Tonight on The 21st Century Homekeeper I talked about why we should celebrate Christmas and how to create a “Little House” Christmas in your home this year. Here are my program notes. The program tonight didn’t get recorded due to technical difficulties, so I hope the notes help you. Please feel free to copy and print out these notes since its such a long post!

I have been to the sites I list here but I didn’t go through every page on each site, so if you find something offending or distasteful, just pitch it and go on.

Here is a site where you can purchase ALL the Little House books, including the chapter books for young readers. Little House Books
Getting ready for Christmas in our house
We’re pretty low-key, we have 5 children, a daughter in law and 2 grandchildren to provide gifts for, several extended family members, Sunday school teachers and a few other friends.
I make candy and treats to give. We package these treats up nicely so that the care we took in making them will be obvious. You don’t want to give someone something that is half-done or shoddy. It doesn’t have to be expensive, just something that actually looks like you cared while making it!

Christmas has a long history and it took lots of turns and twists before it came to be the holiday we have today. Christmas celebrations were in their hey-day in Victorian times. That was where abundance and giving were premier in the holiday.
But gift giving was not extreme or extravagant. Gifts were usually tokens of friendship or affection. The real abundance was in the making and sharing of food and warmth of friendship. And if you are a Christian and listening to this program, I hope you do celebrate Christmas! Its a marvelous time of joy and celebration of what God has done for us. What better way to show our happiness than to celebrate? But our celebration had better uphold the beliefs we cherish; those of moderation, provision for the poor, and should focus on the reason we celebrate which is Jesus, God’s Son.

We’ve strayed so far from this way of celebrating Christmas today. We seem to try to out-do one another in giving expensive and complicated gifts. Children open one present only to toss it aside and go to the next one, never able to stop to enjoy or appreciate each gift and the thought or sacrifice that went into it. Children are simply acting out what they know and how they feel, its up to we adults to set the mood and tone of Christmas as a time of celebrating God’s gift to us and of making family, friendship, thankfulness for blessings the main part of our celebration.

In the Little House on The Prairie books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, Christmas is portrayed as a sweet, uncomplicated time of warmth, joy and peace. I think that’s why we gravitate toward the books and the television program still today. There is truth in what Ms. Wilder wrote and we want to recapture those precious emotions and experiences for our families today.

I believe Christians should celebrate Christmas as a natural outpouring of thanks and joy at what God has done in sending His Son to use. The Ancient Jews were saved from the Persians and God’s people celebrated and still do in a holiday called Purim… and if God gave the Maccabees the victory for which they celebrated and still do to this day in a holiday called Hanukkah…. then it makes sense to me for God’s people today to initiate and celebrate the acts of God for His people.

We’ve strayed so far from this way of celebrating Christmas today. We seem to try to out-do one another in giving expensive and complicated gifts. Children open one present only to toss it aside and go to the next one, never able to stop to enjoy or appreciate each gift and the thought or sacrifice that went into it. Children are simply acting out what they know and how they feel, its up to we adults to set the mood and tone of Christmas as a time of celebrating God’s gift to us and of making family, friendship, thankfulness for blessings the main part of our celebration.

In the Little House on The Prairie books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, Christmas is protrayed as a sweet, uncomlicated time of warmth, joy and peace. I think that’s why we gravitate toward the books and the television program still today. There is truth in what Ms. Wilder wrote and we want to recapture those precious emotions and experiences for our families today.

To create a Little House Christmas in your home you need 4 ingredients.
Love – because without this, what’s the point, right?
Warmth – not just temperature, but a tone or feeling throughout your home
A small to moderate amount of resources and money – most of the ideas I will offer are extremely inexpensive, but they do take thought and perhaps a little planning.
Willing hands to work – because homemade isn’t instant and when everyone gets involved, its more fun!

There’s more to creating a Little House Christmas than just doing something different. It means scaling down your gift giving, changing the things you give. Instead of giving purchased, expensive, electronic or elaborate gifts, you will giving from your heart.

This can be a challenge in a lot of ways. Be sure to prepare your family for any changes you make in the way you celebrate Christmas. Be sure not to get your feelings hurt if children don’t enthusiastically embrace your handmade gifts. It can take some time for them to warm up to new ideas.

