Advent Post #19: I bet you didn't know.... Christmas Quiz

I love fun (and often useless!) facts and this week have been finding out lots of little Christmassy snippets of information and compiled into a Christmas Quiz. Feel free to print and share around the table at Christmas - the answers are below, but no cheating!

1. What was the first song sung in space?
2. What are the chances of a white Christmas in England or Wales?
3. Was Rudolph a male or female reindeer?
4. In which year was the Queen's speech first televised?
5. Who invented the Christmas cracker?
6. Where and in what year was the first Christmas stamp released?
7. How many reindeer pull Santa's sleigh?
8. Their names....?
9. On which instrument was Silent Night first played?
10. Who wrote the poem 'Twas The Night Before Christmas'?
11. How many gifts (in total) are mentioned in the song 'The Twelve Days of Christmas'?
12. In Germany, what is Twelfth Night known as?
13. In which year was the first Christmas card created?
14. By whom?
15. On which day of the week will Christmas Day be in 2014?
16. Which song made the Christmas number one spot twice?
17. And in which years?
18. Where does the tree in London's Trafalgar Square come from each year?
19. In which American state would you find the town of Santa Claus?
20. In which year were electric Christmas lights first used?

Answers

1. Jingle Bells
2. 1 in 10
3. Female - male reindeer lose their antlers in winter
4. 1957
5. Thomas Smith
6. Canada in 1898
7. 9
8. Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen, Rudolph
9. The guitar
10. Clement Clarke Moore
11. 364
12. Three Kings' Day
13. 1843
14. J.C. Horsley
15. Thursday
16. Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody
17. 1975 & 1991
18. Norway
19. Indiana
20. 1854

Highlight the space above to reveal the answers! How did you do?

 

 

Advent Post #18: Angel, Fairy, Star... what's on your tree?

The 'fairy' at the top of the Christmas tree was originally a figure of the baby Jesus. In the late 17th century, this became a shining angel.

In Victorian Britain, little girls would take the angel down after Christmas and dress him in doll's clothes. Eventually, the angel turned into a thoroughly female fairy., complete with a wand. The transformation was boosted by the emergence of pantomimes which became popular in the Victorian era and naturally included a good fairy in the cast (... oh yes they did!).

Cherubs were hung on trees to represent the angels who heralded the birth of Christ. The star, which forms one of the most important ornaments, indicates the guiding star which led the Shepherds and the Magi to the new born in the stable.

In recent years, stars have knocked angels off the top of the nation's trees - demand has reportedly fallen so much that some larger retailers have dropped angels altogether! A decade ago, angels were outselling stars but now stars outsell angels tenfold!

What do you have on top of your tree?

 Text from a local Parish Magazine, December 2013.

Advent Post #13: Christmas Card Craft!

Am I the only one who saves the Christmas cards each to make 'something' with? Then 10 months later find them and wonder what on earth I am going to do with them (other than let the kids make their own gift tags!). Well, here's a lovely craft activity that children would be able to manage but will need a bit of guidance from an adult.

Here's a link to the full instructions, but our own overview is shown below!

• Cut 20 circles from any scrap card or thick cartridge paper. The circles must all be the same size; we used a mug to draw around or you can download the template from the link above.

• On the back (plain) side of each circle, lightly draw a triangle that touches the perimeter of the circle at each corner. Cut a small notch into the circle at each corner of the triangle.

• With a ruler and blunt knife, score along the points between the corner of each notch. With the card now picture-side facing up, bend each semi-circle edge upwards along each fold.

 

• Now staple the circles together to form a 3D bauble shape. For us, this was a moment of trial and error and if I'm honest, we did undo a couple a re-do them! The easiest way to do this is to firstly staple 5 circles together in a flower shape and then add to these visualising a larger 3D bauble! You know that you have 20 circles, so just carry on until they all fit together properly! (This may be of NO help to some of you, but that's how we worked it out ourselves!).

 

• Then, voila! You have it; a home made large bauble to hang on your tree (if it's big enough to hold larger then life baubles!) or to hang in your window - which is where ours are living at the moment!

Advent Post #12: A Special Secret Santa! Festive Shortbread Biscuits Recipe

When planning family weekends, making a Secret Santa present for Jamie Cullum's dad was definitely not on the list! Secret Santa 'events' are planned and carried out in many, many offices and workplaces nowadays. It takes the pressure off buying a present for everyone and often turns into a bit of fun with jokey and slightly risky gifts that you wouldn't be brave enough to give with your name attached to them!

