When I was little, one of my most prized possessions was my Pick & Mix Sweet Shop. It had lollipop holders, trays for assorted sweets and even a little weighing scale in the centre: I loved it. Unfortunately, I never actually had enough sweets at any one time to fill my sweet shop, so it sat in my room, beloved, but rather depressingly low in stock.

Every Christmas, I make quite a few festive sweets and treats for my whole family to enjoy. It occurred to me recently, while preparing for the festive season, that I am a grown adult with free will, so I decided to pay tribute to my Pick & Mix Sweet Shop and make my own homemade, festive, sweet shop this year, filled with all of my family’s favourite treats (unfortunately, I cannot charge my family members for the sweets… it is Christmas after all… so take the term ‘shop’ with a pinch of salt!).

In today’s post, I’ll talk you through all of the equipment I used to set up this sweet shop and go through the 6 sweets that I made one-by-one, in case you too have an inner child with a sweet shop fixation that needs to be HEARD.

Let’s get into it, shall we?

Table of Contents

• What You Need
• The Sweets
  • Rocky Road Bark
  • Peppermint Bark
  • Cherry & Almond Chocolate Puddles
  • Toffee Popcorn
  • Pistachio Nougat
  • Christmas Market-Style Nuts
• Setting Up the Sweet Shop
• Final Thoughts

What You Need

There are only two things that are absolutely essential for making your own sweet shop: sweets (obviously!) and containers to keep the sweets in. However, if you want to go the extra mile, you can also use some fun, festive decorations and make a whole display out of it!

Most of the things I bought for this sweet shop were from Sostrene Grene, one of my favourite places to shop during the festive season. I’ve linked everything down below, but their stock does change up pretty frequently, so the specific items may not be available anymore. Hopefully, though, the links will give you an idea of what each product looks like, so you can find similar versions!

For my sweet shop, I used the following things:

• Sweets

I used homemade sweets for my shop, but you could also absolutely buy your favourite treats and decant them into pretty jars to make it easier (but just as fun and special!).

• Jars

You’ll need one jar/container per sweet. I tried to source a variety of different shapes and sizes: I already had the two square jars and I bought the others from Sostrene Grene (links below).

Large jar with wooden lid.

Small jar with wooden lid.

Large round jar.

Small round jar.

• Tongs

This was a.. slightly frivolous purchase and by no means necessary, but, when I was buying the jars from Sostrene Grene, I saw these gold tongs and I thought they’d be so cute (and useful!) for getting the treats out of the jars. They actually work really well for the job, so I think it paid off!

• Faux pine garland

This is a festive sweet shop after all, so I nestled the jars in amongst this faux pine garland.

• Christmas lights

You guessed it, these gold star fairy lights are also from Sostrene Grene! They’re wired, so I was able to coax them into the shape I wanted, weaving them around the jars with the garland.

• Knitted sweets

If you’ve been following along with Blogmas At Home this year, you might have seen that I made these knitted sweets earlier on this month and I thought they’d make perfect decorations for this sweet shop! I just dotted them around the place, nestling them within the pine garland.

• Gingerbread Christmas tree

I haven’t shared my gingerbread undertaking for this year yet (don’t worry, it’s coming soon!), so I guess this is a bit of a sneak peak, but I feel like this sprinkle-coated, gingerbread tree fits the whole fun, sweet shop-vibe perfectly, so of course it had to feature!

The Sweets

I made 6 different treats for my sweet shop: Rocky Road Bark, Peppermint Bark, Cherry & Almond Chocolate Puddles, Toffee Popcorn, Pistachio Nougat and Christmas Market-Style Nuts. Because all of these sweets have pretty long shelf lives, I was able to spread the candy-making process out over a week, so I didn’t get too tired out (or overwhelmed by sugar!).

All of the recipes for these treats are available here on the blog. I’ll link to each one below, so you can make them yourself, if you fancy!

Rocky Road Bark

This Rocky Road Bark was a new entry to our festive treat list last Christmas and is a favourite of my sister-in-law!

It’s made with a 50/50 blend of milk and dark chocolate, mixed with crumbled digestive biscuits and topped with a scattering of mini marshmallows and raisins.

Find my recipe for Rocky Road Bark here.

Peppermint Bark

Peppermint Bark is the OG Christmas sweet in our household: my mum received a homemade version as a gift from her friend many Christmases ago and we loved it so much that I had to recreate it immediately! We’ve been making it ever since. In fact, it’s actually the first recipe I ever shared here on the blog!

The bark is made up of a thin layer of milk chocolate topped with a thin layer of white chocolate, which is then sprinkled with crushed up candy canes.

Find my recipe for Peppermint Bark here.

Cherry & Almond Chocolate Puddles

A new addition to the festive spread this year: these Cherry & Almond Chocolate Puddles are the final, chocolate-y offering in my sweet shop and a special request from my brother.

The puddles come in two varieties: dark chocolate puddles, topped with a whole almond and whole dried cherry, and milk chocolate puddles, topped with flaked almonds and chopped dried cherries.

Find my recipe for Cherry & Almond Chocolate Puddles here.

Toffee Popcorn

Toffee Popcorn isn’t an inherently festive treat, but it’s so addictive that I like to reserve it for special occasions (like Christmas)! My dad is a huge toffee popcorn fan, so this one’s for him.

This year, I decided to pull out all of the stops and make my toffee popcorn with a special variety of popcorn kernel known as ‘mushroom popcorn’ (I bought the Joe & Seph’s kernels). Contrary to what the name might imply, this popcorn does not taste at all of mushrooms (thank goodness, because I’m not a fan!), it’s the shape of the popped corn that gives it its name, because the kernels pop up into big, fluffy balls (kind of like the cap of a mushroom)! It’s the type of popcorn typically used by cinemas, so it has a really nostalgic, special vibe that I thought would really add to the festive magic this year!

Find my recipe for Toffee Popcorn here.

Pistachio Nougat

Making nougat is a slightly more involved process than the other sweet treats on this list so, just like the toffee popcorn, I only make it for really special occasions. This Pistachio Nougat is a particular favourite of my mum’s!

Made with egg whites, honey and roasted pistachios, this nougat is a really fun and impressive treat to make this Christmas.

Find my recipe for Pistachio Nougat here.

Christmas Market-Style Nuts

It wouldn’t be December without my Christmas Market-Style Nuts: these are always my absolute favourite treat when I visit any Christmas Market, so learning how to make them at home was a game-changer.

This year, I’ve used a combination of pecans (my all-time favourite), hazelnuts and macadamia nuts. They’re coated in a salty, sugary, cinnamon mixture, then baked until deliciously crunchy.

Find my recipe for Christmas Market-Style Nuts here.

Setting Up the Sweet Shop

Once you have all of your sweets, jars and assorted decorations, you’re ready to set up your sweet shop! Obviously, you can do this however you want and make it as simple or as over-the-top as you want, but, if you’d prefer to relinquish the mental effort and just follow some instructions, here’s what I’d do…

Choose a space that’s both easily accessible (to humans, not to pets!) and out of the way of the typical Christmas hustle and bustle (you don’t want to be knocking over jars as you’re trying to roast a turkey!). A side table or countertop would work perfectly.

Fill each jar with a different sweet/treat. If you have too many sweets for your jars, you can always mix similar sweets together (I’ve done this here: I put the milk and dark chocolate puddles in the same jar!).

Set the jars out first. This allows you to get their positioning right without having to deal with all of the extra decorations. Place the larger jars at the back and the smaller jars towards the front, so that you can see them all from the front. If everything feels a little too on one level, consider placing some of the jars on upturned ramekins (or other assorted knick-knacks), to add a little more height and dimension!

Once you’re happy with the placement of the jars, it’s time to decorate! Here, I’ve used a pine garland, a string of wired fairy lights, some knitted sweets and a gingerbread Christmas tree, but you can obviously use anything you have/think would look good.

I’d recommend starting with the biggest (bushiest?) decoration first (here, that’s my pine garland), as this will give you a base to work with. I wrapped my garland around all of the jars, adjusting (and readjusting) it until I was happy with how it looked.

Next, I added the fairy lights. Adding some lighting helps to make the setup extra festive and cosy-looking. I’ve used these battery-operated gold star lights, which was great because it meant I didn’t have to worry about plugging anything in.

Finally, I added the smaller, individual decorations in amongst the garlands and jars. I placed the gingerbread tree to one side of the setup, then dotted the knitted sweets around the place, nestling them amongst the branches of the pine garland.

And then, you’re done! Turn the fairy lights on, grab some little bowls or paper bags and get the whole family to visit your festive sweet shop before settling down to watch a Christmas film.

Final Thoughts

I think this is such a special, over-the-top (in the best way), thing to do for your family/friends (and yourself!) this festive season. I’m all about making Christmas feel super magical and if putting my homemade treats into some fancy jars and spending a bit of time arranging them does that, then I’m all for it!

Having said that, this is obviously a very extra approach to the festive season and I am aware that not everybody has the time, energy or mental headspace to take on a project like this, particularly at this time of year! You can always take bits and pieces of this idea: make just one of my homemade sweet recipes, find a single, fancy jar in a charity shop and fill it with Quality Street or store-bought nuts, or even just bring some greenery in from the garden and weave a string of fairy lights through it to decorate your home. Christmas is always a bit stressful, but there’s no reason to make it more stressful: I go to such extremes because it brings me joy, not because it’s in any way necessary.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this post: it’s a bit of a special one (it had to be, for the halfway point of Blogmas At Home 2025!), so I’m excited to see what you think. I really embraced my inner child (and my inherent lack of restraint) to make something that I think is really fun and I’m super proud of it!