Creating warmth in your home is a 2-fold project. It entails making your own attitude one that encourages kindness, gentleness, love and welcome in all the others in your home. Soft answers, smiles, patience and helpfulness keep a home as warm as any fireplace.

Then secondly, creating warmth in your home can be acheived by providing warm rugs, blankets or afghans, candles, goodies baking in the oven, good aromas, cleanliness and order.
If you can’t be baking something every time you turn around, try placing some ground cinnamon, cloves, orange peel, nutmeg and bay leaves on a cookie sheet and let it warm in a low (-150*) oven for a while. The whole house will have that delicious Christmas-y aroma.
Clean bathrooms and organized living areas brings warmth to a home as well.
If you need help in organizing any room of your house, go to the christianhomekeeper.org site nad search for organizing or spring cleaning, you’ll get lots of helpful info.

Keep your decorations to a minimum. This isn’t good news for those of us who like sparkly, shiney decor for Christmas! But I have learned to keep someperspective in my decorating. I like greenery, pine cones and red berries, and I have a few sparkly decorations that I tuck here and there for a little surprise.

Try stringing some popcorn and cranberries for your tree this year. Its easy to do and when Christmas is over you can feed the birds. Cranberries will stain your fingers a bit but it washes off. Be sure to pop LOTS of corn and don’t add butter.
I use a standard sewing needle and heavy thread. Don’t try to string extremely long strings of popcorn and cranberries. Instead use a comfortable length of thread and then tie the shorter threads together after they are strung. Its a lot less complicated and difficult than stringing yards and yards on one string.

If you have access to some pretty paper, paper chains are great fun and easy to make,e ven for little ones. Someone has to be the cutter, so get busy cutting out the lieces that will make the chains. Then allow the children to glue the ends together and they wrap each piece around the last. These chains can be used on the tree but also over doors and on walls for decor.
Try using left over wrapping paper.

Clove Apples and Oranges are a good gift or home decoration
You’ve probably seen the standard clove oranges.
In case you’ve never made them here’s how:
Using a small metal crochet hook (not too big or the cloves won’t stay in the hole) and poke holes in the orange in the pattern or design you desire. I just make them up as I go.
Then go back and fill each hole with a whole clove. That’s it!
You can use this method ofr making clove apples as well. Just use a bamboo skewer instead of a crochet hook.
If you leave room for a ribbon around the oranges, you can tie a pretty ribbon around them once they are dry.
You can also roll the finished oranges in powdered cloves to make then less jicey and more frangrant. A bowl of these makes the whole house smell great!
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You probably remember the Little House television series from the 1970’s and 80’s.

One of my favorites was from the Little House pilot which included the scene where Mr. Edwards walked through a snow storm to deliver Christmas presents to the Ingalls. The story ends with Ma finally warming up to the uncivilized Mr. Edwards and Laura and Mary finding heart shaped Christmas cakes in their stockings.

So let me start out my recipe section with one for the Heart Shaped Christmas cookies from The Little House Treasury by Carolyn Strom Collins and Christina Wyss Erikson

Heart-Shaped Christmas Cakes

“Mary and Laura pulled out two small packages. They unwrapped them, and each found a little heart-shaped cake. Over their delicate brown tops was sprinkled white sugar.”

– Little House on the Prairie

You will need:
½ cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, softened
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
¼ teaspoon vanilla
1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
Flour for sprinkling
Granulated (white sugar) sugar for sprinkling

Measuring cup and spoons
Large mixing bowl
Mixing spoon
Floured board
Heart-shaped cookie cutter, about 2 or 3″ across
Cookie sheet
Pot holder
Wide spatula
Wire rack

Heat the oven to 325°.

Beat the butter, sugar, and vanilla together until they are light and fluffy. Stir in the flour.

On a floured board, pat the dough out in a circle about 1/3″ thick. Cut out shapes with the cookie cutter. Sprinkle the tops with granulated sugar. Put the heart shapes on the cookie sheet and bake them for about 15-20 minutes, until they are lightly browned. Take them out of the oven and sprinkle more granulated sugar on the tops. Carefully remove the cakes from the cookie sheet with the spatula and put them on the wire rack to cool.

