Bring some home spun-magic to Christmas day and delight and surprise the one's you love. From the present opening ritual at the crack of dawn to the adults-only wind-down supper afterwards, we let you know how to make the day go down in family history.
Rudolph Breakfast Pancakes
Surprise and delight the kids on Christmas morning with Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer pancakes. The ingredients take their inspiration from Canadian style pancakes: bacon, maple syrup, raspberries and pancake mix. The structure is simple: for each serving, use one large pancake and then put a smaller side dish-sized pancake on top. Then place a raspberry in the centre for the nose, two raspberries for eyes and position the bacon at the top like antlers. Lather with dollops of maple syrup and voilà – Rudolph gets eaten for breakfast, without needing to touch any venison!
Snowballs
Another cool idea to surprise the family is creating homemade white chocolate snowballs. Simply get a pack of marshmallows and coat them in liquid white chocolate and then roll in desiccated coconut. These ones are safe to play with indoors, and won't leave a trail of wet wellies in the hallway. For more Christmas ideas that are truly unique and delightful, check out the Vintage Christmas Ideas page on Pinterest.
The ultimate surprise
Probably the most deliciously unexpected surprise that can be given on Christmas morning is a food and wine hamper. Try ones that include cheeses, wine and chocolates for dad. Get a luxurious breakfast hamper for mum, who should be allowed a lie in now and then (probably not on Christmas morning, let's be realistic). Kids will probably like a selection of sweets and cakes in the hamper. Although ration them carefully or else they won't eat dinner. Take a look at Forman and Field hampers for an example of the ultimate surprise packages.
Party starters, movers and shakers
One way to kick off a post-dinner party once the kids have nodded off to sleep on Christmas night – is to introduce more adult food and drink into the equation. Try blinis with smoked salmon and vodka infused crème fraîche, and trifle infused with brandy and Frangelico. Perhaps a trend is building here. The complementary plonk should be light and bubbly. Try champagne cocktails with lychees and chilli Bloody Marys. After a day of shrieking and yahooing from the children, this kind of supper will be music to the ears. Christmas food hampers offer a great selection of sumptuous foods that make a wind-down supper go smoothly, like mulled wine at midnight.
notmyyearoff says
Yummm – yes please can I have some Rudolph pancakes?
Similar to the snowball idea…you chuck a bag of dessicated coconut in a bowl and add just enough condensed milk so that it binds. then roll into little balls and put in fridge to set! (OR cover in white choc!)