101 Hints for a Great Christmas
The Holiday Season is a time of magic. The house is
decorated and given a festive air. Trim the front door, banisters,
windows and hearth with greenery for the yuletide or just the
night. Arrange the Christmas cards on the mantelpiece or a table.
Flood the house with candlelight — tiny floating candles in
brightly coloured glasses, big and small candles on windowsills,
under mirrors will banish winter darkness with jewel-like
brilliance. Check and renew ornaments and lights. Hang small gifts, brightly wrapped candies, exotic fruit, and paper flowers on the branches.
Beautifully laid with fine wines and select dishes. Before guests are called to dinner, the first course could be set out and the wine decanted to let it breathe. The cheese platter should be taken out of the refrigerator an hour before serving and decorated with nuts and bunches of grapes. A fitting end to a fine dinner is a selection of four cheeses: a goat cheese, a creamy cheese, a pressed or cooked cheese and a blue-veined cheese.
Tablecloth, napkins and china Play with colours: replace the traditional red and gold, green and silver, red and green with flamboyant colours like fuchsia, chartreuse, orange… and white. Contrasting napkins, preferably cloth, can be folded into complicated fancy shapes, like a bishop's mitre, or simple squares, rectangles or triangles. Rolled napkins with a decorative tie make an equally elegant statement. The china doesn't all have to be the same; set a theme and mix patterns harmoniously.
The menu Guests love to see the list of culinary delights in store for them. Handwritten or computer-produced with fanciful touches, individual menus rolled up and tied with a bright ribbon or decorated with a sprig of holly or a bit of pine and set beside each place setting is the height of refinement.
Use labels with guests' names or colourful rings to identify glasses. Buy the rings or make them with multicoloured beads. By labelling glasses, you'll avoid running out of them or having to dash into the kitchen constantly to wash some up. Depending on the drinks, glasses can be rimmed in salt or sugar. Rub the rim with a piece of lemon or a bit of water and dip in fine sugar or salt.
Don't make too many appetizers; you want people to be hungry for dinner. Work on presentation: Parma-ham wrapped melon balls on bamboo cocktail picks, pan-fried bacon-wrapped and almond-stuffed prunes, dates stuffed with marzipan, mozzarella- or tapenade-filled cherry tomatoes topped with a basil leaf, broiled mini open-faced ham sandwiches garnished with anchovies or pitted olives. Make star sandwiches using a cookie cutter and bread with crusts removed. The possibilities are endless. Don't forget cheerful, seasonal paper napkins.
Substitute frozen grapes or berries for ho-hum ice cubes in drinks. They make a colourful ice-breaker.
Serve iced vodka. The night before, put the bottle in a container of equal size, fill with water and line inner surface with sprigs of dill and flower petals. Freeze. Just before serving, put the whole thing in hot water for a few minutes and remove from the mould. Guaranteed to wow guests.
Although we have our Yule traditions, Holiday customs from other countries can make a welcome addition. Whether you're dreaming of an exotic Christmas or just looking for new ideas, you may find what you need in this quick world tour.
- In Argentina, each household keeps a cup filled with touron (almond paste with nuts or candied fruit), chocolates, dried and candied fruit in the entrance hall throughout the holidays and offers all visitors a treat. Saude! Viva!
- In Austria, people eat “crampus” — little gingerbread imps — to keep the devil away. Advent is observed in Austria with Advent chimes with four small candle-bearing angels. When the candles are lit, their heat makes the angels go round in circles ringing the chimes.
- In Spain, each of the twelve strokes of midnight is marked by swallowing a grape for good luck in the New Year. Serve sugar-frosted grapes for eye appeal as well as fresh taste appeal.
- In Japan, the New Year, Shogatsu, involves major housecleaning called soot-sweeping or Susaharai with a red and white beribboned broom, changing the shoji (sliding panels), scrubbing the house inside and out. When the house is spotless, small potted pines with bamboo are put on both sides of the front entrance. At midnight the temple is struck 108 times for the 108 sins that may have been committed. People give popcorn-topped rushes that look like flowering peach tree branches.
- In England, the United States and Quebec, because we've adopted many customs from both, Christmas is done up in red and green, with stockings hung by the chimney and filled with candies, fruit, nuts, mandarins and trinkets and the family gathered round a table of with turkey with all the trimmings. Christmas pudding is identified with England. But eggnog wins converts with every new person that tastes it... spreading Christmas cheer!