Xtmas Cookies

cookies made by Valme

www.christmas-cookies.com


Step by step how to make delicious Christmas cookies. It's highly important to use you imagination when you decorate these wondrful cookies. Even more, there is an important ingridient that must be added in any recipe, love and affection!

Ingredients:
* 200 grams of butter or milk
* small jar of condensed milk
* 1 orange
* 4 eggs
* 4 cups of flour
* icing sugar
* lemon juice

Preparation step step:

* In a bowl, beat butter, condensed milk, egg yolks, a small can of condensed milk and some orange scratch.
* When everything is well mixed, add flour until a dough.
* Flour a smooth surface, roll the dough with a rolling pin and cut with Christmas cookie molds for cookie (it would be nice to have seasonal shapes such molds).
* Preheat oven and bake about 20 minutes of homemade Christmas cookies on baking paper.
* When finished, let cool.
* Mix well or a glass of sugar glass, a few drops of lemon juice and a tablespoon of milk.
* Use icing to decorate cookies (when cold).
* Once hardened glaze, serve cookies.

Once again, I encourage you to cook, you can have a good time with your friends. Ah! if you are interested in cookies, you can find many delicious recipes in the red web-page (at the top).

Christmas Colouring Pages

www.xmasjoys.com/christmas_coloring_pages/

It's raining cats and dogs today, you may be bored, so why don't you print these pictures and colour them? Have fun! We are at Christmas!

CHRISTMAS PUDDING

History of the Christmas Pudding

Christmas Porridge - Frumenty
The Christmas pudding known today began life as Christmas porridge called Frumenty, a dish made of wheat or corn boiled up in milk.

Plum Pudding

As time went on, other ingredients, such as dried plums or prunes, eggs, and lumps of meat were added to make it more interesting. When cooked, it was poured into a dish. This pudding was called Plum Pudding. The name 'Plum Pudding' continued to be used even when people used raisins, currants, and sultanas instead of prunes.

When is the traditional time for making the Christmas Pudding?

The traditional time for making a Christmas pudding is on 'Stir Up Sunday ' at the beginning of advent. A proper Christmas pudding is always stirred from East to West in honour of the three Wise Men and traditionally made with 13 ingredients to represent Christ and His Disciples. Every member of the family must give the pudding a stir and make a secret wish.

Christmas Crackers

Christmas crackers were first invented in 1850 by a London confectioner called Tom Smith. A cracker is placed next to each plate on the Christmas dinner table. Crackers are made using a short tube wrapped in colourful paper. There is a fire cracker inside which ‘cracks’ when the cracker is pulled. There is also a gift, a paper crown and a terrible joke inside the cracker!

Charlie Brown at Christmas

Rocking Around the Christmas Tree

We Wish You a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2010!!!

FRIENDS... at Christmas

ROSS



LOOKING FOR PRESENTS

A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens

Message: If you want to change, you are never late!

ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS YOU

To YOU, to all my pupils, Merry Christmas!!!

LOVE ACTUALLY

Love is always around, specially at Christmas...this is one of my favourite film, due to its beginning, there are many people at the airport hugging, kissing each other,... many magic moments that you may have experienced before. Therefore, I recommend you to watch this comedy again and again ... all we need is LOVE.

The Obamas Christmas Message 25ht December 2009

Queen Elizabeth II, Christmas speech 2009

BOXING DAY

Boxing Day

December 26th, St Stephen’s Day, is called Boxing day in the UK. It is a public holiday, and usually people visit friends. It is called Boxing Day because traditionally, the alms boxes in the churches were opened and the contents distributed to the poor. Also, servants went home to celebrate with their families. It was traditional for workers to open their tip boxes on this day.

Boxing Day is a bank holiday or a public holiday in countries with a mainly Christian population. It is usually celebrated on the day after Christmas Day.

Boxing Day originated in England in the middle of the nineteenth century under Queen Victoria. The day is traditionally marked by the giving of Christmas boxes, or gifts, to service workers.

Alms Box will be placed in every church on Christmas Day, into which worshippers placed a gift for the poor of the parish. These boxes were always opened the day after Christmas, this is called as Boxing Day.

Traditionally, Boxing Day is a day for fox hunting. Horse riders dressed in red and white riding gear, accompanied by a number of dogs, chase the fox through the countryside.

On this day, families and friends get together and watch sports and play board games. In many countries Boxing Day is a Shopping Holiday.

