The 2023 Poncetastic Christmas Thread

[VivaJen]

Welcome to the 2023 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".

@EquallyDetermined
You could always put one wreath on the inside of your front door?
Or somewhere in your house?
It's never too much 😊

Unfortunately re wreaths, our front door pushes against coats on pegs behind it when its open so a wreath on that side would get trashed this is because the hall is narrow, so the door at the other end is permanently open and again a wreath would get knocked all the time. Then at the back we have patio doors and the back door in the kitchen has a roller blind on it. The rest is open plan. So not much scope unfortunately. I do have a selection of seasonal wreaths for the front door though, got my autumn one up at the moment plus pumpkin bunting in the living room window (I have lots of seasonal strings of bunting).

I’m joining the thread as a ponce apprentice if that’s ok - with two small ones our Christmas is a low key affair, but however little I do, it’s up to standard.

hands letters of recommendation to the Thread Council

I've never seen any here at all (we're not in a touristic area which is probably why).

@LaChatte

Never really thought about but I suppose we are in a desirable area in the Lot et Garonne. Definitely hear some English voices in the summer, not so many in the winter.

We live fairly rural, so news of our arrival made its way around the local villages. 😂

Christmas is very different here in France isn't it? Feels old fashioned in a good way.

We tend to stick to English traditions for Christmas (midnight mas? No thank you 😅)

That sounds interesting - what is a traditional French Christmas like?

I'm loving the thought of the Mumsnetters in France scouring the shops for mince pies and Christmas cake ingredients whilst I place a massive order on Frenchclick and struggle to find the bits for my galette des rois!

@MoltenLasagne

Not actually spent it with any French people, so we tend to stick to British way of things.

But we have adopted their tradition of having a seafood feast on Christmas Eve.

Also I feel like it's not as in your face and things don't appear in the shops at the end of August.

I also went to a Christmas fair and it was properly local crafts, hot wines, and roast chestnuts. All of it normal prices. Even the horse carriage ride for children was completely free.

Bit of a ramble there. So in a nutshell not commercialised from what I've seen.

My actual favourite thing to eat at that time of year. Have to remind the kids to eat carefully though! 😂

Oh that does sound wonderful! Especially having just spent silly money on our family Christmas outing last weekend...

I'm far too easily led. Despite saying I had no extra time for poncing, I spent most of last night looking up festive jam recipes to use up a heap of strawberries. Does anyone have tips for a first time jam maker?

My Delia pastry scored 4/10. Tasted great but didn't puff up properly. Will try again...

OTOH the mini jumper looks good and a second is in the works.

PS I love galette des rois. Have only had it once.

Ooh! I've just realised that this is the thread I can ask a question which went unanswered for me last year.

So last Christmas I was seeing lots of pictures of windows which people had drawn on with some sort of white pen, making beautiful scenes against the dark outside.

I could never find out/work out what pens they were using, and more importantly, whether and how those marks come off properly without scratching the glass once the season is over.

I wonder if it was posca pens, but never got an answer.

Has anyone done this?

@AccidentallyFabulous you could do it with chalk pens, I imagine they'd wash off easily & they're easy to get hold of. I have a handful of Posca markers here too - I'll draw on a window & then see how easily it comes off in a few days & report back 🤣 I'm curious now but don't think my drawing skills are good enough for window art...🤔

@AccidentallyFabulous I think some of the window pictures are done with pens or tissue paper onto acetate sheets which are then hung in the window?

I may have a roll of stuff languishing somewhere after making grand plans yet to be realised 😳

@AccidentallyFabulous
I did my windows with Posca pens last year. An artist friend uses them to do commercial windows.

Hello, I've been a fan of this thread for a few years but have never ponced. This is the year I will go all out though, I'm looking forward to reading (and stealing with pride) all of your lovely ideas

This is brilliant posca/window news.

Watch out windows, Christmas is coming!

[Here is an emoji representation of DH's likely reaction to this: 🙄]

Haha @AccidentallyFabulous that looks similar to how my kids would react 🤣

I only really need a Christmas card for my dad this year - have any of you got any card making plans up your sleeves?

I bought a Christmas mag the other day, hoping for inspiration, but it didn't really inspire much 🙄 £6.99 I'm not getting back...that said, I will go back and read some of the articles and study the table layouts at some point soon. I'm trying really hard to keep the dining table clear & have a few nice, seasonal, bits on it atm.

I used chalk pens on the windows last year or the year before (I can't remember) and just did hundreds of tiny snowflakes. It was very enjoyable to do, and looked nice. Though now that DD is older and getting very arty, I might delegate that to her; it will definitely look better!

I haven’t started thinking about cards yet but I stripped the wallpaper in the sun room today and painted the walls in readiness for the Christmas room. Thinking of channelling Buddy the Elf with mega whippet chains and stars and a few quotes on the walls.

I do think with postage being so high that my list will be smaller this year and therefore I want to make the card special.

@Trumpton I did wonder about your Christmas room earlier when I posted - then promptly forgot all about it 🙄

@Trumpton I loved your theme last year (old-timer but namechanged). Looking forward to seeing your creation this year!

@lucysmam I'm thinking of investing in some Noolibird Christmas stamps to make my own cards.

@Trumpton also really keen to know what your theme would be!

I have finished my stocking this evening

Loving those Poncetastic windows!