 

To cut a long story short, my sister was the lucky recipient of the little slip of paper with said jazz singer's dad's name on it - he's chairman of the company that she works for! To add to the melee and confusion, the gift had to be homemade!

 

So... like any talented, crafty, cooking family - we opted for homemade biscuits! With the help of my kids(!), here we have the masterpiece itself!

 

Festive biscuits - just biscuit!

Mixing it up a little with the addition of sweetie glass!

 

The finished item - Bath Abbey at it's finest! (Or baffabbi as it was fondly known throughout the making process!)

 

I'm sure he'll be as proud as punch with the efforts made - well I hope so! :)

 

Here's the recipe for anyone who wants to give it a try!

 

Ingredients

300g plain flour

175g butter, cubed

1 level tsp ground ginger

1 level tsp ground cinnamon

100g golden syrup

24 clear coloured fruit sweets

 

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4. Sieve flour, cinnamon and ginger together. Rub in the butter until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs.
2. Add the golden syrup and mix with a knife until lumpy. Then, use your hands to mix the mixture to form a dough.
3. Wrap the dough in cling film and chill for 30 mins.
4. While the dough is chilling, break the sweets into very small  pieces - a pestle and mortar is ideal.
5. On a lightly floured work surface, roll the dough out to the thickness of a pound coin.
6. Cut into shapes as needed. Gather left over dough and roll out again.
7. Place on a baking tray. Cut out any 'windows' from the shapes and sprinkle a generous amount of crushed sweets into each 'window'.
8. Bake for 15 mins - the sweets should have melted and the biscuits should be lightly browned. Leave too cool on the tray for a minimum of 10 mins then remove with a fish slice. Cool completely on a wire rack.
9. Enjoy!

Adapted from a recipe in Morrisons instore magazine.

 

Advent Post #11: An afternoon with Santa!

Living in a little corner of Wales is great, but when your family seems scattered around the UK (and further afield!) it's hard to get everyone in the same place at the same time! So, each December after a few weeks logistically planning a weekend in Manchester, we all *try* and meet up and have a festive weekend together as on the 'real' Christmas Day, it's impossible for us all to be together due to work and extended family commitments!

 

So....  here are some snaps of our first Christmas of the year!

 

We were even lucky enough to take a ride in Santa's horse and carriage - definitely a first for us! The elves were raising money for the Manchester Children's Hospital; a very deserving good cause!

 

Santa gave my children some homework to do for next time he sees them (ad they happily accepted it!) We had to learn the names of all of his reindeer! We managed a few whilst still in the grotto but had to think long and hard in the car later on - but we managed it (without the use of Mr. Google!).

 

So here we have them! Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen and of course Rudolph!

 

My daughter has them written down now so that she can send the list off to Santa - along with some homework of his own! Learn the song 'We Wish You A Merry Christmas' in Welsh! :) Good luck with that one Santa!

 

Have you celebrated an early 'Christmas' yet this year?!

Advent Post #9: Christmas Recipe - Festive Chocolate Slices

These are perfect to make on a quiet morning and keep to share with unexpected visitor who may drop in on you on a festive visit! They will keep for a week in airtight container - if they last that long that is!

Festive Chocolate Slices - makes 25 small slices, takes 35 minutes to make plus 2 hours to chill

Ingredients
200g milk chocolate (or dark if you prefer)
200g unsalted butter
5 tbsp golden syrup
1 tbsp cocoa powder
20 digestive or rich tea biscuits, broken into pieces
About 100g glace cherries, 60g dried mango and 75g dried cranberries (or a similar weight of a mix of dried fruit and/or nuts)
100g dark chocolate, to drizzle

Method

1. Grease and line a square tin (about 23cm) with greaseproof paper. Break the chocolate into a pan, add the butter, syrup and cocoa and heat gently until the chocolate and butter have melted. Remove from the heat.
2. Crush the biscuits into small pieces with your hands or a rolling pin. Add to the chocolate mix and stir together. Spoon into the tin.
3. Sprinkle the fruits/nuts over the top while the mixture is still sticky.
4. Chill for 2 hours or until set. Melt the dark chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering water. Drizzle over the top and cut into 25 squares.

Source: Co-operative instore magazine.

Advent Post #8: Christmas Craft - O Christmas Tree!

