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Christmas Decorating Ideas - Edible Ornaments

by: Roy Thomsitt

Although it is now more decades away than I care to admit too often, there were four things I loved most about my childhood Christmases in England:

1. the excitement of the Christmas gifts being put under the Christmas tree, and then the family opening of the gifts on Christmas morning;

2. the food; all the special sweets being put out Christmas Eve; Christmas Lunch with the turkey, lots of roast potatoes, brandy butter, and Christmas pudding being set alight at the table;

3. all the Christmas ornaments and decorations going up before Christmas, and most especially putting up and decorating the Christmas tree; and,

4. the games we would play.

Food, though, did play a major part, and still does in English homes today. So, really, it is no surprise that food even became part of the Christmas ornament repertoire. Food, in one form or another, became part of the decoration of Christmas time.

From my memory, edible Christmas ornaments were usually in the form of chocolate with a silver or gold coloured wrapping that sparkled on the tree. Chocolate coins were popular, sometimes more than one in a brightly coloured string bag dangling temptingly from the Christmas tree.

I must admit, any edible ornament on the tree became a prime target, as I anxiously awaited the all clear from my parents to start devouring whatever I wanted.

Later, though, a greater variety of edible Christmas ornaments emerged, such as candy canes; then, as the popularity of edible ornaments increased at Christmas, people started to use their imagination to make their own, or the local baker would make more elaborate ornaments for sale.

Cookies, or at least cookie dough, make a good base for ornaments, as they are easy to cut into shape. You can use your imagination on adding the colour, such as with Smarties or other colourful sweets. Adding a frosting effect is not too difficult either.

If you do make dough based ornaments to hang on the Christmas tree, remember you will need to make a hole in the cookie before it cools; that's the way the cookie doesn't crumble. Then when they do cool, you can thread a decorative ribbon to hang them on the Christmas tree.

The Christmas tea table is often adorned by the prime edible ornament, the Christmas cake. The prettier it is, the better it is for decoration once lunch is out of the way. Cake decoration is only limited by your imagination. However, you can think of other things that are less common to adorn the table as an edible ornament. If you are skilful, you can create simple models with ginger bread, moving up a level from the old gingerbread man.

You will find lots of ideas online and in the stores, but if you can come up with something original, that is even better. Just let your imagination go and see what you come up with. At least, if it does not look too good, you can just eat it before anyone comments!

About the author:
Roy Thomsitt is the owner and author of

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Music for the Christmas Holidays
by: Tony Wiseman

In our multi-cultural societies today the run up to Christmas is experienced in many different ways. The commercial version pioneered by Coca Cola's magazine advertisements which established the red suited Santa Claus image, washes over us all through the TV advertisements and the decorations in the High Streets and shopping Malls. They built on and reinforced the Victorian version of Christmas celebrations which was dramatised by Charles Dickens in 'A Christmas Carol' which established many of the associated food and garland rituals in the public imagination - and helped Coca Cola promote their winter beverage sales. Much of this is accompanied by 'seasonal' music in the form of carols and hymns - often coral arrangements but sometimes instrumental - especially brass bands and the dreaded sentimental Christmas pop songs.

Music is often a subtle way of getting under the radar and evoking emotional responses from our subconscious. The commercial focus on Christmas seeks to convert these feelings into purchases - sometimes in crude direct appeals to consume but often in a more indirect atmospheric ways. While the committed Christians concentrate on re-telling the Christmas story through as many media as possible, including music - using the Advent season to recharge their spiritual batteries and encourage others to join them. Their tunes and some times even the words are often hijacked by those who wish to evoke a warm hearted relaxed atmosphere for the sale of their particular goods.

Much of this activity assumes a common Christian heritage and must strike those who do not share that background very oddly, not to mention the truly seasonal issues for those in the Southern Hemisphere who celebrate Christmas in mid summer rather than the deep mid winter. There is also the rival celebration of New Year which is a predominantly secular affair with a very limited musical repertoire - mostly of Scottish origin for some reason and this eclipses Christmas in many countries. Christians adopted the pagan Winter Solstice celebrations as part of their missionary progress but those ties were loosened by the reformation and the French, American and Russian Revolutions amongst others.

The seasonal hit at Download2MP3.com is Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite with its Sugar Plum Fairy which fits neatly into the Victorian Christmas story telling context. While Debussy's Children's Corner with it's 'The Snow is Dancing' (Northern Hemisphere Christmas/Mid Winter associations) is another favourite and forms the backbone of our Children's Classics Collection which includes several of our shorter and lower priced recordings. Other beneficaiaries include our instrumental versions of the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah and Gounod's Ave Maria

Recordings like these are an ideal way to personalize those iPod or MP3 player gifts for a few dollars more - perhaps introducing children to the classics in an accessible, amusing and memorable way.

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