Day 130 & 131

Day 130

CHRISTMAS CHALLENGE

Watch at least three Christmas movies

13) A Christmas Karen

14) Christmas with the Coopers

GOOD HABITS

Teeth.

Day 131

CHRISTMAS CHALLENGE

Watch at least three Christmas movies

15) I Believe in Santa

16) Who Killed Santa?

17) Shaun the Sheep - The Flight Before Christmas

Decorate a gingerbread house

I've never made gingerbread before, so I thought I'd give this a go. I was going to cheat and get a pre-made kit to decorate, and then I thought, 'no - these things are supposed to challenge us' so I found a recipe for a gingerbread house, and made the panels today.

I may have left it in the oven longer than I should have, but after the 12 minutes, it was still a bit soft. We shall see. It's now in the kitchen cooling. I will leave it to cool over night so that it's solid and sturdy (hopefully) enough to stand being decorated!

When it comes to icing, I won't be using the recipe as it uses egg whites and I'm not confident doing that, so the glue will be made with royal icing sugar.

Make a festive ornament

As this is a monthly challenge to challenge us, I thought I'd try and make some Christmas tree ornaments from salt dough. This recipe made far too much. I could have halved it and still been well over. It's flour, salt, vegetable oil, and water. When mixed, it looks like a biscuit dough (but I doubt it would taste very nice). I rolled it out and cut out some shapes using Christmas cookie cutters.

I baked them in the oven until they became biscuity! Weirdly, some of them started to rise. I'm going to leave them to cool and then I'll give them some colour.

Learn about the different celebrations which take place in December around the world

❄ PHILLIPINES - Ligligan Parol

These bright colourful lanterns represent the star of Bethlehem, and celebrates the start of the Christmas season

❄ CENTRAL & EASTERN EUROPE - Krampusnacht

On 5th December, Krampus and Santa Claus visit children. Where Santa rewards the well behaved children, Krampus scares those who have been naughty, and punishes them by hitting them with birch rods. Sometimes he takes the children to the underworld. 

❄ COLOMBIA - Día de las Velitas

This is celebrated on 7th December, as the unofficial start of the Christmas season. People put candles in their houses and on their porches, in honour of the Virgin Mary.

❄ SCOTLAND - Hogmanay

Hogmanay is the Scottish word for the last day of the year, so this is celebrated on 31st December.

❄ BOLIVIA - Misa de Gallo

This is celebrated at Mass on Christmas Eve, and is also known as Rooster's Mass, as people sometimes bring chickens along because they believe a rooster was the first to announce the birth of Jesus.

❄ MEXICO - Night of the Radishes

Celebrated on 23rd December, people carve scenes using radishes. Initially, religious scenes were carved and displayed at a market. People then started to buy radishes to carve and display as a centre piece on their Christmas table.

GOOD HABITS

Teeth.

Mail.