Makes about 12 cakes.
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Apple Butter for gift giving

4 pounds Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and quartered
1 cup apple cider
1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon salt
Dash of ground cloves
2 (3-inch) cinnamon sticks
1 star anise

Preparation

Combine apples and cider in a large stockpot; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer, partially covered, 30 minutes or until apples are tender.
Place apple mixture in a food processor; pulse 6 times or until chunky. Return to pan.
Stir in sugar and remaining ingredients. Cook over low heat 1 hour or until thick, stirring occasionally. Discard cinnamon and star anise. Cover and chill.
Note: Store in an airtight container in refrigerator for up to 1 month.

I like to cut out a piece of brown paper and tie it around the lid of the jars for an old fashioned look
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Another good gift for Christmas time is taffy and hard candy. Taffy and Hard candy can be daunting if you’ve never made it before. You do have to be careful not to burn yourself on the hot candy, but its not as difficult as you might think. I’ve been making candy like this for many years and it comes like second nature now. But here are some good instructions with pictures for you from the blog called, Or so She Says….

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another great gift is a homemade ginger bread house. I remember my first attempt at making ginger bread for a house….. it took stinkin’ forever! And I was exhausted when I was finally done. And stressed. So let me tell you, its best to start small and read about how to make the houses thoroughly before you start.

There are great instructions of making your own gingerbread and house at Recipes That Remember

But, if you aren’t too keen on making your own gingerbread, there are lots of gingerbread house kits out there for under $10 each. I saw two this week one at Aldi’s for $6 and one at Walmart for $9

You can purchase some extra candy to put on the houses for the kits too.

I like to keep my ginger bread house worthy of snacking on, so I make my gingerbread and let the children decorate. Just remember the BIGGIE when it comes to gingerbread house making: make your gingerbread, cut out the house pieces and let them COOL. Then put the house pieces together using royal icing and allow that to thoroughly harden BEFORE trying to decorate the house. I can take a day or two to dry completely so give yourself time.
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A very easy but delicious gift are chocolate dipped peppermint sticks. I think it makes all the difference in what brand of peppermint sticks you use. I buy King Leo brand because they are sort of soft and very delicious.
Heat your water bath, add semi sweet chocolate to the top pan, When the chocolate is melted, take each stick and dip it half way in chocolate, pay the wet stick on waxed paper to dry.

Consider making homemade gift cones to present the chocolate covered candy in.
A paper cone is basically a triangle rolled into a cone and fastened with tape or glue. Then you can decorate the cone.

Here are some ideas for paper cones that you can adjust for Christmas. You can use wrapping paper or even construction paper. Here is one from Martha Stewart.com

And here are some that are meant for a wedding but could be easily adapted to Christmas:
Paper Candy Cones
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Here’s an easy-peasy tutorial on how to make a bonnet
It requires moderate sewing skills. If you can sew, you can make this bonnet.. There are also links for more period correct patterns. These will make great gifts

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I found the sweetest Little House playset online that you can make yourself.

It contains 5 little wooden figures made from little wooden shapes and wooden discs from Hobby Lobby and are painted according to the Garth Williams drawings in the original books. The house itself is a wooden three dimensional house that stores flat. Looks very inexpensive and if you’re creative in the painting way, it would be a great gift for a 4-8 year old.
The dolls and house store in a homemade cotton, drawstring bag.
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Hand Dipped Candles
I make hand dipped candles every year in the Fall. I use 100% beeswax and cotton wicks. You don’t have to buy beeswax to make great candles though, they can be made from paraffin. You can even add some paraffin to beeswax to have that great honey scent and the burning length of paraffin.

There are some good instructions for making dipped candles at About.com in Family Crafts

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Also at About.com in Family Crafts are instructions for making a Little House Story Sack

A story sack is a homemade bag filled with not only craft ideas for little people but all the supplies too, and can include videos, books, coloring books, crayons and more. It makes a great gift for the 5-10 year old crowd.