Antonella Dési provides some fun DIY projects for the whole family, to make your home Christmas-ready and full of yuletide magic.
It is customary to decorate our homes in such a way as to contribute to the gaiety and festive spirit of the Christmas holidays, by using lights, colours, ornaments, wreaths, garlands, stars and of course, the much-loved Christmas tree.
Gingerbread decorations:
You can make a host of delicious edible Christmas decorations out of gingerbread. You can even make a nativity scene using this delicious gingerbread recipe:
Ingredients:
125g butter or brick margarine
125ml (½ cup) brown sugar, firmly packed
1 egg
625ml (2½ cups) plain flour
5ml (1 teaspoon) bicarbonate of soda
15ml (3 teaspoons) ground ginger
40ml (2½ Tablespoons) golden syrup
Method:
1. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, add egg and beat well. Gradually add sifted dry ingredients and syrup, mix well, knead lightly. Divide dough into six portions, and roll each portion till 3mm thick.
2. Cut out gingerbread figures with special cutters or cut around cardboard shapes with a sharp knife. Remember to punch out a small hole at the top end of the cut-out, which you can thread with ribbon to hang it up once it is baked.
3. Bake in a moderate oven (180ºC) for 10 minutes. Cool on trays.
Use glace icing and various edible treats to decorate each figure. To make the icing, mix 125ml (½ cup) icing sugar with a little boiling water and a dash of lemon juice. You can add colour by adding a tiny dash of food colouring to the mix. Spoon icing into a small plastic bag, snip off one corner to make a piping bag, and carefully pipe on features, clothing or patterns.
You can make a mini gingerbread Christmas tree by horizontally stacking star-shaped gingerbread biscuits one on top of the other, starting with the biggest, and ending with the smallest, and then sticking the smallest star-shaped biscuit vertically on top of the stack.
Tasty Christmas wreaths:
Make this fun Christmas wreath that looks good enough to eat, and fortunately it is – it is made out of boiled sweets wrapped in brightly coloured wrappers. You can give it to the kids to eat on Christmas day – what a treat! To make it, fashion some wire into a circle. Wrap the wire up with some plain coloured material to thicken the wreath. Sew the end of the fabric firmly in place. Sew the wrapped boiled sweets loosely into place by threading the wrappers to the material wreath. Repeat, until the wreath is full of sweets. Finish off with an oversized bow made from extra wide ribbon. To keep the ribbon from drooping, spray it with fabric starch and let it dry overnight before attaching it to the wreath.
Advent crackers:
Buy or make 24 mini Christmas crackers, and number them from 1 through to 24. Thread them onto a ribbon and suspend the ribbon hammock-style from a suitable spot in your home. From 1 to 24 December, your child will be able to pull a cracker as a countdown to Christmas day.
Snowflake doilies:
Ever wondered what to do with those vintage doilies your grandmother left you? Why not turn them into snowflake decorations that you can hang in your window. To do this, lay the textile doilies on a covered surface, and with a foam roller, coat both sides of the doilies with undiluted fabric softener until they are saturated. Let them dry overnight, then press them with a hot iron and hang them up using fishing gut. If you don't have any doilies, you can crochet some of your own – there are a number of beautiful patterns available free on the Craftown.com website. Smaller doilies finished in this way will also make stunning decorations for the Christmas tree.
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