the art and craft of Christmas

Like most things in life, Christmas is what you make of it. It needn't be about mindless consumption, - be that of food or gifts. Each year the feeling around Christmas is different based on how the year has panned out, the people in your life, or those missing from your life. Christmas for me is a time of reflection, sharing, nurturing, remembering and celebrating being together.

On Sunday, River, Sol and I spent a good part of the day making our Christmas tree. Last year Sol slept while River and I created our cut + paste tree. This year he was old enough and interested enough to do some cutting and pasting of his own. Last year our tree was a collage tree. This year I pondered what we could do differently and I came up with the idea to create a Christmas family tree. So we went through a pile of photos that were already printed and picked out what would become our framed 'ornaments' to stick on the tree. In these times of digital photography, most of us take more photos than we'll ever know what to do with (or how to organise!) so having photos on the tree is a great way to actually enjoy the photos each time I walk past.

For me, crafting with small children is a great meditation on patience, surrender and delight. Ok, there's a pinch or two of frustration or exasperation at times. Patience while small fingers grapple with scissors and glue, surrender to their creative ideas as they burst over my own grand vision, and delight when we all become lost in the making and then stand back to admire the finished piece.

This weekend we also made very simple Christmas cards from white, green and red card cut with a guillotine (which was the exciting part for the boys) and decorated with trees and stars cut from foil. This year River was able to write the messages in the cards. Seeing his almost-in-grade-one handwriting will bring as much joy to the family and friends receiving the cards as it did to me as I watched him carefully form each letter and ask me how to spell certain words along the way.

I know for some craft and baking are not their 'thing'. Creativity though is core to the human spirit. Whatever way you spend creative time with your children, family or friends I hope that you are finding time to do so in these pre Christmas days, for me it feels so nurturing to step away from the daily demands and do a little making.

What are you making? Or not making. Do you love or loathe Christmas? How is it for you this year?

Linking up with Em at The BeetleShack

money for jam

For River’s kinder Christmas fair it was my job to make marmalade to sell. I turned to a trusty Women’s Weekly cookbook for the recipe because the book’s recipes are triple tested so even though I’d never made marmalade I could count on it working it out. I hoped.

I turned a blind eye to the incredible amount of sugar it takes to make jam. There is fantastic profit to be made from jam, hence the adage ‘money for jam’. Oranges and lemons were donated, as were the jars, the only expense was the organic raw sugar.

Wow. Making marmalade is labor intensive! For the uninitiated, there is a lot of rind peeling and fine slicing to be done. It is somehow meditative though, even with River and Sol at my heels asking for snacks and games to be sorted.

After the slicing and chopping came the ‘stewing’ of rind, pulp, sugar and water until boiling and ready to set. I love testing to see if it is ready to set, a spoon of hot marmalade on a saucer out of the freezer. If it sets with a ‘skin’ it’s ready.

While the jam bubbled on the stove-top, the jars and lids were sterilizing in the oven below.

It was time to fill the jars.

The whole process was immensely satisfying. And profitable.

I’d love to hear about homemade creations that have been successful for fundraising for your child’s kinder or school.

A jar of home made jam or chutney makes a wonderful Christmas gift because you made it! If you’re feeling inspired here’s the recipe I used. I varied it though as I didn’t have limes and I used raw sugar and it worked out fine.

Citrus Marmalade

4 large oranges (1.2kg)

3 medium lemons (420g)

4 large limes (400g)

1.25 litres (5 cups) water

1.6kg (7 cups) white sugar approximately

Step 1: Peel all fruit thinly; cut rind into thin strips. Remove pith from all fruit; reserve half, discard remaining pith. Chop flesh coarsely, reserve seeds.

Step 2: Combine flesh and rind in large bowl with the water. Tie reserved pith and seeds in a piece of muslin tied with kitchen string; add to bowl. Stand at room temperature overnight.

Step 3: Place fruit mixture and muslin bag in large saucepan; bring to the boil. Simmer covered, 25 minutes or until rind is soft. Discard bag.

Step 4: Measure fruit mixture; allow 1 cup (220g) sugar for each cup of mixture. Return mixture and sugar to pan; stir over heat, without boiling, until sugar dissolves. Boil, uncovered, about 40 minutes or until marmalade sets when tested on a cold saucer.

Step 5: Pour into hot sterilised jars; seal immediately.

cut + paste christmas

We don’t have space for a big fat Christmas tree with all the trimmings so this year while Sol, my two year old had his nap I decided River, my five year old son and I were going to make our tree. 

River looked bewildered when I rolled out a sheet of brown paper and explained, “We’re going to make a collage Christmas tree”. “But where is the tinsel and baubles?” he asked, “Why isn’t the tree on a stick?” “You’ll see,” I smiled encouragingly secretly hoping my idea would work.

Step one: Measure how tall you want your tree to be and roll out brown paper to the length – leave enough room for an angel or star!

Step two: decide on your colour theme and cut or tear images in that colour from magazines. We also used coloured paper squares in two different shades of green.

Step three: draw a pencil outline of your tree and star or angel.

Step four: you can either lay out your images and then start sticking or start sticking and see where it goes.

Step five: fill in any small gaps or curious shaped gaps with pastel colour or paint.

Step six: hang your tree.

Step seven: using sticky tape attach any decorations you wish. We have hearts sewn by our late great friend Sandra, a knitted Christmas tree from our clever crafty friend Rachel in London (picture at top) and yes a few baubles too.

Ta da! 

Simple, fun and if I say so beautiful.  

I breathed a sigh of relief when River announced “Mum you have the best ideas ever.” Success!