Posts Tagged ‘fun food’

It’s not exactly the season for healthy eating (although you’d be surprised at the health benefits of the humble brussel sprout) so I’m not even going to attempt to keep this list healthy. It’s all about fun for the holidays, and keeping the children entertained.

1. Biscuit Christmas tree decorations – we’ve just made some of Nigella Lawsons - great fun for the kids and will raise lots of “ahhs” from the relatives on Christmas day – and they’re rather tasty too. You can buy Christmas biscuit cutters, usually in a set, in kitchen shops and department stores.
2. Bake a Christmas cake – many say this has to be done 3 weeks before Christmas, but actually there are plenty of recipes out there where this isn’t necessary and my mum never made hers that far in advance and it was always delicious. I’ve now started the tradition with my own daughter using this recipe . Looking forward to icing and decorating it with her on Christmas eve.
3. Home made Christmas crackers – if you’re anything like us, we get through masses of kitchen role and a little while ago I started keeping hold of the tubes for “creative time”. I am now overrun with them. But I had an idea to make our own crackers for the Christmas table containing goodies, either homemade or bought (non-perishable of course), inside. Try using this method with the kids.
4. Other edible Christmas decorations – threading wool through sweets to make sweet garlands, or making citrus and spice decorations that smell delightful, will keep your little ones busy while you carry out more important duties, such as stuffing the turkey.  Here are some edible decoration ideas.
5. Build a gingerbread house – If you’ve been watching any of the festive cookery programmes you may have caught Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall’s gingerbread house creation. Perhaps a little too adventurous but perhaps a small shed is more doable and not only is it educational and creative, you all get to eat it as well.
6. Festive jelly castles – Another idea off a festive TV programme (I have a small obsession) – choose red or green jelly and dig out those castle sand buckets from the frozen sandpit, and give them a thorough wash. Then choose your jewels. Berries, mandarin segments (or other fruit), jelly sweets, dolly mixture, Liquorish Allsorts… Make up the jelly mixture and pour over the “jewels” and wait for it to set before the great unveiling. You could even invest in some actual jelly moulds, and if you don’t have enough to do, make your own jelly out of fruit juices.
7. Make a trifle – A pudding that is traditionally part of Christmas but is often forgotten about.  And they are a great pudding to make with children because of all the layers of familiar food, and bright colours, not to mention the decoration on top. You can pretty much make it up as you go along but here’s a trifle recipe for guidance.
8. Making treats for presents – little cellophane bags of homemade truffles, peppermint creams, fudge, toffee, festive biscuits, mini brownies etc make fantastic presents from children to aunts, uncles, grandparents, teachers… Most of these are really easy to make with kids (except the ones involving hot sugar, obviously), cost pennies and it means fewer presents for you to buy.
9. Christmas pizza – obviously pizza isn’t a festive food but turn it into a Father Christmas pizza (mozzarella beard/hair, olive eyes, tomatoes source cheeks/hat, peppers for mouth/ears) and it becomes as festive as a Christmas tree. We like fun homemade pizzas and so do kids, and it can provide a bit of respite to the usual heavy Christmas food. Here’s our homemade pizza recipe
10. Mince pies – Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without mince pies and they are so easy to make. With all the ready made ingredients available in most food shops, all you have to do is roll, cut and bake. And they’re really good for helping toddlers with hand co-ordination; cutting out, and spooning mince meat into the cases. We made some for a school cake sale and they went down a storm. And they were pretty much made entirely by a 3 year old.