Gemma

xxx

I haven’t done a lot of embroidery in my time, but I’ve been (very) gradually trying to stitch my way into it and expand my crafty repertoire. I started out with a kit (specifically, the Woodland Fox Embroidery Kit from Tales from the Hoop, a UK-based company run by Marion, who makes incredible, modern embroidery kits & patterns). Next, filled with a (completely irrational) sense of confidence, I designed and stitched my own hoop-based project: a Feathers McGraw hoop for my sister-in-law.

For my next embroidery project, I decided to make a felt garland. Tales from the Hoop has these gorgeous festive letter kits for sale, which feature a minimal, super pretty, pine design. I fell in love with this design the moment I saw it and I thought it would make for such a special Christmas ‘heirloom’ decoration. I’ve been slowly working on it over the past few months, really taking my time to enjoy the process, and I just love how it turned out!

Table of Contents

• The Kit
• The Stitching Process
• Stringing the Letters into a Garland
• Final Thoughts

The Kit

As I mentioned, I made this garland using the Personalized Christmas Felt Letter Kit from Tales from the Hoop. You can buy as many or as few letters as you want: they can be used individually, as baubles, miscellaneous decorations or gift tags, or you can purchase multiple letters and make a garland (which is, obviously, what I did).

A single-letter kit costs £18.50 and you receive the felt (including one sheet printed with the pine pattern/letter outline), 2 embroidery needles, all of the necessary threads, gold beads, stuffing, pins and detailed, printed instructions. Each additional letter only increases the price by £2.50, so, if you plan to make multiple letters, I’d definitely recommend buying them all in one go to save yourself some money!

For this garland, I purchased a 14-letter kit. Currently, this is priced at £51.00, but I actually bought mine back in July for £45.90 (it’s very possible I bought the kit on sale? Or this could just be the inevitable result of rising costs here in the UK). Even at the higher price, I still think this kit is worth it!

You can select which letters you want for your garland/ornaments in the ‘Personalisation’ section of the order, so I opted for the letters to spell out ‘MERRY AND BRIGHT’. I went back and forth a lot between this and the more classic ‘MERRY CHRISTMAS’ (which unhelpfully contains the same number of letters, so I couldn’t even use the cheaper price as a deciding factor), but I ultimately decided to go with the former because I figured we probably had enough garlands telling everyone to have a Merry Christmas already.

Just like the last time I placed an order from Tales from the Hoop, I had a lovely experience: my kit came super quickly & contained plenty of all of the necessary materials, the instructions were clear & easy to follow AND the finished product looks great!

The Stitching Process

The stitching process was actually pretty simple and straightforward, which was lovely because it meant that I could really relax into the stitching and just chip away at the garland slowly. For reference, the kit uses the following stitching techniques:

• Back stitch
• French knots
• Beading
• Blanket stitch

I had done all of these stitches before except for beading, which was new to me, but was really simple to do and I absolutely love the sparkly effect the beads add: I think they’re such a pretty addition that really makes the letters feel special. This project was also a really good way of practising my French knots & blanket stitching: I got pretty good at the latter, but I do still struggle with the former! I can just about do them now, but they’re not always as neat as I would like! French knots, I’ll be back for you. This isn’t over.

Honestly, the hardest part of making these was cutting out the tiny, internal pieces of felt from some of the letters (the ones like R, A and, in particular, B, which had TWO internal pieces!). It was a bit fiddly, but I found that using a small, sharp pair of scissors made it (a little) easier.

Surprisingly, though, the letter I found the absolute hardest to do was the ‘G’! I think it just required a lot of stitching and I felt like it was slightly more prone to bending out of shape than the other letters. Obviously, the easiest letter was the ‘I’ because it was literally a single, straight line: the dream!

Stringing the Letters into a Garland

Stringing the letters together was also surprisingly easier than I expected it to be: the stuffing helps to keep the letters in position, so I just carefully lined up each one (I tried to go through where the brown stitch line ended at the top of each letter, to keep things even) and went for it.

The great thing about this whole process is the fact that you can work a stitch, add a letter, add a bead, whatever and, if you don’t like the positioning/how it looks, you can literally just take it out and start again. For someone like me, who has a deathly fear of making mistakes (I know, I know— I’m working on it!), this was a real comfort and made the whole process that bit more relaxing.

The only slight stumbling block I encountered was that I’m pretty sure I accidentally cut through one of my blanket stitches when I was rearranging the top thread on my ‘G’ (why is it ALWAYS the ‘G’?!). I haven’t noticed any drastic unravelling yet though, so let’s all keep our fingers crossed that it stays that way!

Final Thoughts

I loved working on this project almost as much as I love the finished garland: it feels so classic and festive, but still fun and whimsical at the same time, and it makes me so proud every time I look at it (because, you know, I made that!).

It definitely took a bit of time to make, but that was because a) I intentionally took it slow so that I could really enjoy the process and b) I had 14 letters to stitch! If you were just making one letter, it would actually be a really quick little project: you could probably whip it up in a couple of hours!

I definitely felt a few moments of pressure during the process (particularly when it was time to cut out the letters post-embroidery, because, well, what if I did it wrong and ruined all my hard work?!), but I never actually ran into any of the problems I was anxious about, which felt great.

Overall, making this garland was a very rewarding, therapeutic experience: I can’t wait to bring it out every year and feel all warm and cosy knowing I made it!

Gemma

xxx

Today’s post, though, is all about my July gnome!

Introducing… Gneville the First!

Gneville the First is a tremendously festive fellow: if it were up to him, Christmas really would be every day. The rest of the year, though, Gneville works as a beard-dresser for the other gnomes. He’s especially talented at braiding and is very particular about beard maintenance: he believes that a beard is a gnome’s most important feature. Perhaps as a result of this, he has a deep-rooted fear of goatees (and, honestly, who can blame him?).

Table of Contents

• Choosing July’s Gnome
• The Yarn
• Thoughts on the Pattern
• Changes/Adaptations
• Things I Loved!
• Things I Didn’t Quite Love…
• Final Thoughts

Choosing July’s Gnome

This month had a special prompt: ‘Gnome for the Holidays‘, where you knit a gnome with some seasonal spirit (whatever holiday you may be celebrating/planning to celebrate!).

About 6 years ago, my mum made a couple of Gneville gnomes, using the Here We Gnome Again pattern by Schira, as Christmas presents/decorations and I fell in LOVE with them. This was long before my own gnome-knitting days (those particular gnomes are actually what inspired me to start gnome-ing!), so the idea of making my own Gneville, with his complex cables and fiddly little features seemed far too outlandish and I was forced to just admire them from afar.

Tragedy struck a couple of Christmases ago when (yarn-lovers, turn away now!), the original Gneville gnomes were felled by some moths, who flew undetected past our (copious) defences. Safe to say, I was heartbroken and we, as a family, were left Gneville-less (and with renewed vigour in our crusade against the moths of the world).

When I saw the prompt for July, then, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to brave making a festive, replacement Gneville myself (with all of my new, gnome-ing expertise and (admittedly still very minimal) cabling experience)!

The Yarn

In an effort to make my Gneville as similar to his predecessor as possible, I actually used the exact same wool that my mum did (Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light in the shade Tart)! She (very kindly) went stash-diving in the ‘special’ section of her collection (i.e. the section that I am forbidden from going through willy-nilly in my ploys to create general gnome havoc) and found this perfect, Christmas red fingering weight yarn for me, just like OG Gneville. How magical!

I paired the red with a slightly mottled cream shade, which I used for the hands, nose/beard and pompom. I’ve been using this particular shade quite a lot for my gnomes recently: I used it for Gnoddy‘s beard/nose/hands, as well as some of the colourwork detail on Professor Fungi. the mottled shade does make the beards look a little dirty, but I think it gives the gnomes a sort of rustic charm!

As I was using fingering weight yarn (and thus making a Gneville, rather than a Gnancy, I believe?), I used the recommend 2.5mm and 2.75mm needles for that weight. These are slightly larger needles than Schira’s gnomes typically call for, which I assume is because of the cables and seemed to work out fine!

Thoughts on the Pattern

This was my second attempt at venturing away from the gnomes in the Gnomes of Grimblewood book (not including Professor Fungi, who was a mystery gnome) and I am definitely noticing that the individual gnome patterns are significantly more challenging than those in the book. If you’re new to the world of gnome-ing, I would definitely recommend starting with a book gnome, not an individual gnome, because of this.

My main issue with Gneville is his stability: he’s got quite a skinny base (and a very large hat), so, even though his body is fully stuffed with weighted stuffing, he just isn’t quite as stable as my other gnomes and does have a tendency to fall over if not positioned just so. I’m not sure how to go about fixing this for future iterations of Gneville: perhaps stuffing him more densely with the weighted stuffing? Perhaps a cardboard circle at his base? It’s hard to know!

The hat, body and beard all feature some combination of cables and twisted rib (I had some previous experience working cables, none at all working twisted rib!). The instructions for these parts are given in both a written and charted format. Typically, I tend to follow written patterns (charts always seem so overwhelming and, anyway, I am excellent at blindly following clear instructions). However, I’ve decided that I want to start learning how to understand knitting charts, so I challenged myself to use only the charts in this pattern. It took a little bit of getting used to, but it worked out and I felt so much more confident with chart-reading by the end of the project. I did find that charts were particularly helpful with the complex cable patterns because it clearly shows you which way the cables are going, so I think this was a really good pattern to work on my chart-reading abilities with!

