My little girl was nearly two for the first Christmas she really appreciated. I was a single dad and really wanted her to enjoy the day.

She woke up at her usual time (about 8 or 8.30 I think) and I went in to see her. She was happily standing in her cot waiting for me when I walked in with a borrowed video camera filming her.

I put the camera down to open her cot and slide the armchair to be next to the cot – Santa had left her stocking on the chair rather than in her cot (i guess he was as safety conscious as me!)

She babbled away to me like any other day while I filmed her and tried to direct her attention to the chair. It seemed to take forever before she finally realised there was something interesting on the chair…

She looked up as if to see if she was allowed to touch the mysterious things that had appeared over night. I smiled and she was into it!

We then went through her stocking together and had a lovely morning with her stocking until her Grandparents arrived with more presents.

When she was very young, my daughter decided we were making “5 cent biscuits” for Santa. I have no idea where she got the name from or what it meant to her, but the name has stuck and we leave out 5 cent biscuits for Santa every year.

Everyone else (and us the rest of the year!) call them shortbread so I thought I’d share our recipe with you – it’s pretty simple and my kids have helped make them from an early age. Santa has started putting fun cutters in their stockings, too, so I guess he likes them making biscuits for him on Christmas Eve!

5 cent biscuits (shortbread) recipe

You need:

250g butter (or margarine)

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

1/3 cup of castor sugar

2 cups plain flour

4 Tablespoons rice flour

You do:

Pre-heat oven to 180 Celsius

Grease an oven tray

Cream the butter, sugar and vanilla (that means beat them together until they are pale yellow and fluffy)

add flour and mix

knead the dough well on a lightly floured bench/board

shape shortbread*

Prick shortbread surface with a fork

bake at 160 Celsius (yep, lower than the pre-heat temp) for 15 – 20 minutes

remove from oven when starting to colour

cool

sprinkle with icing sugar, dip in chocolate or leave plain.

* you can roll out the dough and make 4 saucer-sized circles, cut into 8 pieces per circle OR you can let the kids use shaped cutters to make fun 5 cent biscuits. Individual biscuits cook a little faster than the circles.

An article in The Australian newspaper today reported that despite messages to Santa being available via email, sms, etc, children still prefer to send Santa an old fashioned snailmail letter like we all remember doing.

Apparently, 6 million letters were sent to Santa in 2006 (glad the postal workers have been counting as Santa and th elves were too busy reading to count!) and that is likely to be less than this year’s total.

The Universal Postal Union represents 191 countries and has over 5 million people helping deliver letters and cards to and from Santa each year!

The Christmas story talks about three wise men following a star for days to get to the stable.

Now, had there been three wise WOMEN, they would have stopped to get directions, arrived on time to help tidy the stable and deliver the baby, bought along some cold meats and salad, and brought gifts such as nappies, face washers and sheets!

As a teacher, I often get a number of gifts from students. Everyone of those gifts is appreciated for the thought and the message it conveys, but I have to say that not all of them are wanted.

I mean, little soaps are cute but not so practical in a house with 3 boys and I’m actually allergic to chocolate (yes I know it is shocking) And I’ve noticed that female teachers never get given wine! (I wonder if female coaches, leaders, etc find the same thing???)

So I was VERY pleased today to get a gift from my class – not each child, but a class gift organised by a parent or two. They gave me a voucher for a massage and a bottle of moisturiser – a perfect way to relax at the end of the year and very thoughtful.

It’s probably too late for this year, but if you are thinking of a gift for a teacher/leader/coach consider getting something as a group – the recipient is likely to appreciate it and it may even be cheaper than buying something yourself.

And for anyone who does want to organise a group gift, I came across a site that may be useful – Chip In manages the payments from everyone in the group.

I’m not 100% sure of the accuracy of this but it certainly sounds plausible. Perhaps Santa could confirm this?

According to the Alaskan Dept. of Fish and Game, while both male and female reindeer grow antlers in the summer each year, the male antlers drop their antlers at the beginning of winter, usually late November to mid-December. Female reindeer retain their antlers until after they give birth in the spring.

Therefore, according to EVERY historical rendition depicting Santa’s reindeer, EVERY single one of them from Rudolph to Blitzen, had to be a girl.