You can spend a fortune at this time of year on the little extras which are sold to you promising to bring that 'Christmas Magic' into your home. But for me, my most treasured Christmas decorations and ornaments are the ones made by my kids! And I'm sure that's the same for many of you.

Many items are made at school and brought home on the last day of term, proudly passed over to Mum or Dad at the school gate (quite often, there's more than you can carry and it will probably be raining!). Don't forget the carrier bag!

To help with ideas to make some lovely decorations at home, have a look at the links below. There's plenty of ideas to fill a quiet Sunday afternoon while you get on with some Christmas present wrapping!

Printable Christmas tree craft

Christmas tree hanging decoration

Handprint Christmas Tree

Scrap ribbon Christmas tree

Toddler crafts - pom pom Christmas tree

You can also pick up 'colour your own decorations' kits from various shops - or even design your own if you're handy with programs such as Paint!

Happy crafting!

Advent Post #6: Christmas Gifts - Giving & Receiving ... With a Smile!

Anyone have an all-weather camper on their Christmas list? Why not check out Camping Insider's great gift guide! There's gifts from under £10 to as much as you want to spend. From practical items to things to bring fun to your camping trips next year.

Camping Insider is a great source of outdoor offers, freebies, reviews and lots more cool stuff. Click this link to sign up to receive their newsletter direct to your inbox every month for free!

While you're here reading, have a giggle at this infographic! Camping Insider asked nearly 500 people what their worst Christmas gift was that they had received - and this was the result! I must think myself lucky that I've not been on the receiving end of most of these presents! Or given them for that matter!

Giggle away....

This blog post is an advertorial.

Advent Post #1: Christmas Craft - Santa Hat Ornament

Santa Hat Ornament

Decorate a red party hat or make your own smaller version to create this jolly ornament.

What you'll need:
Red party hat or red craft paper, glue, tan craft paper, scissors, black and red markers, white pom-poms, yellow paper, ribbon

Make it:

1. Remove string from party hat or form red craft paper into a cone and glue to secure.

2. Cut a 2" to 4" circle (depending on size of cone) from tan paper; draw eyes and cheeks on circle. Cut 2 ear shapes and glue to back of circle. Glue to middle of cone.

3. Glue white pom-poms at the top point of the cone, around the cone above the face, and as Santa's beard.

4. Colour a black band around the bottom as the belt. Cut a small rectangular shape from yellow paper and glue to the centre of the belt as a buckle.

5. Glue ribbon hanger to top of hat.

Source: http://www.parents.com/holiday/?sssdmh=dm17.696093&day=76&esrc=nwprnts100days13_a_day76_113013#page=11

Moxie Girlz™ are rockin’ out this season!

The Moxie Girlz™ are really rockin’ this season with several new magical ranges added to the popular brand.

Moxie Girlz™ really love music and this season they have started their own band in the fabulous new range: Moxie Girlz™ Rockin Band. Each doll comes with its very own instrument, which girls can actually play themselves. Avery comes with a guitar, Sophina has a drum set and Lexa comes with a keyboard. Each instrument also plays the Moxie Girlz™ theme music instrumental.

 

Moxie Girlz™ Rockin Band dolls are priced at around £29.99 and suitable for ages three years plus.

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The amazing new Moxie Girlz™ Magic Swim Dolphin dolls love having fun in the water, and this season they’re playing with the dolphins! Each doll is dressed in a colourful bathing suit and comes with a dolphin that really swims when placed in water. Girls will watch in amazement as the cute dolphin glides the doll through the water on the included fun board.

There are two cool characters to collect in the range and are priced at around £24.99 and are suitable for ages three plus.

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The Moxie Girlz™ are having fun by the sea pretending they are real mermaids in the magical range, Moxie Girlz™ Magic Swim Mermaid. Ready for an underwater adventure, with their glittery tops and shimmering mermaid tails, the dolls magically come to life and swim by themselves when placed in water. Once you take the doll out of the water it will automatically stop swimming. The dolls have posable bodies and even feature a magic colour changing tail when placed in warm water. Moxie Girlz™ Magic Swim Mermaid dolls are suitable for ages three years plus.

 

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The Moxie Girlz™ aims to encourage girls to reach for their dreams and embrace their individuality through self-expression, friendships and fashion.  Every girl has the strength to do something amazing. Anything is possible as long as you stay true to yourself and never give up on your dreams.

 

This blog post is an advertorial.