Poncetastic 2020

[VivaJen]

I came on looking for the annual thread but can't find it so here is the start (courtesy of Fellatio - wherever you are)

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".

[quote foresttheout]@HollyandIvyandallthingsYule those stars are beautiful do you have a link to instructions? Not in the UK and decorations are extortionately priced here ($20+ for some really cheap looking plain baubles) so i'm making my own, those stars would look lovely hung with some string on the tree[/quote]
Thank you! They look beautiful on garlands, I might be putting some up in my Windows.

You are much better off using the pre-prepared strips as it’s very difficult to get them precise enough yourself.

Mine are from Vivi Gade and I got them on eBay.

This is the tutorial I used to remember how to do them.

Not at all poncy in the slightest but I've just wrapped dd2's stocking fillers & have put many coats of white paint on loo roll tubes to turn into snowflakes with dd2 at the weekend (and hope they're Pinterest worthy ).

HollyandIvy I'd love to see a link to the stars too please :)

lucysmam it’s hiding in my comment below!

(Or above!) 🎄

So it is . I didn't even see it when I popped on earlier on!

I'll have a watch once we're settled later on, thank you!

Not a great picture but as DS is having to self isolate for the second time, we’ve spent an afternoon making paperchains using wrapping paper remnants!

Oh those paper chains are lovely @hintofvintagepink.

Yes they are. They look like fancy ribbon rather than wrapping paper, very pretty.

Did you use a punch to create the fancy edge hintofvintagepink? They're lovely.

Do any of you have any very cheap and easy table decoration ideas?

My y6 class eat in a different hall to the rest of the school & the number of times our trolley/things we need are forgotten is unreal; so I suspect we may be forgotten come Christmas tables.

I've acquired some large red paper & stashed that away at school, to use as 'tablecloths' (although I'm tempted to bring it home to iron). & want a small but nice decoration for the centres. It'll be out of my own pocket so needs to be cheap & cheerful.

My very quick suggestion just off the top of my head would be some little paper bags with a simple paper silhouette/shape glued onto the front and back (hearts/Christmas trees/deer/etc) and a battery operated tealight inside. They are very effective (although maybe not if you can’t have the overhead lights off).

I’ll have a think of some more! Start collecting jam jars/any jars now as they are very useful to have and easy to use for lovely decorations. How many centrepieces do you need?

Otherwise you could always snake some big, fluffy tinsel down the middle of the table, go to a charity shop and pick up whatever cheap little bits and bobs you can find (Santa candlelight holders, mugs, Christmassy figurines etc, and place one here & there down the sides of the tinsel. Depends how cheap you mean really, I guess.

@lucysmam can you get out to a wood or park and collect fallen pinecones? If they're not open you can dry them in a low oven to get them to open up. Then you could paint the tips white like snow.

Could cut out lots of paper snowflakes and scatter them over the red table cloths.

The white snowflakes on red paper would look really lovely!

[quote RestorationInsanity]@lucysmam can you get out to a wood or park and collect fallen pinecones? If they're not open you can dry them in a low oven to get them to open up. Then you could paint the tips white like snow.[/quote]
Add a tiny star on the top and they would become mini pinecone Christmas trees!

@lucysmam was it you that had a magazine with star cutters as a free gift? Could you make salt dough stars and stack and glue them into Christmas tree shapes. They'd look lovely against the red table covers, especially with glitter on.

Woolly, no, I have a silicone mould that would do the same thing but don't think salt dough would work well in it. I'll have a look and see what cutters I do have in the morning though; I might have enough even if they're not from matching sets of cutters.

Restoration & HollyAndIvy I don't think there is anywhere local I could get pinecones but I do know someone who might be able to get me some. I'll message her now and see what she says!

Otherwise; I think the snowflake suggestion may be my best bet - I could find some templates & while away a few hours cutting them out. I have five tables out for the kids so they can scatter themselves about with their mates but they're the hexagon ones so not particularly large.

@lucysmam

Woolly, no, I have a silicone mould that would do the same thing but don't think salt dough would work well in it. I'll have a look and see what cutters I do have in the morning though; I might have enough even if they're not from matching sets of cutters.

Restoration & HollyAndIvy I don't think there is anywhere local I could get pinecones but I do know someone who might be able to get me some. I'll message her now and see what she says!

Otherwise; I think the snowflake suggestion may be my best bet - I could find some templates & while away a few hours cutting them out. I have five tables out for the kids so they can scatter themselves about with their mates but they're the hexagon ones so not particularly large.

lucysmam to save yourself the trouble you could take the paper home, make a potato printer of a star or Christmas tree and print with white paint. Scatter some glitter over while the paint is wet and job done! Saves you sitting and cutting for hours (unless you want to).

Oops didn’t mean to quote there!

Yep...that would be quicker...and I could probably rope dd2 (who is in my class) to help me out with it too! Thanks for letting me pick your collective brains; I'll bring the paper home tomorrow & we'll stamp at the same time as doing brown paper for wrapping grandparent's presents.

Twisty tie thingys glue gun glued onto my sparkly flowers just pulls the glitter off them when you twist them (does that make sense?) They do however, have holes, so maybe skewers will fit 🤷‍♀️ I'll be checking for some in Tesco to try it.

lucysmam and forest the strips you need are called ‘Moravian star paper strips.’ Most of the ones I’ve seen start at about £4.50 for plain white or red, and go up to about £8.50mdepending on how big or fancy the strips are, or how many stars the pack makes.

@HollyandIvyandallthingsYule I'm pootling about t'interweb with not much to do atm so will have a look now. I wonder if dd2 would manage them. Their dad's working more weekends in the run up to Christmas & she gets a bit 'velcro-child' ish sometimes so keeping her busy is good!

How old is your DD2?