Pressed Flowers
This season we are talking inspiration from the brilliant MeandMyBloomers and making some pressed flowers as presents. We are going use a flower press such as this one or if you’re short on time, you could buy some readymade pressed flowers. We love these bobble frames in which to show them off. Alternatively, you could also use the flowers to make presents tags or cards too.
Jam
Nigella has a great recipe for what she calls her Chilli Jelly – not for toast but rather to be eaten with cold meats or cheese. If you’d rather make a fruit jam, then this is our tried and test recipe. We like these jam jars or Lakeland’s (particularly the ones with the tartan lids), decorating them with some lovely ribbon and a hand-written label.
Gingerbread Biscuits
We’re talking thin, crisp Pepparkakor rather than traditional thick German gingerbread as we are half Swedish. You can make the dough from scratch (there is a good recipe here from the lovely Nordic Kitchen Stories) or top tip, if you buy the dough ready-made from Ikea, it saves a lot of time (especially when cooking with kids) and nobody will really notice! We like to make a selection of different shapes, decorate with icing and then put them in a little bag with a tag or a pretty tin. We give them to our neighbours, hang them on the tree (make a hole and put a ribbon through it) or have them with mulled wine.
Christmas Stars
You can buy a scandinavian paper star to hang in your window (there is a good choice here) but it’s also just as easy to make them. Watch this Cambridge Imprint video to learn how to make five-pointed origami stars. You can then string them together to make a garland (the make-at-home kit is available here.) Matilda Goad also shows you how to make a Christmas star from paper bags in this video here.