MAKE A NOTE CHRISTMAS 1998 EXTRA!! -- December 10th, 1998
CIRCULATION 1374
A Free Email Newsletter with Useful Information on a Wide Variety of Topics
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 | Party Games & Gifts |
| Recipes for Parties & Gifts |
| Easy Decorating Ideas |
| Holiday Movies |
This is just a collection of some of our best holiday ideas from past issues. An early Christmas present from me to you. :) Be sure to tell me what ideas you use and what your friends & family thought of them.
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In addition to the usual ornament and cookie exchanges, here's a few you might not have thought of...play horseshoes with candy canes (keep them wrapped of course & carpet is better than dirt or grass). Gift wrapping game-break up into teams of 2 and give each team a small box, a small piece of wrapping paper, some tape & a bow. They work to wrap the gift together...the catch is they can each only use one hand. Some variations on ornament exchanges....everyone takes a gift or ornament and someone reads a Christmas story or poem and whenever a certain, usually common word (like "and" or "the"), is read, you pass the gifts around the circle to the next person. Whenever you end, each person opens the gift they are holding. There's always Cutthroat Exchanges where you either go around the circle or draw numbers. First person chooses a present & opens it, the next person can either take the one already opened (then that person would take another gift) or pick another one to open, and it continues down the line. But beware, whoever picked first usually gets one more pick for it to be fair. Name Game-put the name of a famous Christmas person, real or fictional on the back of every person who comes to the party. They are allowed to ask each person at the party 3 yes or no questions about the person who they "are" (male or female, fictional or real, etc). Whoever guesses who they are first wins. Safety pin game- everyone starts with 3 safety pins, whoever catches you saying a "forbidden" word (usually negative like "no" or sometimes positive like "Christmas") gets all of your pins. Whoever has the most pins at the end of the party wins. And now for some ideas for party gifts to for an exchange or for a party prize. For party prize...announce that the prize is "dinner for two and a movie", but when the person wins it is 2 packages of MRE's (for you military folk) or a can of Spaghetti-O's or something similar and a kid's discount cartoon movie. If you want to be merciful, then you could also have a gift certificate for a restaurant and 2 movie theatre gift certificates to give after the laughs are over. Many ornament exchanges require that you spend only $5 or less, pretty hard these days. But here are some that would work...put a dozen candy canes in a pretty jar & wrap with Christmas paper along with the story of the candy cane (see Quote below). Do a pomander ball...just take an orange, poke holes in it with a skewer & put whole cloves into the holes in a pretty pattern if you like, put in a bag with cinnamon or allspice, whatever you prefer and shake to coat. Just before you give the ornament, tie some pretty ribbons around it. A mouse ornament with candy cane tail can be made by cutting a piece of felt in a tear drop shape, use excess to make round ears. Make 2 cuts like a large equal sign near the large end of the tear drop, to slide the candy cane in for the tail. Use markers for eyes & whiskers. Clothes pin candle-use felt to make a candle shape & glue to a clothes pin to attach to the tree, use a little garland or plastic greenery at the base. Very delicate but sparkly ornaments can be made by putting white glue into whatever shape you desire (star or tree, etc) & sprinkling glitter heavily on it. Let dry & then gently peel off & attach string to them. Fun for kids. Spray pine cones with silver or gold paint, or roll in pan of glue & then shake in a bag with glitter. Attach a pretty red ribbon.
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Easy ideas for gifts-take a Styrofoam wreath, ball, or tree & use straight pins to attach wrapped candies to completely cover (peppermints, or Christmas colored Kisses are ideal for this. Fill up a pretty jar with Christmas colored treats from the store & wrap a pretty ribbon around them. Use http://www.realfood4realpeople.com to get recipes for cookie mixes & cakes in jars recipes to give to folk with instructions. And also... Spice Tea (AKA Russian Tea, Friendship Tea, Orange Tea) This is my own variation of the popular orange stuff. It is a great thing to make up & put into those leftover jelly jars, or even into baggies if you don't have jars, & use as hostess gifts, or for teachers, co-workers, etc. It also has a lot of vitamin C, good for that cold/flu season. Take 2C Tang, 1C instant plain tea (I use decaff), 3/4C instant lemonade mix, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp ground cloves, 1C sugar. Mix all together & pour into containers. Makes about 5C. Put label on that says to mix 3 rounded tsp, more or less to taste, to large cup of hot water.
Flavored Honey-Fill a jar with honey, add a cinnamon stick, 2 whole cloves & 2 whole allspice. Place in bowl of hot water for 20 min to develop the flavor, dry & wrap it up pretty.
And now for some recipes that can either be taken to Christmas parties for potluck, OR given to someone as a gift.
Use Duncan Hines mixes of brownies, or other mixes, but sprinkle Christmas colored M'M's on top or crushed peppermint. Same thing for rice krispy treats, or you can also use colored sugar sprinkles for light colored items. Use your bread machine or make your favorite recipes & wrap in pretty paper.
Fake Brie (courtesy of Bill P.)
Preheat oven to 350. Make rectangle out of 1/4 of crescent dough roll (2 triangles together in rectangle) pressing perforations closed. Sprinkle dill on top, then put cream cheese block on top, sprinkle that with dill also. Cover with another rectangle of crescent roll. Repeat with another block of cream cheese. Experiment with other spices/herbs if desired. Bake at 350 until golden brown, about 8-20 min, watch closely. Just before serving cut off end to expose cheese, but leave rest of dough around block. Serve with crackers & most people do think it is Brie, even after tasting it.
