Inaugural Christmas Hampers 2014

I have always been attracted by gift hampers, ever since I was a little girl. The food ones on display on supermarket shelves are (usually) beautifully wrapped with cellophane and seem to contain the most delicious goodies anyone could want -- chocolates, cookies... I remember watching a commercial on TV by this gift hamper company called Noel. The scene of the delivery person arriving at a house to present the gorgeous hamper to the recipient family and their pleased and surprised expressions (okay, I now know it's all acting) left a strong impression on my little girl mind.

I think I received my first gift hamper after I had my first baby. Can't remember who it was but it was sent to the hospital. The contents were all baby-related, so hmm... I guess it wasn't for me but for my baby, haha. Nevertheless, thanks to those young childhood memories, I was immensely happy at receiving that hamper. I still keep the box that was used as the, er, hamper. It's a little mildewy though, probably from sitting in my wardrobe for years, hehe.

Nine years later, after I had my third baby, a Noel hamper arrived from a close Uncle and Aunt who were regretful that they couldn't attend the baby shower, which is actually known as the Full Month Birthday Celebration among Chinese people. A NOEL hamper!!! The brand I'd always seen on TV as a little girl! The child in me was so over the moon, I immediately telephoned them to express my gratitude. Needless to say, that box hasn't left my ownership.

Moving on, this year, I was cracking my brains as to what food gift to prepare for Christmas for my close friends and family (a yearly brain-cracking occurrence). I couldn't decide, so the lightbulb that finally light up suggested a little bit of each type. Aaaaaaand of course I had to give them in hampers! What fun! My chance to pass on a little of that warmth that I had received, first from the TV so many years ago, and then in recent years from the love and support of my family and friends.

I found three suitably-sized cardboard shoeboxes with lids that I could use as the "hamper". The lids were stuck on the bottom of the boxes to provide additional support for the base, as I knew that my items were going to be rather dense and heavy.

Next I lined the boxes with what I call bouquet paper cos I really dunno the official name for it, but it's what most professionally-wrapped bouquets in Singapore are wrapped in. Not cheap, this kind of paper, say at least $2 a sheet at any florist? I saved mine from all the bouquets I've received in the last thirteen years, not, alas, from dear hubby but from my ex-boss, who is also my close friend cum mentor. She gives me a bouquet of flowers every year when we meet to celebrate my birthday, and I save every sheet of paper from them. DH last gave me flowers when he proposed. I still have the wrapping papers from that bouquet d:)

This is the part I like best -- stuffing the hampers with goodies! I made fruitcake, brownies, chocolate syrup and granola, all properly packed, labelled and shelf-life stated. On a bed of colourful shredded paper.

Then I hit a snag. It was late at night and I don't keep cellophane paper on hand. HOW on earth was I going to wrap these hampers? I hit on the roll of plastic leftover from wrapping my kids' school books. Not the right kind but as long as it works, right?

At the end, I slipped into each box a Christmas card to add to the festiveness and they were done! 

I must say I enjoyed the process, although I do wish I'd planned this earlier so I could have prepared and bought all the materials for it. Majulah Lulu!

How To Make a Felt Board

Update 26 Dec 2012: Today, we discovered that the black felt can slip out rather easily, so I took the board apart and glued the felt down onto the plastic with PVA glue.

This craft project for the little one was turned into a Christmas gift from his Ga-jeh and Gorgor. It was easy enough for one or the other of them to do each step, with a little adjusting done by Mum along the way. Instructions are from Totally Tots, a homeschooling website dedicated entirely to tots.

First, we placed a 40X50cm picture frame we got long ago from IKEA (for another project which was cancelled) and removed the cardboard backing and plastic sheet from the frame. We went to Daiso and after some discussion, decided on a large piece of black felt as the background for the board. Ray traced around the cardboard with tailor's chalk, cut the felt out and I trimmed it a little.

Top: pic frame, bottom: felt cut to 40X50cm

Second, we replaced the cardboard and plastic sheet back into the frame with the black felt on the topmost layer, and the board was done.

Felt board complete

 Then came the fun part (for the kids). We have a few packs of small felt squares from Daiso and they set to work with scissors and pinking shears, cutting out lots of shapes to form pictures. I had to keep reminding them to cut the shapes bigger for little hands.

Felt pieces all cut and stuffed into a ziploc

Here's an example of how the pieces of felt can be arranged on the board.

Simple scene on felt board

It's all wrapped up with newspaper and placed under the Christmas tree. Made with love by Ga-jeh and Gorgor.

A New, Different, Christmas Tree

I finally decided to chuck out our old tree earlier this year (after lots of nagging from HL), firstly because it's been with us for 10 years (so we got a lot of use out of it), secondly because it's horribly dusty, and lastly because there's simply no place in our flat to put it on display. All suitable corners are covered by furniture (alas, lots of storage has to come with a price, eh?).

So after scouring the shops for a smaller tree that I can, perhaps, place on our TV cabinet and finding none that I liked, I came up with an idea to do a rather minimalist tree (there's no Christmas mood if there's no Christmas tree, dear!).

We purchased 2 lengths of green tinsel and a large piece of shiny gold wrapping paper from Daiso and did THIS.

Christmas Tree on the wall

The idea is adapted from another wall tree made by sticking tree lights onto the wall in a tree shape, which I once saw in an old IKEA Xmas catalogue. Not bad for $6 and some sticky tape. We only realised it was rather lopsided after we stepped back from it. But couldn't be bothered to fiddle with the tape again.

Ray commented that it looks rather like the outline of a woman.

I still have all my old Christmas ornaments (which can't be hung here, for obvious reasons), which I'll try to hang elsewhere in the house.