“Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat, please put a penny in the old man’s hat. If you haven’t got a penny, a ha’penny will do, if you haven’t got a ha’penny, then God bless you”. I love the version of this song by Harry Belafonte and could listen to it on repeat over and over! Christmas is indeed coming and I’m ready to embrace it in all its exciting glory! I’m definitely not one of those people who roll their eyes when the first early signs of Christmas start to appear.
In the lead up to my favourite day of the year I’m going to share the details of some of our past Christmas celebrations, beginning with Christmas last year. Each year, in consultation with the rest of the family I choose a theme to plan the event. I love working with themes and particularly enjoy tying all the little details together. Usually the theme extends to the table, the tree, the gift wrapping, and sometimes even to the food. The theme may simply be certain colours or icons and is usually inspired by things I see or read throughout the year.
Christmas last year was on the farm in Newdegate. The theme was Christmas trees and I was excited to be able to extend it to the food as well! I enjoyed making the traditional French Christmas cakes shaped like logs (Bûche de Noël). They look spectacular and are easier to make than you may imagine. We devoured these as part of our Christmas Eve meal.
I’d admired these Nutella Christmas trees on the internet for a while and it was a special treat to make one for Christmas morning breakfast. These are very easy and fun to make with the kids. The link to the recipe I used is here.
Last, but not least, I used fresh pine needles to make a cocktail for Christmas night. The picture on the left is of the pine needles I collected marinating in gin and the one on the right is of the completed cocktail. I’ve put the recipe (adapted from The Cocktail Guy : Infusions, Distillations and Innovative Combinations by Rich Woods) below in case you want to try it. It was delicious and really creates a talking point!
Pine Infused Espresso Gin and Tonic
200g pine needles, washed
700ml gin
1 tbsp sugar syrup
Tonic water
Single shot of espresso, cooled
1. Make the pine needle gin by placing the needles in the gin in a glass or ceramic bottle or container with a lid. Leave covered for a minimum of 24 hours.
2. Once infused strain the gin and place in a bottle in the fridge until required.
3. Make a sugar syrup by bringing equal parts of sugar and water to the boil, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Cool and store in the fridge until required.
4. To make each cocktail, place a shot of the pine needle gin and the tablespoon of sugar syrup in the base of a glass and add a handful of ice. Top up the glass with tonic water to three quarters full and stir to combine. Add a sprig of pine to the glass and tip the espresso shot over the top. Enjoy with friends!
I’ll leave you with a photo of the beautiful Christmas Eve sunset on Holland’s Track Farm viewed through one of the quintessential Australian trees, the sheoak. Creation in all its glory getting ready to celebrate the very special day to follow.
In my next post I’ll share all the details of the table decor. Do you love Christmas and using themes for decorating? Or do you like to go with the flow and take it as it comes?
Great recollections!
Thanks Swoo
Christmas is also my favourite time of year, I try to do something different every year be it as in colour theme, nutcracker/elves or all reindeer
This year we will be having Christmas in Carnarvon so we are trying to have an Aussie theme, I have been so disappointed with all the Xmas shops so far with the limited to non existent Aussie Xmas decorations, would you believe Kmart is where I have been able to collect some from!
Love following your blogs and all your ideas, you are so so talented
We’re having a nutcracker Christmas this year and have also had an Aussie theme too! So fun to put all the details together – Carnarvon sounds like lots of fun. Thanks for the encouragement xx