Having a wreath hanging on your door or veranda is a common tradition in many Australian homes. Have you thought of hanging a homemade wreath?

Here is how my daughter made one a few years ago (she was about 6 at the time and had help) …

1.  bend a metal coathanger into a circle
2. cut the hook part of the coathanger off (unless you prefer to use it for hanging) and make sure sharp edges are hidden/filed
3. cut plastic shopping bags into long strips – the more strips you use, the better the final result but 3 bags would be the minimum
4. tie the strips onto the circle (double the strip and pull the lengths through the loop is the easiest way)
5. spray paint the wreath
6. once dry, tie on some Christmas baubles (or plastic holly , etc)
7. use some pretty ribbon to create a large bow at the top, with enough left over to use as a tie for the wreath
8. hang it on your door – or give to someone else for their door

And Squiggle Mum has instructions for three lovely wreaths you and/or your young children can make.

Do you have another way to make a wreath you could share with us?

Do you hang a Christmas wreath on your front door? Or somewhere else?

 A wreath is both pretty and cheerful, and I find them quite welcoming as well. There is such a variety of wreaths that see as you view homes – from the elaborate ones in shopping centres, to stylish ones, green traditional ones and colourful ones.

What type do you prefer?

If you are interested in hanging a wreath but don’t have one, why not make one yourself? Or get the kids to make one…

Following on from Santa’s Elf ‘s question this morning, when do you wrap presents, I want to know what people use to wrap gifts…

For many years, we’ve collected wrappings each year and recycled them the following year where possible (kids tend to rip them apart so not everything is reusable!) It’s interesting that a number of people used to give us funny looks about collecting and keeping the paper, but with more ‘green’ sentiment around now, people seem to accept it.

Reusing the paper does save us money, but our real incentive is to save some trees and reduce pollution in the printing and transporting of wrapping paper.

A few times we’ve also used alternatives to paper for wrapping – like when giving some picinic items, we wrapepd them in a light tablecloth and when we use a tea-towell to wrap kitchen tea of house warming gifts.

And young children bring home a wealth of wrapping paper when they do paintings at kinder and childcare! We enver used their favourite artworks, but they were very proud to see presents wrapped in their paper so it was win win all round!

Does being green come into your Christmas wrapping or do you like the pretty, sparkly pile of presents?

I’ve heard many people say they’re up late on Christmas Eve wrapping loads of presents, so I’m curious – when do you wrap your presents?

Do you make an event of it – getting the family together, having some nibbles and drinks and music as you work – or is it just something that gets done?

hi i am emily.
i love Christmas because i get to see my family and friends. also i get to do lots of cooking and partying and eating and talking and laughing.

go Christmas!!!!

talk soon…

Every year since my business began, we have been doing an ornament exchange with my clients. Any member who wants to be involved signs up in November and is sent their recipient. I have a special ornament from my clients for every year Business Mums has been running.

I received my latest ornament today – a gorgeous hand made reindeer. It is now hanging in pride of place on my Christmas tree.

As a Foster Carer, Christmas has never been the same two years running. Luckily that’s just the way I like it! We have many lovely, touching memories of course but last Christamas really showed us that money spent and beatiful wrapping can be meaningless. Let me explain:

Christmas 2007 I had 3 children living with me, one of whom was a 5 year old with developmental delays, who had no memories nor understanding of Christmas. Her birth family life had been one of poverty and trauma, and she had no expectations as she had no reason to believe the magic of Christmas existed!

I had saved, bought and wrapped 6 gifts each for the 3 children and piled them beneath the decorated tree on Christmas Eve. The children had left cookies and lemonade out for Santa and carrots for the reindeer and I sprinkled fake, plastic snow across the carpet from the front door (no chimney!) to the tree before going to bed.

Christmas morning at 5:30 my other 2 children were up, waking me and keen to unwrap, having carefully counted and inspected their labelled gifts. Keen to begin they roused the little girl and told her to run and see what Santa had brought. She came slowly out of her room, yawning and not in any hurry as she had no anticipation of goodies. Then she stopped and began to laugh and jump up and down with happiness. “Mama, Mama” she yelled “Oh look it, look it!”.  Had she seen her mountain of gifts at last? No, her delight was in the $2.50 packet of plastic snow that Santa had left behind.

That little girl sat and threw ‘snow’ over herself for almost an hour laughing and calling to us to see the miracle that had taken place. Yes, she did come later and opened her gifts, but she was drawn back to play in the ‘snow’ throughout the rest of the day.

