Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Christmas

From present ideas to party food, find all your Christmas inspiration here.

A Holly Dolly American Christmas

13 replies

LauraAshleySofa · 18/10/2020 18:02

Inspired by Dolly's Christmas album and the cheesy channel 5 American Christmas movies I want to create an American Christmas at home this year.

So far I am thinking along the lines of gingerbread and eggnog but I need more inspiration on how the Americans put on a big Christmas.

Where can I find out about the American traditions and recipes so I can recreate it in my home?

OP posts:
MarmaladeTeepee · 18/10/2020 18:07

All those cheesy channel 5 Christmas movies would be fantastic inspiration and a perfect excuse to indulge! Pinterest and youtube would also have tonnes of ideas. Off the top of my head I'm thinking candy canes, popcorn, hot chocolate, lots of red, white and green in terms of decorations inside and totally ott decorations outside.

WhamRap · 18/10/2020 18:20

Popcorn on string to wrap around the tree.

Icecreamsoda99 · 18/10/2020 18:28

You need to wish everyone Happy Holidays instead of Happy Christmas Wink Lots of lights on the outside of the house, and not sure how far you want to go but they don't usually have Turkey as Turkey is for Thanksgiving.

HermioneWeasley · 18/10/2020 18:49

Sugar cookies
Pumpkin pie can be for Xmas as well as thanksgiving
Desserts with marshmallows
Pot roast (beef) with red skin skin-on mash

HalfBearOtherHalfCat · 18/10/2020 21:23

Ask Americans on MN OP! Though it depends on which part of the US you want to emulate. Traditions will vary pretty wildly in different parts of the country.

I'm in middle Tennessee.

Yes to overdone Christmas decorations, it takes me days to get it all up, and the storage of it all the other 11 months of the year takes up our entire attic. I have crates of lights for round the windows, a wreath on every door, three trees, lots of garland for over doors and fireplace. Festive knick knacks galore for shelves. I even have a Christmas cover for my mailbox and a snowman shower curtain... DH says I need help. This is probably true Grin

I have done cookie exchanges in previous years (though due to covid, not this year) snickerdoodles, sugar cookies, and peanut butter stuffed chocolate cookies tend to go down the best in my family.

Pumpkin pie doesn't even make a Thanksgiving appearance for us, let alone at Christmas, as nobody I know particularly loves it and everyone would much rather have the other festive favorite - pecan pie. I also make a spiced bundt cake with brown sugar frosting for both Thanksgiving and Christmas which goes down well especially with the kids.

For Christmas dinner we have both turkey and ham, mashed potatoes, rice pilaf, cornbread dressing, green beans Amandine, sweet potato casserole, mac n cheese, roasted carrot/turnip/parsnip/onion, caramelized shallots, biscuits and yeast rolls.

Drinks tend to be sparkling blush wines, cranberry juice cocktails, mimosas, sweet ice tea, and yes, hot chocolate and Eggnog.

Hungry now...

Twilightstarbright · 19/10/2020 07:35

@HalfBearOtherHalfCat may I come for Christmas? What's a cookie exchange?

movingagain20 · 19/10/2020 07:44

Sweet potato casserole, yum.

I love watching the Channel 5/Lifetime Christmas films, although I never find the Californian ones the same! (Weather-wise I mean).

Ragwort · 19/10/2020 07:50

I used to love cookie exchange when I lived in USA. Have you got a recipe for the peanut butter stuffed chocolate cookie Half? Sounds delicious.

LauraAshleySofa · 19/10/2020 09:57

Wow! Thank you. I love all these food ideas, I'll definitely swap our usual Christmas cake for Pecan Pie, I have never tried it before but it looks delicious.

I really want to make some lovely cookies too for the days leading up to Christmas.

Ott decor will need to be homemade and disposable for us, so I will go with a forest flowers and ribbons theme, also we have a few sets of lights that were 'broken' but actually just need a bulb or two changed so I will dig those out too for Christmas lights in our window .

I am also going to empty out my make up bag to find red lipstick to festive up my look too for the whole of December.

OP posts:
ToastandJamandTea · 19/10/2020 10:15

@HalfBearOtherHalfCat can i please ask how you attach all the lights to the outside of the house? I want to put moreup but I am struggling with how to atatch them.

ApplePlumPie · 19/10/2020 10:19

I have nothing to contribute apart from I love this idea !!

HalfBearOtherHalfCat · 22/10/2020 01:26

Sorry for the delay in responding.

I use Christmas light clips to string lights - you can get them off Amazon and they hook neatly over gutters and storm windows.

Cookie exchanges are great if you know some talented bakers - each person attending bakes loads of their best cookie recipe, then everyone swaps what they've made. The result is that everyone only has to fix one recipe, but goes home with loads of different varieties of cookie.

I can't recall exactly how many cookies my recipe is supposed to make, but I do know it is a large recipe - the cookies do freeze well though. They are even good eaten partially frozen when too impatient to wait for them to fully defrost Grin

1.5 cups softened butter
3 cups brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
1 tsp salt
3 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup melted milk chocolate
3 whole eggs
3 egg yolks
1.5 cups cocoa powder
4.5 cups AP flour
1 tsp baking soda
Peanut butter (or Nutella also works if PB isn't your thing).

Prepare a tray with waxed or greaseproof paper and dollop out dozens of little blobs of PB (or nutella) a little bigger than a marble (or a Playmobil figure's head). Freeze them.

Cream together sugar, salt and butter. Mix in cooled melted chocolate. Stir in beaten eggs and vanilla. Sieve in cocoa, bp and flour, stirring to incorporate now and then. (May not need all the flour, see how the dough looks before adding the last little bit). Chill dough for at least an hour.

Then the time-consuming part - form balls of dough in your hand (maybe golf ball size or a bit bigger, might have to experiment) flatten them a bit, then put a frozen ball of PB on top and kind of mold the cookie dough around it and pinch and squish until there are no cracks/seams. Flatten slightly, put on tray and back into fridge.

Bake at 350F for approx 9/10 minutes. Let cool on the trays for a few minutes, then remove to cooling racks with immense care - they are super fragile and squishy when still warm.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Swipe left for the next trending thread