Christmas Decorating on a Shoestring Budget

Wondering how to cut back on the costs for your Christmas decorating this year? There are some things that you can do that will still make your Christmas decorating look fantastic, but that will cut back on some of the expenses of decorating.

Thrift Shops and Garage Sales: Many people like to buy brand new decorations every year, and they often give their older decorations to thrift shops. You can often find great deals when you shop in thrift stores for Christmas decorations, and you will most likely find that they are still in very good condition, especially if they were only used for one Christmas. Likewise, keep on the lookout for Christmas decorations at garage sales too, you can often pick them up for almost nothing there. Christmas Lights: Instead of buying new Christmas lights because your old ones just aren't working, invest some time instead. Buy some new bulbs, and then set to work to find out exactly which bulbs are blown. It can be a bit time-consuming, but it can also be a great job for one person in your family to do who perhaps isn't that gifted at decorating. This can really save a lot of money. Reuse old Baubles: If you have Christmas tree decorations or baubles that have lost the string for hanging them on the tree, you can still use them. Set them together in a basket to make a colourful Christmas bauble display. Then set the basket--a glass bowl will do just as well--on a table, shelf, or on the mantelpiece. Candles: You can usually pick up nice looking candles fairly cheaply. You don't necessarily have to buy fancy patterned candles, but just choose simple red, green and white candles and put them on a candlestick or buy clay and stand them in the clay. Then, cover the clay up with Christmas cloth, or ribbons, or pine needles. Cheap and effective, they look great sitting on the table or set around the living room. You can also match silver, gold and blue to make a great Christmas color scheme as well. Bake Cookies: Not only will you save money on store bought cookies and cakes, but you will probably have a lot of fun if you get a few people together and bake your own cookies. Play Christmas music in the background, drink a glass of wine or hot chocolate, and start up your own Christmas tradition of baking. It can be lots of fun and really brings out the festive spirit of Christmas. Christmas Music: No Christmas is complete without Christmas music wafting throughout the house. It is great to play during meal times, soft muted Christmas carols or instrumentals, and it's also fantastic to work to, to decorate to and to bake to. Make sure you have a big enough selection though so you're not listening to the same songs or album over and over again. Once Christmas is over, pack away the Christmas music till next year. Pine Cones: If you live in an area where you can freely gather pine cones, do so. They make great Christmas decorations. Either leave them natural looking, or you can paint them silver or gold, or even spray 'snow' on them. Scatter them under the tree and in other areas around your room, to add to the Christmas look. Decorate your Table and Bring out Christmas Table-wear: Look for your most Christmassy looking tablecloth and use that for your Christmas meals, and dinners leading up to Christmas. Also bring out your most colourful dinnerware and serve your meals on that. If you want to, you can invest in this type of tableware during the year, or over a few years, so that you gradually build up a special Christmas set. Again, once Christmas is over, tuck it away till next year. Table Piece: Design your own center piece for your table. It can be easily done with a sawn off tree branch, some ribbons, a bit of clay and candles. Be inventive and make up a natural looking Christmas center piece for your table. If you make it sturdy enough you can use it year after year. Christmas Teddies and Dolls: Get your children in on the act. It's really fun to see little teddy bears or dolls all decked out in Christmas outfits. If you don't have anything specifically Christmassy for them, just tie ribbons around them and give them a little Christmas present to hold under their arm or to sit on their lap. Cluster the teddies and dolls around the room, for a real cute festive look. These are just a few ideas of how you can cut costs this Christmas. Just think, if you are able to save on your decorations you'll have more money to invest into either your Christmas presents, or your Christmas celebrations. And, it can look just as nice as if you had spent a lot of money on expensive ornaments and decorations. Happy Holidays!

Christmas Cookie Decorating 101

Many bakers ask for tips and instructions on decorating cookies. Well that’s a tall order because there are as many ways to decorate cookies as there are cookies! Here are a few guidelines for novices and experienced bakers alike to help you generate your own ideas for cooking decorating.

Decorating Cookies Before Baking

Christmas Cookies

Cookies can be decorated before baking with materials that withstand the heat of baking. Some things that you can place on your cookies before baking are:

-colored sugars or natural sugars such as pearl sugar

-jimmies, non-pareils, silver and gold dragées, and other sprinkles

-raisins and dried fruits such as cranberries

-nuts

These items can be placed on top of approximately any cookie to dress it up a bit and give it a more festive appearance.

Paint a masterpiece

You can also paint your cookies before baking them. Make an edible food paint out of an egg yolk mixed with a few drops of food coloring and paint the cookies with a clean paintbrush. The paint will dry while baking and give the cookie a colorful, glazed appearance. This is a fun activity for kids!

