12th night - taking down the Christmas decs

I have been quite active on Instagram over the Twixtmas period, I found it a good outlet to post a few pics and not have to provide any context other than a few #hashtags.  I was a bit surprised by the number of people posting pics of their Christmas Decs getting put away, some even before the 31st of December.  I am a traditionalist and to me the decs stay up until the 5th of December and only then do we take them down.  I am not saying they all survive to the end, we have already had a few drop off the Christmas tree and the tree itself has some distinct bald patches!  For various reasons it has been a few years since we had a real tree and I had forgotten just how much they drop the needles combined with we haven't taken the correct care of it. The accompanying photos were taken when it freshly decorated, so no bald patches should be visible!

An ex- colleague always had a family party on 12th night to mark the end of the Christmas period and everyone brought all the odds and ends of leftover  food and booze to use them up. There seem to be such a hurry of social arrangements in the run up to Christmas so it makes a nice opportunity to catch up with everyone. Although I believe there was one uncle who needed to be steered firmly towards the door at the end of the night as he had something of a reputation for outstaying his welcome!

I am quite please with my lack of Christmas leftovers, 1/2 a packet of ginger spiced biscuits and an unopened box of biscuits for cheese, this was not due to some carefully thought out plan as such.  My daughter hosted us for Christmas dinner, however, I ended up buying the food and cooking it on her new swanky range cooker (the rest of the room was like a building site and the only running water was in the utility room next door).  She had booked an online shopping slot and shoved a few items in the basket to "save the slot", we had gone through together and worked out what we needed, unfortunately, when she went in to update the basket the next day the order had already been sent to the despatchers and couldn't be replaced so had to be cancelled. It was Mum and Dad to the rescue and we battled our way round the supermarket, I focused just on what we needed for Lunch, snacks for the evening and a good old full english for brekkie on Boxing day with enough turkey left over for sarnies it would be criminal to waste the cranberry sauce.

I hope you had the Christmas that you wanted and said goodbye to 2016 taking the good stuff with you and leaving the bad stuff behind.

I would love to hear if you have already packed Christmas away or are you waiting to take it all down on the 5th Jan,

All stars Christmas tree - 50 makes for Christmas 13/50

This is called the all star Christmas tree because it is made using all the sizes in my star cookie cutters set.

All Star Christmas Tree

I picked up these star shaped cutters from Wilko for less than a pound, I doesn't look like  they are available on line so could be in store only.   I was drawn to them by the colour, my daughter teases me about my love of the colour blue.

Blue star shaped cutters

This is a lovely simple make that you could easily do with children, it used up the final bit of the Das modelling clay I have been working my way through since last year .  Just cut out one star in each of the sizes, put a hole in the middle with a drinking straw and leave for a couple of days to dry out.

Cut out one of each size

Once dried they are ready to be threaded on a string or ribbon, I put a bead in between each star and I cut up an old necklace for this.  The bead sizes are graduated so  I thought this would work with the different sized stars.  It also fits with my philosophy of using up things I already have and I can not tell you the last time this necklace was worn,

Stars and beads ready to be threaded

I used some red and white striped string as I thought it added to the festive flavour.  If I had some red paint I think I might have been tempted to paint the beads but I am quite happy with them in their natural colour.

Using red and white stripped string to hang from the tree

I think they will be a great addition to my Christmas goodies and will be great for filling one of those annoying gaps you always seem to get on real Christmas trees.

All Star Christmas Tree

That completes lucky 13 so just another 37 makes to go to complete my 50 makes for Christmas.



I am really enjoying doing these projects over a period of time as I don't feel like I am rushing through to start the next thing.  Is anyone else working on Christmas projects or is it just me and Santa's Elves?