I’m sure someone somewhere has already said this, but I declare hot chocolate the official beverage of Christmas! Perhaps you like a good ol’ plain cup of hot cocoa… There’s nothing wrong with that, but I often want to snazz things up a bit and treat my taste buds to a sweet mouth-watering treat. This handy infographic is a quick-reference guide for custom cocoa creations. Enjoy!
Click on the image for a closer look! Infographic via SheKnows.com
Do you have a yummy recipe that’s not on the list? Let us know in the comments below or add your special recipe to Mrs. Claus’ Cookbook!
Since we elves enjoy making things at work and in our spare time, we love creative projects from other folks as well—be it new products, joyful music, or delicious food. So, it’s time once again this year to highlight some fabulous festive projects that are currently seeking funding on Kickstarter, a website whose mission is “to help bring creative projects to life.”
If you have an artificial Christmas tree, but can’t stand the green pole at the base, then the Christmas Tree Hugger is for you! The flexible hugger wraps around the pole and features a classic brown bark, white birch bark, or candy cane design.
There’s still time to get a Christmas Tree Hugger for this holiday season, so back this campaign today.
Permanent and weather-resistant, you can easily install EverLights once and then enjoy them for years to come. Plus, you can customize the colours and sequence of the lights using the included smartphone app. After the Christmas season, you can change the lights’ colours to celebrate other holidays or even to match the colours of your favourite sports team!
Learn more about the EverLights Kickstarter campaign here.
Christmas music always helps make the holiday season feel special, and this collaboration by a group of female singer-songwriters and string players will definitely put you in a festive mood.
Rewards include digital and physical copies of the album, as well as handmade ornaments and caroling sessions, so be sure to check out this campaign.
The star of one of my go-to Christmas party recipes is goat cheese, so I simply had to feature this campaign—plus the goats are just so darn cute! Dancing Goats Dairy’s Kickstarter campaign will help them expand and revamp parts of their business and farm. Did I mention that their artisan goat cheese is included with some of the rewards? Mmm… 🙂
These hand-printed tree posters are perfect if you live in a small space and don’t have room for a Christmas tree. Simply hang the poster on the wall and decorate with stickers, markers, or paper ornaments!
IKEA stores all over the world are hosting several events this holiday season that will put you in the Christmas spirit. As you may know, IKEA was founded in Sweden, and therefore, many of their events are inspired by Swedish traditions. The whole family can enjoy a variety of activities, such as julbord, breakfast with Santa, gingerbread house decorating, and more!
The julbord is an all-you-can-eat Swedish feast that includes traditional dishes like herring, smoked salmon, meatballs with lingonberries, and more. To finish off your delicious dinner, you’ll enjoy some sweets and glögg (mulled wine). In order to nosh at this spectacular smörgåsbord, you will need to purchase your ticket(s) in advance, so contact your local store.
Santa will be making public appearances at several IKEA stores this year! Children of all ages can meet Santa and even take a photo with him, so be sure to bring your camera. In some stores, Santa will be in the restaurant, so you and your children can even sit and eat breakfast with him.
Try your hand at piping icing and adorning a gingerbread house with candies at IKEA’s gingerbread decorating contest. If you win the prize for the best decorated house, you can brag to your family and friends!
One of the other events that you may be able to attend is the St. Lucia procession—a Swedish Christmas tradition where Lucia leads a procession of lights as Swedish Christmas carols are sung.
Please note that events vary from store to store, so you’ll want to check your local store for a list of events. Click here to find a store in the USA or here to find an international store.
St. Lucia Celebration
Saturday, 13 December: 9:30am
Again, this is not a complete list of events at IKEA stores. To find events and activities at the store nearest you, check online. Click here to find a store in the USA or here to find an international store.
As I’ve mentioned before, we elves love any sort of creative project—from crafts to films to technological experiments, we love it all. So, just as last year, I would like to highlight some fabulous festive projects that are currently seeking funding on Kickstarter, a website whose mission is “to help bring creative projects to life.”
If you’re looking for a unique spin on Christmas cards, then consider backing the campaign for these holiday cards. Not only are the cards made of wood, but the fun designs are also laser engraved—extra spiffy!
Get your own cards by donating to this campaign, but hurry! Funding ends this Saturday, 22 November.
A young girl from Lincolnshire wishes to travel around England in order to photograph the Christmas lights in all of the major cities, and her mother is helping her run a Kickstarter campaign to raise money to cover transportation and printing of the photographs. The 8-year-old plans to exhibit her photos in a local venue the week before Christmas. It’s awesome to see a child excited about photography and Christmas!
Farmhouse Fudge produces fudge with real butter, real cream, and real chocolate, and they have quite the assortment of flavours: butter pecan, red velvet, cranberry walnut, peppermint bark, and the list goes on. They have been selling fudge in Utah for more than three years, and they are hoping to expand their customer base with the help of their Kickstarter campaign.
The rewards for backing this campaign are different types of fudge, so I’m sure you’re tempted to donate to this project!
The Harpoons—a classically-trained harp and bassoon duo—are hoping to release their first ever Christmas album this year with the help of the Kickstarter community. Their album will includes perennial favourites, such as “White Christmas” and “Silent Night.” Based on the music in their Kickstarter video, it sounds like the tunes will be lovely!
We elves love most everything creative. Be it an inventive cookie recipe, a new sewing technique, or music that mashes up various genres, we get excited over new ideas. If you’re like us and would enjoying checking out some imaginative and sometimes unusual ideas, head on over to Kickstarter, a website whose mission is “to help bring creative projects to life.”
Kickstarter is a platform for creators to announce and explain their projects to the world and for other folks to donate money to help make these projects become a reality. The site includes all different categories of projects, such as music, food, technology, design, and more, and the projects can range from $700 needed to print a run of t-shirts to $1,000,000 needed to create a telescope [a publicly accessible space telescope, actually—how awesome is that?!].
Since there are only 3 months until Christmas [yowza!], I thought it would be fun to highlight a few of my favourite festive Kickstarter projects, so without further ado…
The singer & project creator, Ximena Borges, describes this album as “infusing holiday music with a breath of fresh air! All one voice, one body, no snow required—must hear twice to believe!!” Just watch the video, and you’ll hear was Ximena is talking about!
This documentary by Brad Rothschild and Jon Reiner about men who spend a month selling Christmas trees on the sidewalks of New York City each year sounds like it will give viewers an interesting behind-the-scenes look at the commercial side of the holiday season.
Baker-creator Marlo Gertz says, “I’ve taken my Grandmother’s Old World recipe for unique, twice-baked cookies and made them contemporary and even more delicious.” The cookies in the video look fabulous—mmm!
The rewards for backing Marlo’s project are cookies, so how could you not donate to her project? 😉
This art installation by Chelsea Hrynick Browne will consist of hundreds of hand-cut origami snowflakes, and the project sounds fun, interesting, and beautiful.
