Another yummy treat we make as inexpensive gifts (put it with the Chrissie caramels in celophane packages – pretty & decadent!) Enjoy!

3 egg whites
3.75 cups white sugar
0.75 cups light corn syrup
150g glace cherries (mix of red & green is ideal for a Christmas look & feel)
2 tsp essence (I love vanilla but my husband prefers peppermint – take your pick!)

Line 2 baking trays with non stick baking paper

Chop up the glace cherries (a very sticky job, but hey!)

Put sugar, corn syrup & water in jug (no lid or cover). Cook in microwave on high for 5 minutes or a bit longer – stirring every minute – til mixture is boiling & sugar has completely dissolved.

Cook for another 5 minutes then check every 30 seconds (take it out of microwave & use a warm sugar thermometer) until syrup reaches 125 C .

Beat egg whites to soft peaks (Did you know this is easier with free range. fresh eggs than horrid cage eggs from shops?)

Slowly pour syrup onto eggs, beating continuously.

Mix in the cherries & essence, and beat until nougat looses shine.

Drop  onto tray by the teaspoonful. Leave to set.

leave your thermometer in warm water to keep  it warm between tests. If you don’t have a thermomoeter (or you manage to break it like I did last Christmas)  drop a little syrup into very cold water as a test – its ready when it forms a firm supple ball.

Add pistachios or slivered almonds for a nutty addition.

I just found this blog and even though it seems like a million years ’til Christmas, I know it will come soon enough and I may forget to come back in time anyway. So here are some places we go every year in Canberra – hope it helps others find Christmas cheer in the ACT!

Gymkhana Rd, Duntroon we see more than once usually as it’s close to home

Slavin Place or Parade in Gordon

Carina St, Ngunnawal

Santa’s sleigh is packed, the reindeer and boomers are rested, Santa has checked his list twice, the elves are checking the load is secure – Santa is almost ready to leave the North Pole and head Down Under!!!!!!!

How about you – are you ready for Santa’s visit? Have you prepared a snack and drink for him, and put out something for the boomers?

Santa is VERY BUSY tonight, after months of preparing, so he really appreciates you leaving a snack near your stockings. And I believe that by making it yourself, you help build up Santa’s magic supply so he can get down (and up) small chimneys and find the right stocking for all his gifts.

If you need ideas for making a snack for Santa, try our recipes , article or look at any letters you have received from Santa. Or share your favourite ideas and recipes with us.

I hope you’ve been good and are excited, because Santa arrives in only a few hours!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy birthday to the song “Do they know it’s Christmas time?”!

It was 25 years ago that a group of musicians, led by Bob Geldof & Midge Ure, got together as Band Aid and sang this song to raise money for people in famine affected Ethiopia.

Unfortunately, there are still many starving people around the world and not everyone enjoys Christmas as we do in Australia (and there are those in Australia struggling, too). But we can choose to let songs like this remind us of the giving spirit of Christmas and do what we can to help others.

Recently, I was asked why we hang wreaths at Christmas time so here is some of the history and tradition behind wreaths…

• wreaths symbolise the celebration and happiness of Christmas
• Advent wreaths for Christians (particularly Catholics) are traditionally made of evergreen branches around four candles and represent everlasting life
• ancient Persians had wreaths as a symbol of importance and success – they usually wore the wreaths on their heads
• wreaths were a symbol of hope for spring when hung in pre-Christian Eastern Europe (especially Germany) – the green showed new life and candles gave light in dark months
• Greeks used laurel wreaths for thir Olympic champions in 776BC or so. Some say one athlete hung his wreath on the wall as a memento and that is where hanging wreaths began
• Romans gave wreaths to their military heroes and leaders
• the circular shape would be linked with wreaths for heads but also represents the cycle of life (no beginning or end)
• Americans in the 19th century used wreaths to honour deceased loved ones at Christmas – initially at the cemetery, the wreaths were brought home and hung

Now many people just hang wreaths because it is a Christmas tradition, or because they have a beautiful wreath they want to display (including wreaths made by chidlren or friends.)

What are your favourite Christmas songs (not carols)? How often do you listen to them (by choice rather than when walking through a shopping centre!)?

Some of the songs I can think of are:

6 White Boomers by Rolf Harris

I’m dreaming of a White Christmas

Do they know it’s Christmas time at all?

I saw Mummy kissing Santa Claus

12 days of Christmas

Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer (so well known I think it is almost counted in amongst the carols, but I don’t think it really fits there)

We usually give a present to our kids’ teachers, leaders, etc. Most other families seem to do this too so it almost feels like we HAVE to give rather than do it because we want to.

This year we’re torn – there’s someone we don’t want to give a gift to but it feels rude and wrong to not give something.

Will the teacher feel insulted to not get anything? That isn’t our intent.

Is it giving the wrong message (to ourselves at least) to give a present we don’t want to give?

We had some delicious Christmas pudding latst night, made by our friend’s Mum. She made it ‘properly’ – soaking the fruit for weeks beforehand (in Port in this case).

This pudding was mostly fruit and was about the moistest and yummiest pudding I’ve ever tasted. If I can get the recipe and am allowed, I will share it here too.

Anybody else had some good pudding yet this year?

Flying around Australia requires letting Air Traffic Controllers and airports knowing where you are going – and that includes Santa’s flight on Christmas Eve!

Of course, Santa is special so Airservices (the people who control Australian air space and airports) gives Santa extra help and clearance 0 and warns other pilots to stay out of the way of the sleigh!

Airservices has just added this year’s flight information for Santa to their website so you can keep trackof what is happening with Santa and how he is meeting safety rules for Australia.

How much do you dress up for Christmas Day? Is it a special occasion you get a new outfit for or choose your best clothes in advance? Maybe you have a casual day with the family and wear whatever you grab from the drawer that morning?

I can’t say I buy something new for Christmas Day, but I certainly do my best to look nice and consider dressing up to be part of the celebration (that is, making it a day out of the ordinary).

All my family dresses nicely, if not in their ‘good clothes’, but a couple of my in laws are much more casual (everyday t-shirts and shorts) which surprised me the first year or so. Having said that, they are neat and clean, and I don’t think they have dressy clothes for other occasions either so it works for them and no one seems to mind.

As a kid, we spent half the day on the beach so we mostly wore our good clothes there and then wore bathers!

Do you find that your entire family dresses to the same ‘code’? Does it matter to anyone on the day?

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?

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?