Government buildings and businesses are closed, the malls are filled with people either exchanging gifts or buying reduced priced Christmas gifts, cards, and decorations.

Christmas Stockings

Christmas Stockings

According to legend, a kindly nobleman grew despondent over the death of his beloved wife and foolishly squandered his fortune. This left his three young daughters without dowries and thus facing a life of spinsterhood.

The generous St. Nicholas, hearing of the girls' plight, set forth to help. Wishing to remain anonymous, he rode his white horse by the nobleman's house and threw three small pouches of gold coins down the chimney where they were fortuitously captured by the stockings the young women had hung by the fireplace to dry.

Christmas Tree, a lovely worldwide tradition

Christmas Trees

In 16th-century Germany fir trees were decorated, both indoors and out, with apples, roses, gilded candies, and colored paper. In the Middle Ages, a popular religous play depicted the story of Adam and Eve's expulsion from the Garden of Eden.

A fir tree hung with apples was used to symbolize the Garden of Eden -- the Paradise Tree. The play ended with the prophecy of a saviour coming, and so was often performed during the Advent season.

It is held that Protestant reformer Martin Luther first adorned trees with light. While coming home one December evening, the beauty of the stars shining through the branches of a fir inspired him to recreate the effect by placing candles on the branches of a small fir tree inside his home.

The Christmas Tree was brought to England by Queen Victoria's husband, Prince Albert from his native Germany. The famous Illustrated News etching in 1848, featuring the Royal Family of Victoria, Albert and their children gathered around a Christmas tree in Windsor Castle, popularized the tree throughout Victorian England. Brought to America by the Pennsylvania Germans, the Christmas tree became by the late 19th century.

Christmas Traditions (1)

Santa Claus

The origin of Santa Claus begins in the 4th century with Saint Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, an area in present day Turkey. By all accounts St. Nicholas was a generous man, particularly devoted to children. After his death around 340 A.D. he was buried in Myra, but in 1087 Italian sailors purportedly stole his remains and removed them to Bari, Italy, greatly increasing St. Nicholas' popularity throughout Europe.

His kindness and reputation for generosity gave rise to claims he that he could perform miracles and devotion to him increased. St. Nicholas became the patron saint of Russia, where he was known by his red cape, flowing white beard, and bishop's mitre.

In Greece, he is the patron saint of sailors, in France he was the patron of lawyers, and in Belgium the patron of children and travellers. Thousands of churches across Europe were dedicated to him and some time around the 12th century an official church holiday was created in his honor. The Feast of St. Nicholas was celebrated December 6 and the day was marked by gift-giving and charity.

After the Reformation, European followers of St. Nicholas dwindled, but the legend was kept alive in Holland where the Dutch spelling of his name Sint Nikolaas was eventually transformed to Sinterklaas. Dutch children would leave their wooden shoes by the fireplace, and Sinterklaas would reward good children by placingtreats in their shoes. Dutch colonists brought brought this tradition with them to America in the 17th century and here the Anglican name of Santa Claus emerged.

In 1822 Clement C. Moore composed the poem A Visit From Saint Nicholas, published as The Night Before Christmas as a gift for his children. In it, he portrays Santa Claus:
He had a broad face and a little round belly,
That shook when he laughed, like a bowl full of jelly,
He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself;
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread.

Other countries feature different gift-bearers for the Christmas or Advent season: La Befana in Italy ~ The Three Kings in Spain, Puerto Rico, and Mexico ~ Christkindl or the Christ Child in Switzerland and Austria ~ Father Christmas in England ~ and Pere Noël, Father Christmas or the Christ Child in France. Still, the figure of Santa Claus as a jolly, benevolent, plump man in a red suit described in Moore's poem remains with us today and is recognized by children and adults alike around the world.

SMELLY CAT

Hi, Guys!,

Are you having a good time in your bank holidays? Well, I hope so.
Have you ever listened to Pheobe singing her famous song "Smelly Cat" in Friends TV serie?
Now, we can listen and sing this!!! Please, pay attention to its lyrics.

Smelly cat, smelly cat
What are they feeding you?
Smelly cat, smelly cat
It's not your fault
They won't take you to the vet
You're obviously not their favourite pet
You may not be a bed of roses
And you're no friend to those with noses
(repeat chorus)

ETERNAL "Angel of Mine"

Hi, Guys!,

Maybe you've never heard about this group Eternal, but let me introduce you one of their song: ANGEL OF MINE. It's very relaxing and when I was younger, I loved listening and singing its lyrics.