Changes/Adaptations

I didn’t make any changes to this pattern this time around: the only thing I did do that might be of note is that I used the beard/hand colour for the pompom on the hat. The pattern doesn’t specify a particular colour for the pompom, but the gnomes pictured use a) a different colour altogether and b) a two-tone blend of the body and beard colours. I really wanted to embrace the Father Christmas-y vibes with my Gneville, so I used the cream beard colour for mine.

I also worked really hard to make a super fluffy pompom! Homemade pompoms are kind of… the bane of my life? They never seem to be as fluffy, dense and secure as I want/expect them to be, which always drives me mad. To make this pompom, I used the 1-inch pompom maker from Clover (the purple one in this pack). I wound the yarn so that the maker was pretty full (I aim for a semi-circle shape of yarn on each side, rather than a macaroni shape, if that makes sense), tied it off super tightly with a double knot, then used a sharp sewing needle to push the two ends back and forth through the centre of the pompom, to help secure it. I then went through an aggressive cycle of trimming and rolling the pompom between the palms of my hands, continuing on until I was pretty happy. It’s not perfect, but it’s the best I’ve managed to achieve so far, so I’m taking that as a win!

Things I Loved!

I already knew I’d love Gneville, due to his special backstory and festive place in my heart, but there were a few things about him that made me extra happy:

• Beard

I am obsessed with the twisted rib detail in Gneville‘s beard: I think it makes him look SO fancy, but also kind of rustic/folksy? I just love it— I think this might be my favourite gnome beard yet!

• ‘Bobble in Beard’ Nose

As if this beard needed any extra points in its favour: the nose is literally knit into the beard?! That means less sewing, less casting on, less time and LESS EFFORT! I’m obsessed with this method.

• Pompom

The pompom may have been a trial to make, but that’s just me and my pompom trauma talking. I think, here, the pompom really adds to Gneville‘s overall vibe: it definitely makes him feel extra Father Christmas-y, but it also gives a lovely finish to his hat!

• Cable pattern (particularly on the hat!)

This is definitely the most complicated series of cables I’ve ever worked and, while I don’t love working cables, I am absolutely obsessed with how they look on the hat: they’re just so beautiful and festive and cosy-looking! I’m not quite as in love with the honeycomb-style cable pattern on the body, but it’s still pretty cute!

• Colour

Red & cream Gneville is just SO FESTIVE and Santa-coded: I love it.

Things I Didn’t Quite Love…

• Working the cable pattern

Okay, okay. I love how the cables look (I actually love how all cables look!), but I just… don’t like working cables?! Is that, like, a blasphemous thing to say in the knitting community? Regular, simple cables are bad enough but… my goodness, there’s a lot of complex cabling in this little gnome and, as a result, the whole knitting process for Gneville is very, very slow. That hat? It felt endless. He definitely required the longest amount of knitting hours of all my gnomes, and the process wasn’t the most enjoyable, but I still love him and I’m still stupidly tempted to make a Gneville the Second, so make of that what you will.

• The hat brim

I feel like there’s something funny going on with Gneville‘s brim, and I thought it was just on my Gneville, but, on closer inspection, I think it’s on the Gneville (and Gnancy) in the pattern too! The brim is worked in alternating rows of knit/purl, to give a mock garter stitch effect. When you pick up the stitches for the body (much lower down on the brim than for other gnomes, interestingly!), I find it really pulls the brim and exposes the knit stitches (as opposed to the purl bumps) more than I would like. I’m not sure how I’d go about addressing that, or whether it’s a design feature in itself (thought I find that it’s the one place where my hat stuffing pokes through a little, which bothers me no end): maybe a slightly larger brim/slightly higher location for the body pick-up might help?

• Stuffing the hat

I love the look of a floppy gnome hat, but I really do not enjoy stuffing the hat with the ‘firm ball of stuffing’ that Schira talks about to get that partially-stuffed effect. It feels like a lot of pressure to get the right size/shape/firmness of the stuffing, I’m not entirely sure what I’m aiming for AND the stuffing can move at any moment once Gneville‘s sewn up, all of which make me slightly anxious and uncomfortable. I wish I could get to grips with this technique (in fairness, it’s only the second time I’ve done it!), but, currently, it plagues me.

• Gneville‘s stability (or lack thereof…)

I mentioned this earlier, but Gneville is definitely the least stable of my gnomes, despite his whole body being filled with weighted stuffing. As I said, I think it must have something to do with the relative skinniness of his body (or perhaps I didn’t stuff him enough?) but he sits perfectly well on my palm, then immediately flops over backwards when I set him on a flat surface (unless I spend a little while carefully positioning him). He can stand upright, he just needs a little arranging (but all my other gnomes seem to fare perfectly well, so this is definitely a Gneville problem!).

Final Thoughts

Gneville isn’t perfect, but he’s exactly what I wanted from this month’s gnome: he’s a tribute to the reason I started gnome-ing, he’s festive and Christmassy and fun and he makes a lovely addition to my ever-growing gnome collection.

It was really fun getting to grips with reading knitting charts with this project: I’m fine following colourwork charts, but I’ve never taken the time to understand cable charts and this felt like the perfect, low-stakes opportunity for that. I definitely feel much more comfortable with the process now and, even though I know I’d still have to double-check the symbols, I think I could work from a chart again in the future without too much bother!

Also, I know I’ve said it before, but Gneville‘s beard might just be my favourite thing I’ve ever made. I’m in love with it (and him), and that’s my main takeaway from this project!

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about this month’s gnome! I’m still deciding which gnome to knit next month… probably something without cables…

If you're interested...

You can buy The Gnomes of Grimblewood on Amazon here.

You can find the pattern for Here We Gnome Again on Ravelry here.

You can find my Ravelry project page for Gneville the First here.

Gemma

xxx

Table of Contents

• Funfetti Socks
• Hosta Pillow
• Pig in Blanket Ornament
• Cat Ornament
• Stjärna Ornament
• Grace Blanket
• Cookie Boxes
• Final Thoughts

Funfetti Socks

Craft: Knitting

Pattern: I didn’t use a strict pattern for these, but you can find all of my notes on the sock-making process on their Ravelry project page. In essence, this is just a cabled design with a shadow wrap heel and a rounded toe!

Yarn: Drops Fabel, in the shade Confetti Cake (924).

This was actually my first time knitting a pair of socks for someone other than myself! Luckily, they were for my mum, who keeps extensive notes on her own knitting projects on her Ravelry page, so I was able to piece together a pattern/stitch count that fit her perfectly, without her suspecting a thing!

I bought this particular yarn a while ago, because I thought it was SO pretty, and I kept it aside to use for this project. I really love how it looks knitted up!

Hosta Pillow

Craft: Crochet

Pattern: Hosta Pillow by Sidsel Sangild

Yarn: Stylecraft Special 4 Ply, in the shade Teal (1062).

Many years ago, I knitted a cabled cushion (this one, to be exact) as a gift. Back then, my knitting tension was not the best (read: I didn’t tension my knitting at all— whole thing), so the cover ended up bigger than the cushion pad and I may or may not have had to fill in the extra space with toy stuffing… Anyway, this time around, I decided to stick to my strengths and make a crocheted cushion cover instead!

I really loved the design of this particular pattern and I have made crochet projects that use similar techniques before, so I decided to give it a go. It took me quite a bit longer to finish than I expected (it’s a little bit of an involved process), but I really like the finished product!

To ensure the cover is washable, I used an acrylic yarn and inserted a zip (by hand, with a good ol’ needle and thread). I used this 40cm, teal zip and, while it’s not an exact colour match, it is a similar shade to the ‘Teal’ Stylecraft shade. Speaking of the yarn… I was not a big fan, which was SO disappointing, because we all know how much I LOVE Special DK. Unfortunately I just found its 4 ply counterpart super splitty and annoying to work with, so I don’t think I’ll be using it again 🙁 …

Pig in Blanket Ornament

Craft: Crochet

Pattern: Pig In A Granny Square Blanket by A Good Right Hook

Yarn: Oddments of Stylecraft Special DK.

The first of three ornaments that I made this year (for gifting purposes), this Pig in Blanket pattern came up so often on my Pinterest that I really couldn’t escape how cute it was, or avoid making it. I particularly liked the colours used in the pattern, so I rummaged through my stash of Stylecraft Special DK to find some shades that were as similar as possible!

I was so happy with how this one turned out and it was so quick to whip up (I’ve made a lot of amigurumi in my time, so I’ve had lots of practice with projects like this). I did make a few little changes here and there to this pattern, mainly to adapt it so that I could use DK weight yarn for each element (the original pattern uses DK, 4 ply, 2 ply and thread). Unfortunately, I seem to have mislaid all the notes I took on the process! You can find all the details (that I can remember…) for the adaptations I made on the Ravelry project page I made for this lil’ pig.

Cat Ornament

Craft: Knitting

Pattern: Cat Christmas Ornaments by Amy Gaines

Yarn: Oddments of Stylecraft Special DK.

The second ornament and another pattern that I just happened to see one day and immediately fell in love with— I just think this cat is so cute! I also love how simple it is— like a little cat bean bag! I used DK weight yarn for this project, instead of the worsted the pattern calls for, so mine was a little smaller than it should have been but, honestly, I feel like it’s kind of the perfect bauble size as it is? I did have to shorten the length of the scarf because of this though, to ensure it fit the cat correctly. You can find the Ravelry project page for this ornament here.

