I do every year because they work well:

Going to the Steiner School advent fair and nicking a load of ideas.

Reusing existing stockings, decorations, advent calendars etc.

Baking gingerbread tree decorations the week before Christmas

Collecting Ivy, pine cones, conkers, drying orange slices, Christmas tree off its from the bin in Homebase to make my own decorations.

White Company winter candles and pot pouri oil.

Making peppermint bark

Crib service at York Minster on Christmas Eve

Mumsnet Christmas playlist on Spotify

Canapés and prosecco at noon on Christmas Day with easy crouton bases made by slicing bagels into lots of little rounds, spraying them with oil and putting in the oven.

Yule log for pudding.

Things I will try out this year:

Taking the children to the Advent service.

Making an Ivy wreath.

Capon for Christmas Day.

Getting an Archbishop of York tree decoration before the end of October, because they were sold out last year when I tried to get one.

Also, I get to drink the bramble whisky I made last year.

I'm not going to make a Christmas cake. Nobody seems that keen on them and they hang around for ages. I'm going to make a Christmas pudding and a chocolate log.

I don't make Christmas cake; none of us like it!

I'm going to attempt Nigella's spiced chocolate cake instead this year. Also going to try the mars bar vodka, it looks bloody delicious.

Going to get one of those crackling candles this weekend and try it out; I usually have the White Company Winter candles, but I can easily burn through 2 large ones what with the long evenings; I think it might be good to find an alternative. It's only once a year though I suppose. And they are bloody lovely.

Going to attempt some experimental orange shrivelling this week on my days off. Also going to Hobbycraft to buy a large white giant twig tree that I'm going to wrap lights around and hang little drawstring numbered bags off as an advent calendar. That's right, I'm making an ADVENT TREE. How's that for poncey?

No Christmas cake here either, no one likes it and we are always to stuffed with other stuff it's never needed. Same with Christmas pudding, it's the last thing I want after a big roast.

It's a shame though as I often feel like I miss the big centrepiece and I'd love to decorate it every year.

None of us like Christmas cake either. I might make a chocolate cake just so I can decorate it! I made a vegan Yule log last year as the kids are allergic to egg and milk but it was horrible. I might try a different recipe.

I bought snowflake cookie cutters in the tk maxx sale, the kind where you can put crushed boiled sweets in the gaps, so I'm looking forward to trying that with the kids.

Still have cranberry vodka from last year which I'll decant into smaller bottles - I've saved a vinegar bottle which will do for one. It zipped up a very dry (think Epsom salts) prosecco.
Have the sloe gin on the go (BBC food website) but will have to decant into much smaller bottles as DH wasn't best pleased when I gifted most of the last lot. Anyone have an idea where to get small bottles from - I was thinking Lakeland but do any of the pound shops have them?
Made spicy apple chutney from Nigella's domestic goddess book but only 3 jars, 2 for gifting.
Last year I made Nigella's clementine cake and spilt the mixture to make 2 smaller cakes gifting one - bought a silver cake board, covered with cling and used some Christmas ribbon and pins with bobbles on to fix it round the cake. The cake takes on a very glossy sheen so looks quite professional but needs refrigeration so only good for someone who is likely to eat it soon after receipt.
I had a go at making a wreath a few years ago and usually pride myself on craftiness - it was a bit laughable and fell apart. When DH bought one from the garden centre last year I put our address on the back - anyone remember the thread last year about the stolen wreath?
We had a friend, now sadly deceased, who used to make delicious bottled stuff and preserves - it took ages and I don't think was very frugal in the end!
Locally I saw blackberries and red currants but no one likes them here so left them.
I have a Christmas tree cutter and have made ginger biscuits and iced them with silver balls - DCs aren't little anymore so although they will be happy to eat them, not sure if they are prepared to decorate them...

Babelange The Range sometimes have a good range of bottles/kilner/storage jars if you have one near you.

I'm sure I saw small bottles in Homebase the other day.

No The Range really close (would be a car journey). I'll keep my eyes peeled as I won't need to decant sloe gin until December. I might go and look in the local hardware shop.
Beautiful day here not sure why I've been day dreaming on MN about Christmas but DH is such a grinch (installing Christmas where he works - another thread I am on).

babel yes I remember that thread! She went and took it back, didn't she?!

Sainsburys have bottles and kilner jars in. Does anyone think it would be acceptable to put homemade spirits in kilner jars or is that a no no? I just thought it would look prettier than bottles...

I haven't done more than plan as yet. But the planning is satisfying. When I joined the thread I had no intention of decorations my living room for Christmas- here I a with paintbrush in hand freshening up the walls. I'm on the scrounge for a new mantelpiece too- a darker more Christmassy one. Then I intend to install a catalytic gas fire before December,( wood is out as the chimney is shagged and I can't afford the rebuild)

I'm going for Ivory and green in the living room and hallway this year. After too many red and gold years I long for change. The kitchen - as ever- will be, erm, eclectic. It houses the second tree where the miss matching and children's decorations go. And however much I try to make my table beautiful- alas , it is a dumping ground. So only stays gorgeous for an hour a day.

Milk- I have an advent tree too! A bit different in that it is a bare tree for which the dc each get a bauble to hang on every day of advent. On dec 1st it's empty and bare, by Christmas Eve it's full and beautiful. I love it- despite how hideously poncey it all is ( that's right- for anyone counting, I've listed three trees. That's a minimum)

cooking is it wonderful? Do you take photographs of it with a moody filter and put them on Facebook? Oh God I bet it's fabulous

I was thinking of getting a second tree but I'm actually not sure. It would be a great place to put all the mismatched decorations though, and might brighten up a dark corner in my snug type room. Otherwise that one can look a little bare. I would just have to buy more lights and more decorations.

This is all beautiful, if a little early for me (we wait until DC3's autumn birthday so it doesn't get lost).

A heads up for those who like to ponce in a deliciously naff Christmas jumper: they won't be on sale next year in most shops so this will be the last year of them unless you care to knit your own.

MrsHathaway - what is happening to Christmas jumper supplies?