Today, I went to an afternoon tea at my children’s school – it was to thank parents and others who do things to support the school, such as go on excursions and help with reading programs. During the afternoon, various classes came in and sang Christmas songs for us.

it was lovely to hear them sing, and watch the actions they had obviously practiced – they were so cute! The joy on their faces to be doing something for us, as well as the fun of the songs, was great, too.

The grade 1 classes sang “All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth”- and at least a third of them actually had front teeth missing so the song was a good choice

That’s Christmas should be – people sharing good times, children laughing and having fun, and people happily doing something special for others. May you and your children have a happy Christmas!

If you need to take a dish to a Christmas function, but know you won’t have time to cook anything at the time, why not cook it sooner and freeze it? Then just pull it out of the freezer in time for the event – a great back up for unexpected visitors over the holiday season, too. This is an easy to make lasagne that freezes nicely…

2kg mince meat plus 2 large jars of prepared sauce and 1 large tin tomato puree*
4kg cheese – a combination of two works well, especially if one is mozzarella for the stringy effect!
2kg penne, ziti or other tube pasta

make a layer of meat sauce

cover with pasta

cover with cheese

cover with sauce

repeat until the pan is full and/or you run out of ingredients, but make sure cheese is the top layer. Wrap tightly and freeze. Bake at 180 C for about 30 minutes, plus 5 minutes uncovered – longer if cooking from frozen.

* If you have time, add chopped vegies into the sauce for more flavour and to make it a complete meal when serving it.

Christmas is celebrated differently between families; each family having different rituals and traditions that are passed down over the years.

Some people open presents on Christmas Eve, some on Christmas Day and others after Christmas.

And others dance around their tree and sing songs as part of their celebrations.

My family doesn’t even have a tree at Christmas, we decorate the fireplace and chimney!

Though it is for the same thing, each family celebrates this day (well month really) in slightly different ways.

I’m curious as to what other people do – are we the only ones without a tree?

Writing letters to Santa is one of the main entertainments for children at Christmas. With over 120,000 letters sent to Santa last year through the Australian post it’s now time to start thinking what to write in this years letter to Santa.

Sometimes kids write amazing things in their Santa letters. Instead of asking for a toy or a play thing they sometimes ask for things from Santa that are more heart felt and meaningful. And sometimes they write something very funny and amusing.

Do you remember anything you asked Santa for in a letter? What about anything amusing or special your children asked Santa for?

Has anybody in your family ever kept copies of Santa letters as a memento?

We have a very diverse Community here in Australia, and I thought it would be nice to have a blog on different holidays that are celebrated around the world at about the same time as Christmas.

Christmas – December 25th
Christmas is a Christian holiday that celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ. Though in most places the celebration is not considered to be the actual date of Christ, in most places around the world Christmas Day is celebrated on December 25. Christmas Eve is the preceding day, December 24. In Germany and some other countries, the main Christmas celebrations commence on the evening of the 24th. During the Christmas season, people traditionally exchange gifts and decorate their homes with holly, mistletoe, and Christmas trees. The word Christmas comes from Cristes maesse, an early English phrase that means Mass of Christ.

Hanukkah – starts December 21st
Hanukkah means “dedication” or “consecration”, and is also called “The festival of Lights”, is a Jewish festivity that lasts eight days starting on the 25th day of Kislev which normally occurs late November or early December.

Eid-al-Adha – Muslim Holiday – December 19th
Eid-al-Adha or “The festival of sacrifice” is a three day feast that follows the Pilgrimage to Mecca. It is a religious festival conducted by Druze and Muslims across the globe and is a commemoration of God’s forgiveness of Ibrahim (Abraham) from his vow to sacrifice his own son as was commanded by Allah.

Kwanzaa – December 26th
Kwanzaa (Quansa) is a holiday celebrated by many African-Americans. It is a week long festival that runs from December 26th through to January 1st.

It was started in 1966 by Doctor Maulana Karenga. Karenga established Kwanzaa as a means to help the African Americans reconnect with their African cultural and historical heritage by uniting in meditation and study of “African traditions” and “common humanist principles.” There are 7 principles of Kwanzaa, and each day represents a different one of the principles. First principle is Unity, followed by self determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity, and lastly is faith.

Bodhi Day – Usually December 8th
Bodhi Day is the Buddhist holiday that commemorates the day that the historical Buddha,Siddhartha Gautama, experienced enlightenment, also known as Bodhi.

The prince, Siddhartha Gautama, left his home, family and all his possessions behind at the age of twenty-nine to go look for the meaning of life. After six years, and still not finding what he was looking for, he sat down under a pipal tree and vowed not to arise until he understood his purpose in life. He sat through the week, day and night, and on the eighth morning came to the realization which became the founding principles of what the world now calls Buddhism.