Stjärna Ornament

Craft: Knitting

Pattern: Stjärna by Karolina Eckerdal

Yarn: Drops Merino Extra Fine, in the shade Off White (01).

I’ve actually already written a whole post about making these Stjärna Ornaments, as part of my Blogmas At Home 2024 series! I had to include it here too though, because one of the four ornaments I knitted was for a present. If you want to read more about my experience making this, you can go directly to that post here!

Grace Blanket

Craft: Crochet

Pattern: Grace Blanket by Anita Gibney

Yarn: Wendy Supreme DK, in the shades Cream (WD02), Duck Egg (WD28), Rose (WD09), Soft Peach (WD52) and Natural (WD17).

Another project that I’ve already written a post on, I made this Grace Blanket way back in the summer, while watching the Olympics. Since then, it’s been hiding out in the airing cupboard, waiting to be wrapped and stashed under the tree, buy it’s finally out in the open now and living its best, blanket-y life! If you’d like to read more about my experience making this blanket, you can find the original post here.

Cookie Boxes

Craft: Baking

Treats included:

• German Mandelhörnchen
• Austrian Vanillekipferl
• Mini gingerbread houses
• Peppermint bark
• Rocky Road bark
• Copycat Christmas Market Nuts

Finally, we come to the only edible presents I made this year: my (kind of) cookie boxes. I dream of establishing a tradition where I make a ridiculous amount of cookies, box them up and deliver them to friends and family during Advent (social media and Hallmark films seem to have brainwashed me into obsessing over this particular American custom, and now I can’t get it out of my head…). This wasn’t quite that, but I like to think of it as a little stepping stone into that world.

My ‘cookie boxes’ this year, then, were a mix of cookies and non-cookie-but-still-very-festive treats. My German Mandelhörnchen were such a hit last year that I just had to make them again (and they were just as good as I remember!). I also branched out a little bit with another recipe from Anja Dunk’s festive cookbook, ‘Advent’: Vanillekipferl, which are these little, vanilla-almond crescent cookies. I did like these and I’m excited to play around with them a bit more next year, but the Mandelhörnchen are still my favourite Christmas cookies at the moment. The final cookie entry was a tiny gingerbread house, made using Mima Sinclair’s Light Gingerbread Dough recipe and some tiny gingerbread house cutters from Søstrene Grene (one of my favourite purchases of this festive season).

After that came the non-cookie confectionery, of which there were three types this year: my classic Peppermint Bark and Copycat Christmas Market Nuts (both well-established, festive traditions in my household now), as well as a new addition: Rocky Road Bark. This was a special request from my soon-to-be sister-in-law, which I made using a 50:50 blend of milk and dark chocolate, along with crumbled digestive biscuits, mini marshmallows and raisins.

To package up the cookie boxes, I used these craft paper treat boxes. I lined each box with baking paper, then arrange the cookies inside. Naturally, I ran out of room, so I had to put btoh the barks and the nuts into little treat bags alongside the box, instead. I planned to do this for the peppermint bark anyway, because I didn’t want the peppermint flavour to spread to all of the other treats, so I wasn’t too disappointed. After that, I just closed up the boxes, tied them up with twine and added a little gift tag, to explain all of the treats inside.

Final Thoughts

And that is everything I made to give to my friends and family over the holiday season! It’s not as much as I’ve done in the past (I really love making handmade gifts), but Christmas always seems to sneak up on me, no matter how early I try to start preparing, so I was still pretty impressed with my creative output this year!

I hope you had a lovely Christmas & New Year, and that you’re ready for lots more creative, crafty fun in 2025!

Gemma

xxx

Last year, just before Christmas, I saw this amazing crochet garland on Instagram by @deliacreates. It was designed to look like a string of popcorn and cranberries, which is a festive tradition in the US that I have always been fascinated by! I could never bring myself to sacrifice so much delicious popcorn in the pursuit of pretty, Christmassy decor (I love popcorn), so a crocheted version felt like the perfect, fun alternative. As an added bonus, the (free!) pattern looked super simple and straightforward, so I knew this would be a quick and easy project for the festive season. Unfortunately, I saw the post a little too late to make a garland in time for Christmas last year, so I carried it over and made it this year, instead!

Table of Contents

• Materials
  • Cygnet Seriously Chunky: Mini Review
• Making the Garland
• Final Thoughts

Materials

To make this garland, I used the following materials:

• 1 skein of Cygnet Seriously Chunky yarn, in the shade Cream (0288).
• 87 x 12mm dark red wooden beads (I bought this pack of 100 on Etsy).*
• 6.50mm crochet hook.
• 3.00mm crochet hook.**

That’s it! Because I already had the crochet hooks, I only had to buy the yarn and the beads (which worked out at just under £6), so this was a super budget-friendly project!

* The original pattern used bright red beads, but I wanted a more realistic-looking, muted garland, so I opted to use these dark red beads, which I felt had more of a cranberry vibe!

** The original pattern calls for a 3.25mm hook, but I found a 3.00mm hook was easier to insert through the beads and worked just as well.

Cygnet Seriously Chunky: Mini Review

Cygnet Seriously Chunky is a 100% acrylic, super chunky weight yarn that is sold in 100g skeins. Each 100g skein contains about 48 metres of yarn and (at time of posting), costs £2.99 on Wool Warehouse (my go-to for yarn-y purchases!). The yarn comes in a variety of colours (though it’s not the most extensive shade range I’ve seen), and I chose the shade Cream (0288) for this project, which was a nice, neutral, popcorn-esque colour.

I have to say, I truly forgot that this was an acrylic yarn as I was working with it- it has a real, wooly ‘fuzz’ to it that really tricked me into thinking it was made of natural fibres. While the ‘fuzzy’ look probably wasn’t quite the right vibe for making popcorn kernels, I do think this would be a great, budget alternative to a natural fibre yarn for other projects. Even though my kernels are a little on the fuzzy side, I still really love the way this yarn worked up for this project- I think it gives the garland a really homespun, felted look that feels very festive.

Making the Garland

When making this project, I followed the original pattern to the letter. It’s such a simple process, but it’s so effective (and so quick to work up- I made this whole garland in a single sitting!). The popcorn kernels are made from a simple puff stitch, worked in the super chunky yarn, and the cranberries are just wooden beads, added in between each kernel. I kept going until I ran out of yarn, then fastened off, and before I knew it, I had the perfect popcorn & cranberry garland, ready for Christmas. My finished garland, using a full skein of yarn and 87 cranberries, ended up being about 375cm long.

I did pick up a few little tricks and techniques when making this project, so I thought I’d share those with you here:

• Keep the beads at the front of the work.

When I first started working up my garland, I didn’t pay much attention to how I reinserted the 6.50mm hook into the working loop of yarn after I added each bead. After a little while, I found that this did have an effect on the garland- in some places, the beads were fully visible, while in others they were obscured by the yarn that runs along them. After a little bit of trial and error, I found that making sure the working loop wasn’t twisted when you reinsert the hook and making a conscious effort to keep the beads to the front of the work helped to minimise this problem. While the garland still twists a little, it’s much less noticeable than before!

• When adding the beads, keep the working loop of yarn as taut as possible.

Adding the beads is the fiddliest part of this project, because you have to pull a doubled piece of super chunky yarn through a pretty small hole! Honestly, this was easier than I expected- it took a couple of attempts sometimes, but, as the pattern says, if you split the yarn, you can just remove the hook, bring the yarn back together and try again! One thing that I found that really helped here was to hold the yarn as tightly as I could around the hook as I pulled it through the bead.

• Keep the beads in a bowl beside you.

This is such a small thing, it barely even warrants a bullet point of its own, but it made a big difference to my speed and efficiency! My beads came in a little, grip seal bag, which is great for storage, but not so great for quickly picking one up every time you need to add a ‘cranberry’ to the garland. I transferred my beads to a bowl and put the bowl on a flat surface beside me (a flat surface is important, if you would like to avoid beads rolling all over the place). This meant that I could just grab a bead super easily whenever I needed one, which really sped up the whole process for me.

Final Thoughts

I am so thrilled with how this garland turned out- it gives me such festive, homespun, felty vibes and I just love it! I particularly like how quickly it came together, how easy it was to work up and how effective the pattern was- I do really think it looks like a popcorn and cranberry garland!

I’m really glad that I opted to use the darker red beads- I think it not only makes this garland look more realistic, but it also looks a little more understated and classic. While the yarn I chose is a bit on the ‘fuzzy’ side, and so makes for slightly fuzzy popcorn kernels, I actually also really like that effect- this is, after all, a crocheted garland, and I don’t mind that being evident!

Overall, I loved working on this project almost as much as I love the finished product! It was the perfect, quick and easy festive project and I know I’ll be using it in my Christmas decorating for many years to come. Plus, no popcorn was harmed in the making of this garland, so that’s an extra little win.

If you're interested...

You can find the "Popcorn & Cranberry" Crochet Garland pattern here.

You can check out the Delia Creates website here.

You can find my Popcorn & Cranberry Garland project page on Ravelry here.

Gemma

xxx

This no-bake, Small Batch Festive Chocolate Biscut Cake is basically a Christmassy, slightly more grown-up version of Rocky Road. Made with a combination of milk and dark chocolate for the perfect combination of bitter and sweet, it also includes crumbled amaretti biscuits, roasted, salted almonds and dried cranberries. The whole thing is finished off with a drizzle of white chocolate to make the bars look super pretty on your festive table this year!

