Christmas decorations that are good enough to eat
Home » Magazine » Good, issue 4 » Christmas decorations that are good enough to eatThese days shops are full of plastic decorations in many colours and forms. Some are pretty; some are just cheap and, well, plastic. If you'd like some fresher, more authentic ideas for your tree that are homemade and reuseable, here are a few ideas.
Gingerbread men
Everybody, young or old, likes gingerbread men. There are many recipes available for the pastry, and you can ask the children to cut the shapes for you. Poke a small hole through the head or body before baking. After baking, ice the gingerbread men and tie them to your tree with colourful ribbons. For a fuller tree you can also tie on the biscuit cutters, especially if you have a nice selection in Christmas shapes.
Other biscuits
Amaretti or macaroons can be made at home, then wrapped with colourful crepe paper to look like big lollies (pictured above). These really stand out on the tree.
For the chooks
Make your own tinsel by threading freshly popped popcorn with cotton thread on a sewing needle. The popcorn goes a bit too soft to be eaten after a few days, but it will be fine to give to chickens.
Spice tree
Aromatic tinsel and decorations can be made with strings of dried chillies, cinnamon sticks tied with a ribbon, or the classic oranges dotted with cloves.
Fresh fruit
Cherries, especially those with two or more fruits attached by the stalks, make a Christmas tree look glorious and sophisticated (you just need to replace with new fruit every two or three days). Plums also look stunning, although a little more work is required because you need to use unripe fruit and securely tie each stalk with a string. After the first few attempts, you’ll be running down to the orchard or into the veggie garden to see what else you can add to your amazing edible Christmas tree.
Little boxes
This paper decoration (left) was made by folding several ‘sonobe units’, a modular building block of origami, and connecting them together. They can be made with any paper; old Christmas wrapping, cut into squares, is ideal. The easiest way to learn how to fold sonobe units is to follow the video instructions at good.net.nz/2/origami.
Sat December 04, 2010 @ 12:22 PM
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