'Tis the season to be a wally

Advent day 11 it's getting closer!! I'm excited anyway....So yesterday our advent 'surprise' was to decorate the Christmas cookie tree together. Most of the advent surprises end with together as that's what it's all about. Getting us all together, even if it's just for ten minutes before my husband rushes off to work. The other night we sang Christmas songs together (good job our neighbours live away most of the time they may have thought a cat was getting strangled!) It was hilarious and my son Chase who's nearly two thought we had all gone mad, although he danced and screamed "Yay!!!" at the end, so we must have done well. Anyway, here's my cookie tree recipe, don't worry if you haven't got the star cutters they're £4.99 on-line from Lakeland or you could always try cutting freehand stars, or even different sized circles to stack. This recipe gives you enough dough for twenty large to small cookies.

600g sifted plain flour
300g butter
300g sugar
Tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs beaten
Kg pack of ready roll icing (I got mine in Lidl)
Decorations (Again Lidl had some decent decorations, or the Pound shop)
Tbsp jam

In a bowl (or mixer if you have one) cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy (as shown above)

Add the beaten eggs and vanilla and mix 

Add the flour gradually until a dough is formed divide into two balls, wrap in cling film and chill for an hour

                                                 

Roll out the dough to around 3-4mm thick and cut two of each size cookie re-rolling and cutting with the leftover scraps

Place cookies onto greaseproof lined baking trays and place in a pre heated oven at 180 for 12 minutes or until firm then place on a wire rack to cool

                            

Knead and roll out the icing until it's as thick as you like to top the cookies 

Cut two lots of each size for the icing too

Brush each cookie with some jam to stick the fondant icing in place

Let the children assemble the stack starting from the largest to the smallest (cookie not child)

                                               
We had loads of fun decorating the tree but not as much fun as we all had eating it      
                                               

D.I.Y Decorations

There are a lot of cheap decorations around at the moment with shops such as Poundland, so it doesn't have to cost a lot to make your house look magical this Christmas. I prefer free to cheap though (who doesn't!) and with a bit of imagination you can make your own and I think they look way better than shop bought. Firstly I made my own wreath, I've wanted to do one of these for years now. Luckily my dad has a lovely Norwegian spruce in his back garden and a holly tree full of beautiful red berries, so I didn't have far to forage! I had a big cardboard disc saved from one of the large pizzas we had the other week (I rarely throw anything if I think I can craft with it) and I made a ring template out of it. I hadn't got any florists wire but I had some red wool so I used this to bind everything.

I cut a couple of branches off the bottom of the trees.

Using the wool I started with small sections of branch and tied it to the cardboard ring as tightly as I could. When the branches covered the card I wrapped the wool around it all creating a sturdy circle to build up on with more branches and holly until I was satisfied with how it looked.

I also made a mess!

The end result was perfect! Now my front door is very inviting and festive!

When we were little my mum sprayed a branch and stuck our home-made decorations on it and I think it looked fantastic. Having seen a few spray painted branches in the shops for sale I decided I would do my own....for FREE! After spray painting our fireplace white we had some leftover, it was roughly £5 from Homebase but you could use any paint or glitter you have lying around. Again, I raided my dad's garden for an old branch and found this one. After spraying it white and leaving it to dry I had to find something to stand it in.

I didn't really want to be buying plaster to set it in so I used my tall vase and a heat log that was hollow through the middle. I stood the branch in the heat log, put it in the vase and surrounded it with brown paper that was used in some packaging from a parcel. Literally throw nothing it all comes in handy! I hung all the children's home-made decorations off it and some lights and again it looks lovely in my dining room.

                                                 
These are just two ideas but you can let your imagination run wild! Let the children make their own paper chains and snowflakes to decorate their rooms. Don't let a lack of money dictate what type of a Christmas you will have. Most of all have fun!