Because there’s always so much chocolate and so many sweet treats around this time of year, I developed this as a small batch recipe: it only makes 12 small pieces (though it’s pretty rich, so that’s perfect!), so you can don’t feel overwhelmed by yet another chocolate-y treat! If you’d like to make a bigger batch, feel free to scale up the recipe and use a bigger tin.

Table of Contents

• Ingredients
• Method

Ingredients

To make this festive chocolate biscuit cake, you will need the following ingredients:

• Dark, milk & white chocolate

This biscuit cake uses a combination of dark and milk chocolate, for the perfect, sweet, but not-too-sweet combination. If you prefer, you can use all dark, or all milk. You will also need a small amount of white chocolate to drizzle over the top of the bars, but this is an optional step (it just makes the bars look SO pretty!).

• Golden syrup

Golden syrup is melted with the chocolate to make the bars slightly soft and fudgy (and easier to slice!).

• Unsalted butter

Like the golden syrup, this is combined with the chocolate to keep the bars nicely fudgy and sliceable, but it also makes them extra rich. I would recommend using unsalted butter, because there are already other salty elements in the recipe— it’s still a sweet treat, after all!

• Amaretti biscuits

These are crisp, Italian almond biscuits that are often served alongside coffee. They’re readily available in supermarkets across the UK these days and they add great crunch and flavour to these bars.

• Roasted, salted almonds

To echo the almond flavour of the amaretti, I’ve used almonds in this biscuit cake (though you could substitute them with another nut (or even just more biscuits), if you prefer). Using roasted almonds helps to ensure the bars have a really nutty flavour, while the saltiness really help to balance out the sweetness of the bars.

If you only have plain almonds, you can turn them into roasted & salted almonds super easily! Dissolve a generous pinch of sea salt in 1 tsp of hot water, then toss with the almonds, until they are completely coated. Bake the almonds at 180°C for about 5 minutes (or throw them in the airfryer at the same temperature, for the same amount of time), until golden and nutty-smelling. Allow them to cool before chopping and using in the bars.

• Dried cranberries

What could be more festive than cranberries? Traditionally, biscuit cake contains raisins, but cranberries add the same chew with extra festive-ness, plus, they’re more tart than raisins, so they help to make sure these bars aren’t too sweet. I recommend using unsweetened dried cranberries, if you can find them.

• Coarse sea salt

This is optional, but I like to sprinkle a small amount of coarse sea salt over the top of the bars before they go into the fridge to set. This echoes the saltiness of the almonds and makes these bars feel extra grown-up and delicious!

Method

To make the bars, start by preparing your tin. Like with my small batch pecan bars, I’m using a 900g (2lb) loaf tin (21cm x 11cm x 7cm), but you can use any shape tin, as long as it’s a similar size. Line the tin with baking paper, so that the chocolate mixture doesn’t stick to the sides of the tin and you can remove it easily.

Next, prepare your mix-ins. First, crumble up the amaretti cookies. Aim for small chunks— too big and your bars won’t be even, too small and you won’t get that nice, crunchy texture! Amaretti cookies are quite fragile, so it shouldn’t require too much force to break them.

Chop the almonds roughly. Again, you don’t want them too big or too small (though honestly, it doesn’t really matter— the bars will still taste great, so do whatever you feel like!)

For the cranberries, just leave them whole.

Next, prepare the chocolate mixture. Place both the milk and dark chocolate, along with the butter and golden syrup into a small saucepan and set over a low heat.

Stir frequently as the chocolate and butter melts.

Once you have a smooth mixture, remove the pan from the heat. It’s important that you don’t overheat the chocolate, because it might seize (at which point you’d have to start all over again!).

Pour out about 50g of the chocolate mixture into a separate bowl. Set this aside for later, when you’ll use it to level out the top of the bars, to make them extra pretty!

To the rest of the chocolate mixture in the pan, add the crumbled amaretti cookies, the chopped almonds and the dried cranberries.

Mix everything together thoroughly, until all of the mix-ins are completely coated in the chocolate mixture.

Tip the mixture into the lined tin and spread out into an even layer. It will seem like there’s not a lot of mixture, but just spread it out evenly— because these bars are small, they don’t need to be too deep to look proportional.

Pour the reserved 50g of the chocolate mixture all over the top of the bars, and gently spread it over the surface to fill in any gaps and level everything out a little.

Now, it’s time to decorate. Drizzle some melted white chocolate all over the surface of the bars— the messier the better!

Sprinkle over some coarse sea salt while the chocolate is still wet, so that is sticks.

Put the whole tin into the fridge to firm up for at least 3 hours, or until firm enough to slice. Once it’s chilled, remove it from the tin and transfer it to a chopping board.

Once chilled, cut the biscuit cake into 12 small bars and dig in!

The bars will keep in an airtight container at a (cool) room temperature for 4-5 days, but, if your house is particularly warm, I’d recommend storing them in the fridge to prevent the chocolate from melting!

Print

Small Batch Festive Chocolate Biscuit Cake

This rich, grown-up version of Rocky Road contains a 50/50 blend of milk and dark chocolate, alongside crumbled amaretti cookies, salted almonds and dried cranberries. The perfect, quick and easy, no-bake recipe for Christmas!

Course Dessert, Snack

Cuisine British, Italian

Keyword almond, Amaretti, Cranberry, Dark Chocolate, Milk Chocolate, White Chocolate

Prep Time 25 minutes minutes

Chill Time 3 hours hours

Total Time 3 hours hours 25 minutes minutes

Servings 12 small pieces

Equipment

• 1 900g (2lb) loaf tin (21cm x 11cm x 7cm)

Ingredients

• 90 g milk chocolate, roughly chopped.
• 90 g dark chocolate, roughly chopped.
• 60 g unsalted butter
• 50 g golden syrup
• 70 g amaretti biscuits, broken up.
• 40 g roasted, salted almonds, roughly chopped.
• 30 g dried cranberries

To decorate:

• 15 g white chocolate, melted.
• Coarse sea salt, for sprinkling.

Instructions

• Line the tin with greaseproof paper and set aside.
• Place the milk and dark chocolate, unsalted butter and golden syrup into a small saucepan and set over low heat. Stir gently while the mixture melts together.
• Once the mixture is smooth and completely melted, remove from the heat immediately. Pour about 50g of the mixture into a small bowl for later.
• To the remaining chocolate mixture in the pan, add the crumbled amaretti cookies, the chopped almonds and the dried cranberries. Mix well to coat everything in the chocolate mixture.
• Tip the mixture into the prepared tin and smooth out into an even layer. Pour over the reserved chocolate mixture and smooth over to level out the surface.
• Drizzle the melted white chocolate all over the surface of the bars, then sprinkle with coarse sea salt.
• Place the bars into the fridge to chill for at least 3 hours, or until firm enough to slice. Remove from the tin and slice into 12 small pieces to serve. The bars will keep at room temperature, in an airtight container, for 4-5 days (though, if the weather is warm, I would recommend storing them in the fridge).

In this post, as always with my 'Making a...' series, I'll be chatting about my experience making this pattern, as well as detailing any changes/adaptations I made. If you want to make your own Christmas Bear, you can purchase the pattern from the designer here!

Table of Contents

• Pattern Variations
• Materials
  • Yarn
  • Notions
• Adaptations
• Final thoughts

Pattern Variations

The pattern contains instructions for making two different styles of bear: a polar bear (i.e. all white) and a brown bear (i.e. with a different colour muzzle), though you can obviously use whatever colours you want! I opted to make a polar bear, just to really drive home the whole ‘Christmas Bear’ vibe (and, as an added bonus, it meant I only had to buy one colour of yarn…).

Another customisable element of the pattern is the outfit you make for your bear. Instructions are given for both a romper (with individual leg holes) and a dress, though the design of both is exactly the same (as with the bear, colours can be changed). I opted to make the dress, using the same green/brown colour scheme as the outfit on the main pattern photo, because I thought it was really cute and very Christmassy!

Finally, the pattern comes with two separate sets of instructions: one for knitting the bear flat (on straight needles) and one for knitting the bear in the round (on DPNs). I actually didn’t realise this at first, so I could have just knitted this little bear flat, but I’d already committed to facing my fear, so I stuck with my plan to knit it in the round.

Materials

Yarn

For this project, I used the following yarns:

• Drops Lima Uni Color, in the shade Off White (0100).

I used this yarn for all of the bear’s body pieces. I bought 1x50g ball (despite the pattern calling for 55g…) and I had just enough to make the whole toy (yarn chicken success!).

• Rowan Felted Tweed, in the shades Pine (158), Camel (157) and Ginger (154).

I used this yarn for the bear’s dress: Pine for the bodice/sleeves, Camel for the skirt and Ginger for the reindeer’s nose.

• Oddments of fingering weight yarn, in Black and Brown.

I used the black yarn for embroidering on the bear’s face and the reindeer’s eyes (the pattern suggests using beads for this, but, since I already had the yarn to hand, I just used that!). I used the brown yarn to crochet the little reindeer antlers.

Notions

I used the following needles/hooks:

• 5x 2.75mm DPNs

Used for the bear’s body pieces.

• 2.75mm circular needles

Used for the bear’s dress.

• 2mm crochet hook

Used for crocheting the reindeer’s antlers.

• Darning needle

For sewing up.

• Fine sewing needle

For embroidering/attaching buttons.

I also used the following extra materials:

• Lockable stitch markers

Essential for toy-making!

• Toy stuffing

I like to stuff knitted soft toys quite firmly, because I think it gives them the most professional look, so I always use quite a bit of toy stuffing (though it is possible that I overstuffed this particular bear— she’s definitely on the tubby side).