Christmas Tree Veggies
Put 3 rows of celery sticks on a rectangular serving tray in a Christmas tree shape. A few sticks in the 1st row, then a few more (wider) in the 2nd row, & a little more in the 3rd row. Then 2 extra short sticks at the bottom for the "trunk" of the tree. Put broccoli pieces all the way around the outline of the tree. Put cauliflower pieces between the rows of celery & cut out some stars out of red or yellow bell peppers & place scattered around the tree. Serve with dip.
Peppermint Fudge (courtesy of Annie R.)
Foil line & butter an 8x8 pan. Melt 1 pkg of vanilla chips in microwave. Add 1 container of vanilla frosting & 1/2 tsp mint extract. Pour into pan. Drop 4 drops of red food coloring in 4 spots in the pan & use toothpick to move around to produce a "marbled" effect. Sprinkle with crushed peppermint.
Fudge
In microwave melt 3C semi-sweet chocolate chips, add 14 oz can condensed milk, & 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract, dash salt & 1-1 1/2 C chopped nuts if desired. Pour into foil lined & buttered 8 or 9 inch square pan. Chill then turn out onto cutting board & cut into small pieces. Note to football fans...this recipe can be shaped into a football shape on a cookie sheet & then decorated with white icing lines to make it look like a football <((+++))> .
Holiday Herb (Candy Cane Shape) Cheese Spread
People LOVE this one and it is very easy. With electric mixer beat together 2 pkg cream cheese softened & 1/4C butter softened until fluffy. Add 4 tblsp chopped green onions, 2 tblsp parsley, 1tsp garlic salt, 1/2 tsp dill, and 1/4 tsp thyme & mix all together well. Place a piece of plastic wrap on a cookie sheet or counter, spoon mixture into wrap to form a log about 3" thick & 12 " long. Fold up plastic to encase. Chill until firm or overnight. While still in plastic, roll to make a nicer shape, then unwrap & bend top 1/3 to make a candy cane shape. Use a knife or clean wet fingers to smooth out cracks. Place on serving tray. Decorate with chopped red pepper to form stripes. Surround with crackers before serving.
Meringue Cookies (AKA Forgotten Cookies, Cloud Cookies)
Preheat oven to 400 (this is VERY important). Beat 2 egg whites until stiff, add 3/4C sugar, & beat til stiff, add 1tsp vanilla & beat til stiff. Then stir in 1C chopped nuts & 1C mini M & M's (can also use any kind of chocolate, butterscotch, or peanut butter chips). Drop by 1/2 tsp-fuls onto cookie sheets either greased or lined with wax paper. Can be close together, don't expand much. Sprinkle with colored sugar if desired. Place cookie sheets into oven and TURN OVEN OFF (yes, turn oven OFF). Leave in overnight, ready to eat in morning. Makes about 6 doz.
Don't forget to check out the http://www.cookierecipe.com site and if you'd like another favorite of mine that kids love to do, check out the Christmas Cornflake WREATH cookies in their Christmas cookie section.
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Take empty clear "to-go" containers or 1-2L bottles and wrap in colored cellophane to make them look like giant hard candies. Hang around your house. To display holiday cards, take regular Christmas wrapping ribbon, put tape over one end to reinforce & tack or staple it to the top of a door (the very top flat part). As cards come in staple them by one corner to the ribbon. You can open the cards & it makes a nice display. Also just expensive red cellophane ribbon is pretty wrapped around things. Get a large roll from Oriental Trading catalog for a good price.
Decluttering your Christmas cards. If you sent out a card to someone, place a small "c" for "card sent" next to their name. If you get a card back from them, underline the "c". If you get additional mail from them throughout the year, erase the "c" & line. Then next year, it will be easy to weed out the folks (hopefully not family) that have maybe grown just a bit too distant, those with a lonely "c". But the next year erase all the "c" info & start over again. A Rolodex address book is the one of the best investments to organizing in this area that I can think of. It is always easy to keep things in alpha order & easy to find.
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I've covered this before, but it seems like one of the favorite ways to pass the time during holidays is with movies. I REALLY get annoyed when I go to a movie only to be disappointed in it's content. So I find this web site the best tool for screening the good ones out. http://www.screenit.com. It has a weekly newsletter that goes out by email with short reviews, & extremely detailed reviews at its web site. It will tell you exactly what objectionable words or scenes might occur in the movie. Very useful for guiding what your teens may want to see on their own too. And if you live in the DC area they can even get you free tickets at times.
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QUOTE
"The Story of the Candy Cane"
"Sometime during the latter part of the 18th century in England, when all religious symbols were banned from public display, Christians could no longer recognize one another by any kind of symbolic jewelry, clothing, etc. It was during this time, it is told that there was a Christian candy maker who set out to find some way for members of the Christian family to identify each other. He began with a white candy to signify purity & the holiness of Jesus Christ. Next, he fashioned the candy cane into the shape of a shepherd's staff as a reminder that our Heavenly Father is the Good Shepherd. Then he placed 3 small red stripes around the candy to represent the encompassing power & presence of the Trinity (the Father, Son & Holy Spirit) . Finally he placed a single bold red stripe throughout the candy to demonstrate the redeeming power & the blood of Christ shed upon the cross for each of us & the forgiveness of sins. Even the peppermint flavoring reminds us of the biblical herb hyssop used to treat the sick & remind us of Christ's ministry of healing. There was a hope that each would be reminded in a subtle way of the love God has for us and the price He paid for our salvation. Peace to all!" --from various sources
(Note: what an opportunity for a conversation starter during the holidays. The next time you see a candy cane, give one, or make one (see cheese spread above) just ask..."Do you know the story of the Candy Cane?" )
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Merry Christmas to You All, God Bless,
Sharon ^i^
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