The 2022 Poncetastic Christmas Thread

[VivaJen]

Welcome to the 2022 Poncetastic thread. With a nod to Fellatio (wherever she may be) at the stroke of midnight, let the poncing commence.

"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.

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 jobs worth 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 canapés 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 Bessie’s' on the packet, this is not the thread for you".

Loving all these activity advent calendar ideas. I tried it once and it was a failure, my DCs were a bit old for it in the sense that they were doing a lot of after school activities by then and once we’d done that, homework, dinner we ran out of time, also plans would change or weather would be unsuitable or similar. Wishing you all more success than I had. My tip would be to print them all out, keep them in an envelope rather than allocating them to all 24 days in advance. Then each day once the DCs have opened that day’s drawer, when they’re not looking pop one you have chosen for the next day in the next drawer, then you have a better chance of doing one that works for that day.

One of the best activities we ever did at Christmas was an after dark open-top bus tour of the West End lights in London. Freezing but completely fabulous.

Thank you for all the bottle tips. Vinegar bottles definitely cheaper than wine although not as fun to empty!

Can I add to the activity suggestions, cutting up last year’s Christmas cards to make gift tags. This was a yearly ritual when I was a kid, I’d carefully cut around the motifs and hole punch whilst parents wrote this years cards prompted by the ones received last year.
It was also how you knew Santa gifts were really from Santa, because mum was too tight to buy gift tags

I checked in the the pre poncing thread but I've just caught up with this one.
I've still got to make my cushions in the same material I did the tree skirt in last year. And I need to make some stockings, my local craft store only had a few Christmas materials in but I managed to get what I needed.
I'll share pictures when I've finished.

Well, in my wisdom, I securely protected the pieces of my village in 3 of those tights washing bags & washed them with the WHITE school shirts (the lingerie bags are also white)...they now have an ever so slight pink tinge to them 🤷‍♀️

I saw some dinky fir tree candles in primark that would look nice with it once it's all assembled & they were only £1.50 for three. Not to be lit though, just for the prettiness! And I bought a festive reed diffuser thingy for 80p - it smells nice in the kitchen.

Ooh...and...I now just need to sort booze for my Christmas cakes! I bought the almonds and cherries earlier in Home Bargains so we can bake over half term.

Loving the ideas, keep them coming!

After watching for years on here, I’ve finally bought The Christmas Chronicles. Arriving Monday.

Going to do a test run of some of the vegan foods next weekend when it’s just me and the small, no matter how bad they look I shall post photos

We need a new tree (or three as DDs like to have one in their bedroom) and Jesus wept, they’ve shot up in price since I last had to buy one.

Doesn’t help that I like the really thick, bushy ones, or that I quite fancy having a much taller one this year because, well, cottage and it needs one, right?! Luckily DDs just want 4ft ones.

The only tree I own now is my 6ft half tree, on which the glass baubles that belonged to my Great Grandma go, out of the reach of any small visitors (most of my friends have toddlers) and it’s going in my bedroom this year.

I’ve got an old fireplace here, that had the Inglenook fire removed at some point so it’s a large space to fill. Currently has the vintage sewing table in it with those pumpkins from Hobby Craft/other Autumn decs on.

This window ledge in particular is also crying out for some Christmas decor of some form.

@HardLanding that windowsill is fabulous! Made for a snowy village, forest or nativity scene, surely?!

Hello 👋 Excited to join thread.

Hardlandings Id also keep it simple during the week. In the past the simpler things we’ve done include stuff we are doing anyway, stuff that needs doing and easy activities

www.firstpalette.com/printable/snowflake.html these are fun and effective and you just need paper and scissors.

tidy bedrooms

walk to gather greenery for wreath or table decoration (may be enough in garden?)

bubble bath with battery fairy lights/battery candles

walk to see lights (walk the dog)

school Christmas fayre if you are going anyway

I ordered Christmas food today. Put an order in with Marks and Sainsbos. Lots of delish treat. Shin of beef, gammon , lots of seafood and cakes! Super excited. I also did a huge chunk of the Christmas shopping today. I'm about 85% done for my kids.

Ooh, posting mostly just to follow. I think I only posted a couple of times last year but i enjoy following along.

I do have a big jar of mincemeat (Christmas Chronicles recipe) from last year. I really enjoy it just heated up with some vanilla icecream as well as into mince pies.

I have also started toy shopping for the dc. More for the need to spread the cost though which isn't very poncetastic.