• Two 20mm coconut shell buttons

For attaching the legs to the body.

• Two 11mm wooden heart buttons

For the dress closure.

Adaptations

While I didn’t make any changes during the actual knitting process (your girl is not confident enough for that… yet), I did make a few adjustments when it came to sewing the bear together/embroidering on all the details:

• Head

I sewed the head on to the body using quite a wide circumference on the body, to make sure the neck was nice and sturdy (no lolling heads here!). I went around the head once and it was still quite flimsy and floppy, so I went round again, a little further out, and it was much more secure.

• Nose

After using the cast on thread for the head to sew the nose shut (as instructed), I didn’t cut it off, so I could use it to do the nose shaping later on. The pattern suggests using embroidery thread for this stage, but I felt lazy and found the matching thread worked just as well.

I also used the Camel shade of the Rowan Felted Tweed (the same one I used for the dress) to embroider the nose, instead of embroidery thread. When stitching the nose, I started in the centre, rather than on one side, to ensure the nose was centred and symmetrical.

• Eyes

I did not use French knots for the bear’s eyes as instructed— I really struggled with them and definitely couldn’t get anything that resembled the cute eyes from the pattern! Instead, I used the black fingering weight yarn and my 2mm crochet hook to make a magic ring (6 dc— as always, British crochet terminology) and stitched that on. Having said that though, I’ve actually been working on my French knots since this and I think I’m starting to get the hang of them now? Nevertheless, the magic ring-style eyes worked really well, so I’m still happy with them!

• Arms

I didn’t gather up the cast on edge at the top of the arm as instructed, but instead sewed the stitches together so that I had a flat edge to sew onto the bear. This meant that I could kind of tuck the arms in between the body and the head, which I felt gave a better, cleaner finish. The arms need to be quite high up on the body, so I found this helped them to sit more neatly.

I realised that it was super important that the arms lined up with the dress, so I actually put the arms ‘into’ the dress, then put the dress on the bear to see where they needed to sit before stitching them on (otherwise the dress wouldn’t fit right!). I ended up sewing the shoulder seams right into the crevice between the body and the head.

• Legs

The buttons I was using to attach the legs had four holes (as opposed to two), so I had to do some more stitches than instructed to attach the legs. I went through the first leg (and one button), went back in through another hole on the button, then pushed the needle right through to the other side, through the other leg (and other button), then repeated the process until all of the button holes had been stitched through. This makes the legs move together, which I think (?) is what the pattern suggests.

• Dress

I used heart-shaped buttons for the dress, because I thought they were cute. I did make my button holes 5 chains long (instead of 6), because my crochet hook was slightly larger than the one suggested in the pattern, but I think I could have gone down to 4 chains for a closer fit to my buttons.

Final thoughts

Phew… my first, proper, DPN-knitted toy and I think it turned out super well! I’m actually so happy with it— there’s always that worry when you make a handmade toy that it won’t turn out as cute and perfect as it looks in the pattern, but I think this one is pretty close! I admit, knitting on DPNs is a bit of a trial, but it wasn’t as completely impossible as I thought it would be and it does give a really lovely, polished look.

I thought the pattern for this bear was super clear and detailed— I really enjoyed making it. I would have loved a little bit more guidance on specific placements for each of the body parts, just to make sewing up the bear that little bit easier, but I’m really happy with how my bear turned out, which, to me, is a sign of a good pattern.

I was a little sceptical about the button-leg-joint situation, just because it was kind of giving Coraline vibes which freaked me out a little bit, but I actually really love that feature. It makes the bear much more agile and manoeuvrable, so it can be positioned easily. I also think it actually looks quite cute in real life (but the dress covers the buttons anyway, so you can always just pretend the buttons aren’t there!).

Speaking of the dress… it is quite short! I feel like my little Christmas Bear is a bit exposed… If I were to make the dress again, I definitely add a few more rows (maybe 3-5?), just to give my bear a little more modesty. This dress was actually my very first time knitting Raglan lines, which means this project is kind of, almost, a Project Knitwear instalment? In mini, bear form? I learned about M1T and M1A, but it did take me quite a bit of getting used to and, honestly, I don’t think I could remember how to do it now, so I might need a little bit more practice on that one!

On the topic of what I’d do differently next time, if you’re making a polar bear, I’d also recommend placing a stitch marker on Round 9 of the head when the pattern says to change from Yarn B to Yarn A. Because there isn’t the same colour distinction with the polar bear as with the regular bear, I found it really hard to figure out where the nose was after I stuffed the head!

Overall, I am SO happy with how this Christmas Bear turned out! I think it’s such a cute, neat pattern and I’m really proud of my bear. I’d love to make more bears (I saw the cutest ‘Autumn Bear‘ variation!), but I think I’d need to gear myself up a little bit before going in for Round 2— I may have faced my DPN fear, but I don’t think I’ve quite conquered it yet!

If you're interested...

You can find the Christmas Bear pattern by Ekaterina Popova here.

You can find my Christmas Bear project page on Ravelry here.

Gemma

xxx

Last year, I shared a full rundown of my beloved Christmas Cookbook Collection. I’ve always loved a good cookbook, but Christmas-based ones are my absolute favourite, so I’ve amassed a rather extensive collection of them over the years. This year, my plan was to treat myself to one, single, festive cookbook to add to my collection.

Naturally, I ended up with three.

In this post, I’ll be talking through each of the new books, sharing the recipes in them that I’m most interested in and chatting a bit about where they fit in with the other books in my collection!

Let’s get into it, shall we?

‘ScandiKitchen Christmas’ by Brontë Aurell

This was the cookbook that I actually planned to buy this year. I already have one ScandiKitchen book (ScandiKitchen Fika & Hygge), which I really love (and I actually think it contains a lot of festive recipes anyway!), so when I saw that Aurell had a Christmas book too, I knew it had to be at the top of my list.

As the name suggests, this book features a deep-dive into Scandinavian food and traditions during the festive season. There’s a good balance of sweet and savoury recipes, plus some lovely written passages that explain the folklore and customs surrounding Christmastime is Scandinavia. I’m a particular fan of the photos in this book— everything looks so beautiful and inviting, just looking at all of the pictures makes me feel so festive.

While this book has a pretty clear niche (i.e. Christmas in Scandinavia), I still think it would be great for anyone who has a general love of Christmas, or even someone who just fancies a new cookbook to broaden their cooking horizons, seeing as a lot of the recipes feel like they could be enjoyed year-round. I think this book does a great job of making Scandinavian cooking approachable, even to those completely unfamiliar with it (like me!).

I’m most interested in…

• Danish Pancake Balls (æbleskiver), p.20.

There’s a recipe for these in Scandinavian Christmas by Trine Hahnemann, which I’ve had for many years now, and I have always been intrigued by them!

• The Three Meatballs, pp. 102-3.

I was probably the most excited when I came across this double-page spread in the book, which gives individual recipes for meatballs from Noway (medisterkaker), Sweden (köttbullar) and Denmark (frikadeller). Like many people, my only experience of Swedish meatballs has been from the IKEA cafeteria, so I think it would be super fun to make my own and try out some variations from across Scandinavia!

• Rice Pudding (risengrød), pp. 151-2.

For starters, I’m a big fan of rice pudding, so I’m always up for trying new recipes/variations of it. However, I’m particularly intrigued by this rice pudding, which is apparently entwined with a fun tradition, where a single, whole almond is hidden inside and whoever finds it receives a prize: usually a marzipan pig (along with, you know, good fortune for the year ahead)! Perhaps I’m more intrigued by the marzipan pig than the rice pudding itself, but, I mean, who wouldn’t be?

• Almond Ring Cake (kransekage/kransekake), pp. 155-6.

If you’ve been here for a while, you might remember my Gingerbread Christmas Market, where I made a miniature version of a kransekake as the central Christmas tree. I had so much fun doing that, but my kransekake wasn’t perfect, so I’d love to have another go at it (I have the tin, after all).

In my collection…

ScandiKitchen Christmas fits into the country/region-specific cookbook section of my collection, along with Advent by Anja Dunk and Scandinavian Christmas by Trine Hahnemann. Obviously, it’s most similar to Scandinavian Christmas, as both focus on the same region (and both contain a range of sweet/savoury recipes), but they do both bring different recipes and approaches to Christmas, so it doesn’t feel like too much of a repeat. I would say that ScandiKitchen Christmas is a little more comprehensive, but I love both books.

Buy SkandiKitchen Christmas from Blackwell’s for £15.34.

‘Nordic Winter’ by Viola Minerva Virtamo

Nordic Winter is part-cookbook, part photo book— it’s filled with a variety of sweet and savoury recipes, alongside a plethora of winter-y photos that take up whole pages and really immerse you in that festive feeling. Unlike most cookbooks, Nordic Winter isn’t split up into chapters: you’ll find the savoury recipes in the first half of the book, followed by the sweet recipes in the second half, with a sprinkling of other, crafty ideas littered throughout. As you might be able to gather from the title of this one, all of the recipes are firmly rooted in Nordic traditions and, while there are a few recipes that are just generally winter-y, the main focus of the book is the Christmas season, specifically.

Compared to the other Scandinavian-inspired books in my collection, this one definitely has a less hard-and-fast approach to tradition. While it paints a picturesque portrait of an idyllic, Nordic Christmastime, many of the traditional recipes featured in it contain adaptations and updates, offering a unique, new approach to the festive season.