We should have known… only women would be able to drag a (ahem – sorry Santa) rather largish man in a red velvet suit all around the world in one night and not get lost!

Today is my son’s 4th birthday.

We went to the shopping centre to get some last minute things for his party, and we thought we’d stop in on Santa too. When we first arrived, Santa was having lunch, so we had a chat to his helper who takes the photos. DS happily told him it was his birthday today and showed him one of the trains he’d got as a present. We decided to come back after shopping.

When we returned, Santa was there and wished DS a very Happy Birthday, even giving him a birthday present of a bouncy ball with a Santa face in it. As usual this year, he informed Santa that he wants a turntable for Christmas, and that’s it! DS was delighted with this visit to Santa and Santa remembering his birthday too and chatted about Santa the whole way home.

DS was also pleased to tell his big brother about it – cos big brother’s birthday is in January & there’s no Santas in the shopping centres to visit then!

Kulkuls are an Indian biscuit that is made in most (all?) regions of India for Christmas. They’re easy to make and the kids will have fun BUT make sure an adult does the frying and heating the syrup.

We made some yesterday – it was great timing as our Santa letters arrived afterwards so we nibbled on yummy Indian Kulkuls while reading Australian themed Santa letters! Some port for parents, milk for kids, and it made a really nice family evening:)

So, onto the Kulkul recipe…

You need: 1 kilo of flour, 1 teaspoons of baking powder, 1 teaspoon ground cardamon, 2 Tablespoons ghee, 2 cups of coconut milk, 8 Tablespoons sugar (very fine so use castor sugar or grind some other sugar yourself) and 4 eggs.

Beat the eggs, then mix in with the baking powder and flour. Add in the sugar, cardamon and coconut milk.

Knead the dough then cover with a damp cloth for about 30 minutes.

Separate the dough into small portions and roll into balls (remember playing with play dough as a kid?) Flatten the balls with the back of a fork, leaving lines in it, then curl up the edges a bit before deep-frying in small batches.

Drain on paper towel or newspaper.

Heat 2 cups of sugar to 6-8 Tablespoons of water until sugar is dissolved. Place kulkuls in the syrup to absorb the syrup, then put aside to let the sugar harden.

Store in airtight containers.

Note – ghee is a form of fat used a lot in Indian cooking. Instead of ghee, you can use shortening or a light margarine.

If you have ordered a Love Santa letter, watch your (well, the child’s!) letterbox over the next couple of days as all letters have now been mailed and we’re in Australia Post’s hands.

Orders can still be placed in our order form, but the sooner you order the sooner the child will get their letter and the less risk of the letter arriving after Santa does!

It is getting close now – one week to Christmas Eve and Santa’s arrival Down Under to help create some more Christmas memories.

As Santa is flying across Australia, our Air Control Towers will be keeping planes and other air traffic out of Santa’s way so there are no nasty surprises for anyone.

Apparently, Santa has a new sleigh with added safety features – you can see pictures ot Santa and diagrams of his sleigh (click on the labels below the diagram for a full explanation) on the Air Services website’s Santa pages.

Due to this being the most popular flight in Australia, Air Services will continue tracking Santa’s progress everyday until Christmas.

It took a bit of time yesterday to read all the stories again and decide on a winner. Actually, it was two winners as we chose one form November and one from December Each winner recevies one personalised letter from Love Santa for an Australian child they love.

So the November winner is Precious Water for the funny and sweet story of his daughter ‘s fear when he was being Santa.

And the December winner is Donna-Marie for her reminiscences about European-style Christmases as a child in Australia.

Congratulations to both of you and we hope the special little children in your life delight you with many smiles

I love giving gifts that really mean something to the other person – it takes more time than buying a box of chocolates or a book voucher, but the look on their face and the knowledge that the present will last (in their memories at least) is well worth it to me.

I remember I once gave a babysitting voucher to my cousin who had a boisterous toddler – the look of joy on her face was priceless, and she treasured that voucher above her other gifts (by treasured I mean she kept it away from her toddler whereas he could look at her other gifts!) It was a simple gift and affordable as I had little money at the time, but meant a lot to her.

Another year I gave another cousin a calligraphy set because I remembered her saying she’d love to learn calligraphy. She had forgotten telling me that so her gift was a surprise but really suited her.

What presents have you given or received that are memorable for more than the price tag?