Can anyone recommend a Christmas cake recipe? I have done Delia for the last few years, but fancy a change. Will do her creole cake as an alternative though.

I've bought a wooden advent calendar from the works, so I'm going to start painting that up soon. Planning a mixture of little gifts/sweets/crafts as well as a few activities thrown in (things we would have already been doing!).

Need to suddenly become green fingered so that I can grow some paperwhites! Like the idea of growing a few pots as gifts for SIL/MIL.

DD11 has just ordered a beautiful Corrine Lapierre felt kit, so looking forwards to helping her with that when it arrives www.corinnelapierre.com/collections/hoop-kits-1/products/robin-felt-applique-hoop-craft-kit

I always did the traditional Delia but tried the Creole one last year and really liked it @Happyface120. We actually ate it all by the end of January! It’s only DH and I who eat it and normally I end up throwing lots away eventually but not this time. So I’m going to do that one again.

I’ve started present buying too. I live rurally, don’t drive, and work full time so I need things delivering at the weekend. So far I’ve got half of the Manga on DD1s list, two Switch games and a few Little People Big Dreams books for DD3. DD2 hasn’t got a clue what she wants. As usual!

The Christmas Chronicles arrived whilst my Grandparents were here visiting and my Grandmother was very excited about this as she loves Nigel Slater (I didn’t know) so I’ve ordered a second one to be delivered to her house as a surprise.

It arrived!

First knitted gift complete, a pair of merino wool socks for DD’s stocking
I want some for myself but mustn’t get sidetracked!

Oh I love these! I’m terrible with DPNs, I can just about knit in the round on my circle needles and I’m knitting fingerless gloves/a hat on 4.5mms for the first time (for myself as a trial for making 3 sets for each DD).

Lovely socks @BeastOfBODMAS I made socks for my DDs stockings last year. I'm thinking of hats for this year.

@HardLanding I use magic loop to knit socks on a long circular as I find using DPNs to be like wrestling a hedgehog.

Gorgeous socks. I crochet but none of us can bear the feel of wool next to our skin so I've never tried knitting socks.

Thank you all I don’t hate dpns but did find the tension of wool tricky as I normally knit in the cheap stuff!

@EerilyDevilled Ive had some lovely 100% cotton 4ply from hobbycraft before if that might do you for socks (matching socks not pictured!)

Lovely kit Rhubarb. It is in my 'one day' wish list.

I finished my 2 gonks. Traditional red and green for my mum and grey and blue for dsis. I'm not 100% happy with either of them but they're good enough.
On to a x stitch card next.

Also, not poncetastic really but I spent some time over the last week writing out the Santa gift tags for a friend of mine so that her DD doesn't recognise the writing. I finally got to use my fountain pen and attempted some fancy curly writing

@TheWoollybacksWife I had no idea what a Magic Loop was! This is game changing.

@BeastOfBODMAS that made me chuckle, I’m having the same problem - around 18 months ago I bought some Malabrigo Washted that was on sale but still £9.99 per hank, and I’ve been too chicken to do anything with it until now. Just turning into a ball was hair raising enough. I’m dyspraxic and have ADHD so I have to go a lot slower, and triple check everything. Meanwhile my Gran flies through making socks on DPNs so fast it makes my head spin to watch her.

@HardLanding just had a Google and it’s gorgeous yarn! Definitely deserves to be turned into something lovely

@RhubarbCrumbled that kit looks really lovely, you must keep us updated on how it's going making the decorations. Does it look fairly straightforward to do??

@CrazyBaubles those honks are adorable

@BeastOfBODMAS those knitted garments look wonderful

My pouncing today involved going to a National trust property and getting a book called Festive Cocktails & Canapés. Three of my favourite things cocktails, party food and Christmas all in one book, what's not to like

After a very stressful fortnight I am so happy to get back to Christmas poncing.

I have to confess that I've bought a Gingerbread House kit. I know I should bake and build from scratch but it's beyond me. 😁

@MinglingFlamingo I've just been looking at that book on Amazon and it looks awesome. What are the canapé recipes like?

Afternoon!

I love seeing others' poncing creations! 🎄🎅🏻

I've made the cherry / chocolate pudding today, so that's another job ticked off the list. I might feed the first pudding as well, to give it a bit of moistness.

I'm still wading through my cross stitch, as I find it hard to get motivated when I'm working long days. I'll get there though!