This is a gorgeous book, both inside and out, with its dramatic photography and soft, matte pages. The spine itself is covered in a woven fabric, making the book extra pretty and rustic. I do think this book would make a lovely gift, too— especially because it isn’t a super well-known volume.

I’m most interested in…

• Cauliflower x 2, with Mustard Yoghurt, Herb Vinaigrette and Browned Butter, p.55.

I’m not one to find vegetable side dishes/salads overly exciting, but this looks absolutely delicious! It does seem like there’s quite a few separate components to make, but all of the flavours sound wonderful— I think my family would love it.

• Crispy Hazelnut & Chocolate Meringue Cake, p.141.

From what I can tell, this cake is essentially made up of two layers, which are baked right on top of each other. First, there’s a chocolate & hazelnut sponge, which is par-baked, then topped with a chocolate-y meringue and baked again. Not only does this cake look spectacular, I just know it tastes delicious (it’s hard to go wrong with chocolate and hazelnut)!

• Shrove Buns – “Semlor”, p.153.

I’m a sucker for an iconic recipe from around the globe (see my Baking Around the World series), so these traditional, Nordic buns jumped out at my immediately. Apparently, they’re traditionally enjoyed around Shrove Tuesday (hence the name), so I might have to wait until February to give them a go. They’re made from a sweet, cardamom-infused dough, then filled with jam/frangipane and whipped cream.

• Caramel Almond Cake with 3-Ingredient Ice Cream, p.184.

I have actually come across this “Tosca Cake” before (again, in my Baking Around the World series research), so I was very excited to come across a family recipe for it here. I’m not so interested in the ice cream (condensed milk-based ice cream recipes always seem to turn out too sweet for me), but the cake itself sounds right up my alley: it’s a plain cake, topped with a caramel-y, almond-y topping that is actually baked on top for the perfect, crispy layer. I can’t wait to give this one a try!

In my collection…

Much like ScandiKitchen Christmas above, Nordic Winter fits into the country/region-specific section of my Christmas Cookbook Collection, along with Advent by Anja Dunk and Scandinavian Christmas by Trine Hahnemann. As I mentioned, though, I do think it is has some quite unique takes on classic recipes, so I do think the book brings a bit of freshness to my collection.

Buy Nordic Winter from Søstrene Grene for £31.40.

‘Ginger Pig Christmas Cook Book’ by Tim Wilson & Rebecca Seal

Ginger Pig is a UK-based butcher that released their Christmas Cook Book last year. It contains a whole host of festive recipes, mainly savoury and, understandably, mainly meat-based (though there is a good number of vegetable recipes as well!). There is a chapter called ‘Sweet Things and Puddings’, so this book does contain some dessert recipes, but I would definitely consider it more of a cookbook than a baking book.

I feel like this book could make a perfect, cooking bible for the festive season (or honestly, year-round for a lot of the recipes!). There are loads of recipes for meals, sides, mains— even breakfast/brunch recipes, so it’s a real all-round cookbook. This book has a very Cotswolds–y vibe— the recipes are all for good, rustic food, but each one still feels elegant and special. There are also some helpful sections on kitchen equipment, cooking schedules, table decorations and wine pairings. The book itself also has a lovely, almost linen-feel cover, which I think makes it extra special, so it would make a great present too!

I’m most interested in…

• Whipped squash with roasted garlic, thyme and feta, p.49.

This dip doesn’t feel like a particularly Christmas-specific recipe— I think it would be great at any point during autumn/winter. I love squash, I love garlic and I love thyme, so I was particularly drawn to this. I’m undecided when it comes to feta, but maybe this could be the recipe to convince me?

• Festive roast porchetta, pp. 86-89.

I have been intrigued by the Italian pork roast ‘porchetta‘ for a looonnnnggg time now (I love crackling), so porchetta recipes always catch my eye. Maybe this will be the year I finally try it out? I don’t think this is a particularly authentic recipe, but it still looks absolutely delicious!

• Spiced clementine cake, pp. 152-3.

This might just be the most exciting recipe in this book for me— I absolutely love a standard orange & almond cake, but the addition of a little spice in this one feels so original and festive! It is also both gluten and dairy-free, which makes it a great option for Christmas catering.

• Almond cookies, p.167.

I love an almond-based cookie this time of year (see my Mandelhörnchen and Pizzicotti recipes from last year), so I was immediately drawn to these ones. They look pretty easy to make as well, which is always a bonus this time of year!

In my collection…

I would definitely place the Ginger Pig Christmas Cook Book with Nigella Christmas by Nigella Lawson and Jamie Oliver’s Christmas Cookbook by (surprisingly enough) Jamie Oliver. All three books take on the whole festive season, supplying a mixture of sweet and savoury recipes, treats, meals and sides, alongside general advice for the holidays. If you want to buy one, single, Christmas cookbook, I would recommend one of these three!

Final Thoughts

So, those are the three new additions to my ever-growing Christmas Cookbook Collection. I’m so excited about each one of these new books and I can’t wait to try out some recipes from them this festive season. Now, I have to cut myself off from the Christmas Cookbook purchasing train until next year…

Gemma

xxx

I’ve been eyeing up Petite Knit‘s December Bow pattern for a long time now, mainly because I’m desperately trying to get myself into a hair bow era (long, not-at-all-interesting story). However, this pattern makes a large bow, and my hair is super fine, so I’m easily swamped by hair accessories. I wonder, if I made the bow in fingering weight yarn, would it be more proportional for me? Perhaps, but that’s a problem for another day.

My desire to knit a December Bow persisted, and it happen to spring to mind while I was doing my annual binge-watching of Hallmark Christmas films (I start in late August and try to cram in as many as possible before I start rewatching the proper Christmas films in December). Sometimes (okay, most of the time), the decorations in those films are excessive (dare I say tacky?), but there’s something very joyful about the completely over-the-top, festive feel. There’s always massive trees, perfect garlands and huge bows! It was the latter that made me realise that I could just make December Bows to use as Christmas decorations and create my very own Hallmark heaven! This is ironic, because while I was set on a December Hair Bow, the actual pattern is for a hanging ornament, but we’ll just gloss over that one.

I imagined a garland, studded with big, red, knitted bows (I feel like the handmade, knitted element takes these bows from gaudy to alpine chic, but maybe that’s just wishful thinking). I figured if I got some green wire I could loop it through the middle band of the bows and attach them directly to the garland, to bring me joy all throughout December.

Anyway, that’s the long and rambling story of why I ended up making these December Bows (of which there are 5 in total). As always with my ‘Making a…’ Series, here are the details of the yarn/needles and the adaptations I made…

Table of Contents

• The Pattern
• The Yarn
  • Cascade 220 Superwash: Mini Review
• Adaptations
• Attaching the Bows to the Garland
• Final Thoughts

The Pattern

The December Bow is a knitting pattern by the popular designer Petite Knit. It is worked back and forth in garter stitch, with an i-cord edge, using simple increases/decreases for the shaping at the ends, before being gathered into a bow shape (for which there are detailed instructions included in the pattern). A double knitted band is made separately, on smaller needles, then wrapped around the middle of the bow. The ends of the band are then grafted together at the back, for a seamless look.

As I mentioned, the pattern is designed to make a hanging ornament, so it also includes instructions for attaching a leather handle to the bow. I opted to skip this step.

The Yarn

I decided to use Cascade 220 Superwash yarn, in the shade Ruby (893) for my bows. This is listed on Wool Warehouse (my go-to yarn source) as a DK weight yarn, but I think it is much more of a worsted weight (on their website, Cascade list it as a light worsted/DK weight, but I still think this is a bit off— on Ravelry, it’s listed as worsted and that definitely feels like the most accurate description to me). Needless to say, my bows probably turned out slightly bigger than they should have, but I’m not too mad about that, seeing as I’m only using them for decoration.

I chose a superwash yarn because I wanted the feel and general fanciness of a natural fibre, but I was also very aware that the bows were likely to get a bit dusty over the course of the festive season, so I wanted to be able to wash them easily, if needed.

I picked this particular superwash yarn because I just loved the colour— it was exactly the rich, festive red I was looking for! I did not, however, quite register the price of the yarn when I first bought it, which was a shame, because I wanted all of my bows to match. Each 100g ball costs £8.99 (at time of writing) and makes a grand total of 2 December Bows, so I ended up buying 3 balls in total (which is a ridiculous amount of money to spend on bows but, hey, what can you do?). If I were to go back in time, I’d probably look for a slightly cheaper alternative, but we live and learn.

Cascade 220 Superwash: Mini Review

I liked this yarn! As I mentioned, it’s definitely a worsted weight yarn (not a DK, or even a light worsted, at that, I don’t think), so that’s something to bear in mind, but I really enjoyed using it. The colour was rich and even, which was perfect for this project. It’s not the softest, but it’s also not not soft— it definitely has the feel I would expect from a superwash, wool yarn. I have read that it gets softer after washing, but I haven’t tried that yet. I’ve also seen a couple of reviews saying people had trouble with the dye coming off on their fingers, but I didn’t have that problem with this particular shade. The price isn’t too bad, especially for a 100% wool yarn, but I do think it was a bit too pricey for this particular project here.

I liked it, but I didn’t quite fall in love with it. It’s nice, and it worked well for this project, but it didn’t feel like anything particularly special. I’d use it again, but I’d also be interested in trying other, similar products.

Adaptations

On the whole, I didn’t make too many adjustments to these bows. I used the same needles listed in the pattern with my (ever so slightly thicker) yarn, and worked the main bow section to the stated length (50cm). When I wove in the ends on the main bow section, I used them to neaten up the points a little, then wove them into the i-cord edging for a seamless look.