A bit of trompe l’oeil

The folks at better Homes and Gardens have a creative method for Colored Cream Dough ( [http://www.bhg.com/bhg/story.jhtml?page=2&storyid=%2Ftemplatedata%2Fbhg%2Fstory%2Fdata%2F11429.xml&catref=Sc1407] ) which is a dough of frosting consistency that can be piped onto cookies with a pastry bag fitted with a writing or star tip, and then baked. The succeed is a cookie that looks like it has been frosted but the frosting is baked on and hard.

Decorating Cookies After Baking

Decorating cookies after baking them requires that you apply some kind of liquid-based substance that will adhere to the baked cookie, or that will act as a glue to attach other items. Usually, this takes the form of frosting, icing, or melted chocolate.

Frosting vs. Icing

There is a big divergence between frosting and icing. Frosting is thick and holds shapes like rosettes and shells like those you see piped colse to the edges of a birthday cake. It remains soft to the touch and has a creamy texture, and most people think it tastes better because of the creamy buttery flavor. Icing, on the other hand, is a thinner, more liquid substance, and as it dries it thins out, becomes very plane over the covering of your cookie, and hardens. This is the icing to use for the most beautiful, professional results.

Working with frosting

You can use frosting in two ways. One way is to simply use a knife or rubber spatula to spread the frosting over the whole covering of your cookie. The other way is to place the frosting in a pastry or decorating bag fitted with a small tip and piping out thin lines or rosettes of icing onto the cookie. Either way, once the frosting has been applied to the cookie you can then additional embellish it by using colored sugars, non-pareils, or any of the decorating items mentioned in the Decorating Before Baking section above. Christmas-Cookies.com has a appetizing method for Buttercream Frosting at http://www.christmas-cookies.com/recipes/recipe.php?recid=306. See detailed instructions on piping frosting from better Homes and Gardens at [http://www.bhg.com/bhg/story.jhtml?page=3&storyid=%2Ftemplatedata%2Fbhg%2Fstory%2Fdata%2F11430.xml&catref=Sc1407]

Working with icing

Icing is a dinky more difficult to work with but its plane covering produces the most beautiful results! Icing should always be piped onto a cookie because it will run off the edges if spread with a knife. Once iced you can apply silver dragées, or other sprinkles just as mentioned with the frosting above, before it hardens. Christmas-Cookies.com has an excellent method for Royal Icing at http://www.christmas-cookies.com/recipes/recipe.php?recid=42. There is also a method for Powdered Sugar Icing ( http://www.christmas-cookies.com/recipes/recipe.php?recid=288 ) that dries less hard than Royal Icing and has a shiny surface. Martha Stewart's website features an excellent article on how to pipe icing onto cookies for professional-looking results ( http://www.marthastewart.com/page.jhtml?type=content&id=channel172011&catid=cat258 ).

Melted chocolate

Just about any cookie can be embellished simply by dipping it in chocolate or drizzling chocolate over it. You can even dress up the daily chocolate chip cookie for gift-giving or serving at parties. Melting chocolate is a easy process, but a few rules must be followed in order to make it a success. For Easter, try using white chocolate tinted in pastel shades with food coloring. Use the gel, paste or powdered kind of food color, because the liquid drops may make the chocolate seize up.

What you need

You can Either use chocolate chips or baking chocolate (the kind that comes in 1-ounce squares) and the same process applies Either you use dark chocolate or white chocolate. A small number of shortening should be added at the ratio of 2 tablespoons shortening for 1 cup of chocolate chips or chopped up baking chocolate.

Double boiler

Place chocolate and shortening in the top half of a duplicate boiler or in a metal bowl that has been placed on top of a saucepan filled with hot water. The water must be very hot, but not boiling, because the steam generated by boiling water could get moisture into the melting chocolate which makes it curdle. Allow the chocolate to melt over the hot water and stir it occasionally until it has achieved a liquid consistency.

Microwave

Place your chocolate and shortening in a microwave safe bowl and microwave it on medium power for 1 minute. Stir. Continue microwaving 20 seconds, stir again. Keep doing this until the chocolate is approximately melted. Remove it from the microwave and stir it until fully melted.

Dipping

Dip one end of your cookie, or half the cookie, or even the whole cookie into the melted chocolate. Set the cookie on a wire rack to let the chocolate harden. If you wish, you can sprinkle chopped nuts, coconut, or non-pareils over the melted chocolate before it hardens.

Drizzling

Scrape melted chocolate into a ziplock baggie. With a sharp scissors, snip off a very small angle of the baggie. Drizzle top of cookies with zig-zags of melted chocolate. Cool until chocolate is set.

Using these easy techniques will help you produce a range of beautiful-looking cookies at Christmastime and throughout the year.

Copyright 2004 Mimi Cummins. All proprietary Reserved.

Christmas Cookie Decorating 101