CREATIVE HOLIDAY IDEAS

The Holiday Season is fast approaching, what are you going to do to make your Holiday Special? Making your Holiday Occasion Festive doesn't have to be hard or expensive. Try some of the following ideas to make your Holiday Special this season!

#1. Place fresh small berries in water in an ice cube tray and freeze. (also works well for fresh mint sprigs). After they are frozen in your ice, place them in a punch bowl or festive drinking glass.

#2. Don't have special festive drinking glasses? Buy some clear drinking glasses and buy a roll of red, green and gold metallic plaid ribbon that is 1/2" wide. Cut off 15-18" lengths and tie festive bows around the center diameter of each drinking glass.

#3. Creative Place Card Holders for your Christmas Holiday Table: Take a nature walk and collect small & medium sized pine cones with semi-flat bottoms. Take a white or silver paint pen and paint just the outer tips. Print out your guest names in a Festive Font from your computer onto white, red or green cardstock and cut to size and place in between the pine cone ends.

#4. For a Festive Holiday Table Cloth, try using a Holiday Themed Quilt! This gives a nice Christmas country theme to your dinning table. Very Cozy!

#5. To make a festive holiday veggie platter, cut round circles from a cucumber about a 1/4" thick. Then use a corer and cut out a 1/4" diameter circle from the center of each cucumber slice and place in a fresh cranberry or olive. When using fresh broccoli in your vegetable platters, sprinkle in round small cherry tomatoes for the green & red holiday color. I also use red & green peppers cut into strips as garnishes on my holiday veggie stick platters.

#6. Save your Holiday Greeting Cards from each year! Each fall cut out motifs from the cards and punch a 1/8" hold near the top or one of the upper corners. Thread some satin ribbon thru the holds & use as package gift ties!

#7. Using your recycled holiday cards, cut out small motifs and using a festive colored marker, right down the name of each dinner guest on the reverse side. Use these as place card seating markers....you can use them in the pinecone idea above. The person sitting across the table sees a nice holiday design while the other guest sees their name.

#8. Serving Fresh fruit cups at your holiday dinner? A festive and creative way to serve it is fast & easy to construct. Take a large grapefruit and cut it in half. Remove all of the inside pulp making a grapefruit bowl. Fill it with your fresh fruit or fruit cocktail and chill for 30 minutes and then serve! Make sure you top it with a red cherry and a sprig of mint to add festive holiday charm! Large Round Fresh Oranges will also work!

#9. For a Festive Fall Season Centerpiece take a clear glass bowl or a metal pie pan and fill it up with items that you collect on a nature walk thru your neighborhood! While out on your walk, collect: pinecones, acorns, walnuts, chestnuts, small tree twigs that are NO bigger than 1/4" diameter by 3" in length, various dried seed pods, dried rose hips etc. Bring them inside and clean them up from debris. You can then scent these goodies with any essential oil or fragrance oil that you may have and toss the ingredients together...then place in a decorative container and use for a fall holiday table centerpiece.

#10. Using Whipped Topping on top of ice cream, pudding, cakes or pies during your Holiday Meal? Make it festive and stir in a few drops or red or green food coloring!

#11. Make your own Festive Holiday Stickers to use on your greeting card envelopes! I cut out small holiday themed motifs from holiday magazines measuring NO larger than 2" in size. I then use a scrap booking glue stick and make my own holiday envelope stickers for when I mail out our Holiday Greeting Cards! Get the children involved, a great project for them!

#12. Have your children make your family a countdown to Christmas box! Take an old egg carton (the ones that hold a dozen eggs) and give them left over crafting supplies such as: paints, stickers, ribbon, construction paper, recycled Christmas cards & gift tags, lace, whatever you have! Have them decorate the egg carton for the Holiday Season. Your job is to place a small item in each of the 12 sections...wrap your little surprise up...then as the holidays approach, have the child open the egg carton each day to remove the wrapped surprise. A inexpensive way to countdown the days until Christmas and get the children involved!

#13. Make your own festive cake pan! I purchased a rectangular metal cake pan with metal lid at a local dept. store on sale! I then went to our local craft supply store and bought paint that was made for metal. I purchased the following colors: White, black, orange and light blue. I then painted my own designed snowman on the metal lid and our Family's Last name. I baked the lid in the oven to seal it according to the instructions on the paint bottle. Simple and easy and I was done within 90 minutes from start to finish!

#14. Make your own festive glass candle holders! I recycled glass jars from items such as spaghetti sauce, mayonnaise etc. Wash them and air dry and remove all labels. I then purchased some inexpensive bottles of acrylic paint and painted festive holiday designs around the outside of each jar...make sure you basecoat the jar a solid color completely so that no clear glass shows through and then air dry before painting your design. You can seal the design by using Aleene's Clear Sealer and let dry again. Take scraps of ribbon and tie around the neck of each jar. At your local dollar store or craft supply store, purchase inexpensive clear glass votive or tea light holders that will fit into the opening of each jar. Then place in scented votives or tea lights....nice inexpensive craft project that even the children can help with!

by Shelly Hill, Tupperware Consultant
http://my.tupperware.com/Ravish30

Onion Pie

Ingredients

2lbs thinly sliced sweet onions
1 stick butter
3 eggs, beaten
1 cup sour cream
1/4 tsp salt
?? tsp pepper
dash Tabasco
1 pie shell, unbaked
grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:

Saut?© onions in butter. Combine eggs and sour cream. Add to onion mixture. Season and pour into pie shell. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Bake at 450 deg. For 20 minutes.

Serves 6.

Sweet Potato Souffl?©

Ingredients:

4 C. Mashed Sweet Potatoes
1 C. Sugar
2 Eggs
1/2 C. Milk
1/2 tsp. Salt
1/3 stick Butter or margarine (melted)
1 tsp. Vanilla
Topping
1 C. Brown Sugar
1/2 C. Flour
1/3 C. Butter or Margarine (melted)
1 C. Pecans

Directions:

Mix together sweet potatoes, sugar, eggs, milk, salt and 1/3 stick of melted butter. Pour into a buttered pan. Mix together all topping ingredients and crumble topping evenly over potato mixture. Bake at 350 degrees for 35-45 minutes uncovered.

GIFT WRAPPING IDEA

Kitchen Gift Wrap

Choose a colorful kitchen towel for this practical and pretty idea.

a new kitchen towel
sewing needle
thread to match kitchen towel
rope, enough to go around package twice and leave 2 1/2 inches at each end
2 cookie cutters
2 wooden spoons

1. Wrap the item with the kitchen towel as you would with a sheet of paper. Fold over the ends neatly and tack them with the needle and thread - don't stitch too securely.

2. Make a knot at each end of the rope. Tie the package with the rope, looping the cookie cutters and spoons into the final tie. For a homespun touch, make a knot instead of a bow.

by Iris Chapman
Recipes for Healthful Living
IrisJChapman.com

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