I did, however, make a few little changes…

• I made the double knitted band a bit longer

The pattern calls for knitting the central band until it is 5cm long. I did this the first time and found that it was a bit too much of a stretch to get it around the middle of the bow, which left me with a slightly weird, pulled-looking bow. I wasn’t happy with it at all, so, next time around, I knitted the central band until it was 6cm long— it was SO much better! It was still a slight stretch to get it round, which kept things nice and neat, but it didn’t stay stretched once I had grafted the ends together, which made for the perfect bow shape. I definitely ran into this problem because of my slightly thicker yarn, so it’s definitely a me-problem, not a pattern-problem, but it’s good to know how to adapt the pattern for heavier weight yarns!

• I ran the first line of stitching lower down on the bow

When you’re gathering up the bows, the pattern instructs you to run a horizontal line of stitching across the main piece, 15cm up from the tips of the work. I found this made my bow a little bottom-heavy (i.e. the bow loops were a bit small, proportionally), so I actually ran this stitch line across at 13cm up from the tips instead. I found this gave me a much more even-looking bow.

• I used one extra piece of yarn to sew the whole bow together

In the pattern, you’re instructed to sew the horizontal line then tie off and cut the yarn. You then work a vertical line and, again, tie off and cut the yarn. I despise sewing in ends, so I just cut one long length and used that for the whole lot. I still tied it off tightly after each step, but I didn’t cut it until the very end.

• I added a few more stitches to help shape the bow

Sometimes, the gathered bow looked a little funny, so I took to adding a few more stitches (again, using that same yarn from above) here and there to even out the gathers and the shapes. This didn’t take long and wasn’t tricky to do at all, but I think it makes a huge difference.

Attaching the Bows to the Garland

To make my bow garland dreams come true, I had to find a way to attach them to the garland.

This was actually really easy to do— I just used a 10-15cm piece of green florist wire and threaded it through the back of each bow, right under the central band.

I then positioned the bow onto the garland and twisted the wire around the nearest branch to secure it in place. This means that the bows are easy to move around, if they’re not quite in the right spot, and to remove at the end of the season, ready to be packed away!

I used this prelit garland from John Lewis. It’s nice and worked well, plus it has different light options (you can choose between warm white and multicoloured lights, along with a variety of flashing/fading options), but I do feel it could do with a few more lights on it— it’s a little sparsely lit!

I also found these cute little felt stars in Sainsbury’s (and they were on offer!), which I hung on the garland, in between the bows, to add a bit more colour and interest.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I’m super happy with how these December Bows turned out! It took a little bit of trial and error at first to get them looking perfect, especially with my slightly different yarn weight, but I’m really happy with the process now— I feel like I can just whip one of these up whenever I need! After the first couple of bows, I got super quick at them, so they’re actually a pretty speedy knit for me, now that I know what I’m doing.

At first, I pretended I didn’t know how to graft stitches and opted to just (slightly shoddily) sew up the central band at the back, but I was just being lazy— I started grafting a few bows in and it really does make the bows look so much neater and more professional.

I also could not be happier with how my finished garland turned out! It looks just like I dreamed it would and, strangely enough, I think the impulse-bought white stars just bring the whole thing together!

I’ve loved making these bows and I think they’ll be a staple festive decoration for many years to come. Have you ever made a December Bow? I know it’s a popular pattern, so I’d love to hear about it if you have!

If you're interested...

You can buy the December Bow pattern, direct from Petite Knit here.

You can buy the December Bow pattern on Ravelry here.

You can find my December Bows project page on Ravelry here.

Gemma

xxx

I think traditions, particularly the ones surrounding this time of year, provide us with such a sense of nostalgia, joy and comfort. I have never spent a Christmas away from home, so all of our family traditions are deeply entrenched in my idea of what Christmas means and entails. I wouldn’t have it any other way though- I know that one day, Christmas will morph and change into something else for me, new traditions will be made and different experiences will be had, but, for now, there is something so peaceful about the idea of experiencing that familiar magic all over again.

In honour of Christmas Eve being tomorrow, I thought today I’d pay homage to the idea of traditions, and write a little bit about our Christmas Eve ones. Perhaps this post will help get you into the mood for the next few days of festivities, encourage you to remember your own Christmas Eve traditions over the years, or even just remind you, as we rush headlong into the festive frenzy, that Christmas is more than the stress and the turkey-basting and the family-wrangling. It’s memories and magic- a reminder that it’s okay for things to change, because that’s how the best traditions are made.

Table of Contents

• Last-Minute Wrapping
• Christmas Eve Ham
• Christmas Films
• Christmas Cookie Decorating
• Hanging the Stockings
• The Night Before Christmas
• Final Thoughts

Last-Minute Wrapping

This one isn’t strictly a tradition (or at least one any of us wants to be a tradition), but despite all of our best intentions, there always seems to be some last-minute wrapping left to do on Christmas Eve!

In fact, when I was little, my parents used to wrap most of our stocking presents after we went to bed on the 24th, which always ended up being quite late. This made for quite a funny chain of events when they were just a little bit tipsy after some particularly strong mulled wine one year! They were perhaps not quite as stealthy as they thought they were…

Christmas Eve Ham

On Christmas Day, we usually have a turkey for dinner (though I do remember a few years when we had a goose instead). On Christmas Eve, though, we have ham. In particular, we have Nigella Lawson’s Ham in Coca Cola. Honestly, we have converted SO many people to this ham- it is truly delicious. I know that it sounds kind of weird (and also kind of gross?) to boil a ham in Coca Cola- honestly, it probably is, but oh my, does it taste good. I’m not the biggest fan of turkey, so I end up eating lots of the leftovers from the ham on Christmas Day, and it makes me so happy.

We tend to serve the ham with Dauphinoise potatoes- which we, inevitably, have problems with. I think we’ve found a recipe that works for us now, but there were a good few years there where we just could NOT get the potatoes cooked. It was always a whole thing.

Christmas Films

We always save our favourite Christmas films for Christmas Eve. For a good long time now, the film of choice has been Arthur Christmas. However, more recently, we’ve all become obsessed with both the 2018 version of The Grinch and the film Klaus (which served as inspiration for my December bullet journal setup this year!). Watching Arthur Christmas on Christmas Eve is a given, but as time has gone on, we’ve also been known to throw the other two films into the mix as well, for extra festive cheer (and time relaxing before the big day!).

Christmas Cookie Decorating

This one is definitely a more recent tradition, to the point where I’m not even really sure if it counts as a tradition yet, but it is something that we sometimes do on Christmas Eve, in the evening. Having said that, we don’t do it every year, so maybe it hasn’t quite reached ‘tradition’ status yet! Basically, my mum and I make a batch of cookies, which we cut out into all sorts of shapes: either Finnish Spiced Biscuits, classic gingerbread (though I’m still looking around for a perfect recipe), or the plain butter dough I used for the 5-Ingredient Iced Star Biscuits from yesterday’s post.

We put on some Christmas songs and make some glacé icing, then I bring out my extensive collection of sprinkles and all of the leftover sweets from making the gingerbread house, and we let everyone loose on the cookies. We end up with all sorts- while I tend to gravitate towards reindeers, my brother has been known to turn a snowman cookie into a lightbulb and a snowflake into an atom. Very festive, no?

Hanging the Stockings

I feel this is probably a pretty universal Christmas Eve tradition, but we always hang our stockings up on Christmas Eve. There’s always a last-minute scuffle when we can’t find the stockings, but we always seem to locate them eventually! We don’t actually hang them over a fireplace, or at the foot of our beds, but on the chest of drawers on our landing. We have these decorative golden hooks that spell out ‘NOEL’ (+ a Christmas tree, because there are 5 of us!)- they sit on the edge of the dresser and we hang our stockings on them. We also have a little tree that sits on top of the chest of drawers all season long, which lights up with rainbow colours and is so pretty and festive.

My mum made our stockings back when we were young. Neither she nor my dad ever had one though, so one year I knitted one for my mum (of course!) and sewed one for my dad. Their stockings have become part of the tradition now, which is lovely. We open the stockings on Christmas morning, while we eat pastries and drink coffee (followed by a Buck’s Fizz) for breakfast.

The Night Before Christmas

After we’ve hung the stockings on the landing, we all go into my parents’ room to read The Night Before Christmas. We actually have two versions that we read: the first is the classic story (we have a very old and battered, but much-loved, edition from Sainsbury’s) and the second is the Carol Ann Duffy poem, ‘Another Night Before Christmas’. The latter has always been my favourite- I love the poem, but I love the illustrations even more. It’s can be tricky to locate the edition we have (we got it a long time ago!), but I did find it on Amazon– whether it stays available for long, I can’t be sure!

I can’t be trusted to read the original one, because some of the drawings make me laugh so much that I can’t get my words out. Every time, I think to myself, I’m going to do it right this year, and every time I am felled by this particular image:

Final Thoughts

So those are our Christmas Eve traditions. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about them, and I hope they help to get you into that Christmas Eve mindset ahead of tomorrow. I think the best part about traditions is that there are inevitably hiccups along the way- something always goes wrong, whether that’s losing the stockings, or even some mulled-wine induced chaos. The great thing, though, is that those hiccups are what make the best stories, which preserve the magic of those traditions when they are told over and over again every year. I’ve always had a rather unhealthy dose of perfectionism, but, when it comes to traditions, I almost enjoy a little mishap here and there.

What are some of your Christmas Eve traditions? I’d love to hear about them in the comments below!

Gemma

xxx