Holiday Gift Ideas!

@jeanne-mayell I LOVE this thread already!

In my family I've been trying to push everyone (my daughters included) toward "Presence" instead of "Presents" - granted, the pandemic has put a bit of a hitch in that, but we've still found good ways to bring us all together rather than putting a lot of stock in something we unwrap, marvel at for a few minutes, and then put away.

I bought us season passes last year to one of the Cedar Fair amusement parks in my state.  My mom, pre-pandemic, bought all of us season tickets to one of the two major theaters that brings touring broadway shows to our state.  My brother gave us certificates for dune buggy rides and a cookout at his house when summer arrived.  This year he bought us all nutcracker ballet tickets.  To go together.  And my wife had a long conversation with my sister-in law about how they've both always wanted to do a hot air balloon ride (you won't catch me in a wicker basket thousands of feet in the air) so I'm giving her a redeemable certificate for a ride this summer, and told my brother in law about the conversation and he's doing the same for his wife so they can go together.  A year ago we adopted a family through our local shelter and my twins had a lot of fun picking out gifts for people they'd never meet.

The "Presence not Presents" thing doesn't always work, and some people feel more comfortable getting you the gift, but I'm really trying to push my family this direction because I've accumulated too much.

@jeanne-mayell Please do bring on the butter cookie with butter creme icing recipe! My family loves butter type cookies and I have to keep them at a safe distance from myself in the garage.

@jeanne-mayell 

@dannyboy

I love the idea about experiences and presence.

For the most part over the past several years we have tried to manifest our holiday season and to give our holiday presents with certain purpose.  

A need.  A memory creator.  Personally hand created items.  A family tradition.  Something that says "I heard you" or "I have given this some deep thought".  

It is a much more grounding and meaningful season when approached in this  or a similar way.  My children are now adults but still LOVE doing our traditions.  If I were to list them all, we might be here for awhile.  haha. But our gingerbread decorating contest is definitely a favorite.  This family can be very competitive!

Dannyboy, I love your "event" gifts.  They are wonderful memory makers aren't they?

I am the coordinator for our church adopt a family Christmas angel tree.  Our city runs the community outreach program and we have been participating for over 25 years.  My whole family helps me sort and pack gifts, wrap, shop and sort the food items.  My children have been helping since they were toddlers and it is their Christmas season reality and all of our honor and privilege.  You should see my house from mid-November through mid-December.  Every room is taken over by some aspect of the Christmas Angel program.  This year for the first time I moved a good portion of our organizing efforts to an empty church Sunday school class so I could actually have a house to walk through without things strewn everywhere. We have a third more families this year than previous years due to a greater need and we have  fewer parishioners attending church due to Covid so there are still many angels left on our tree. I am concerned, but things have always worked out ok in the end.  

We also decorate our Christmas tree to a very unusual Christmas album.  

Wait for it... John Denver and the Muppets Christmas Album. 

Oh, we play other music, and have hot chocolate and even pick out the annual tree from a tree "farm" but it is a MUST to begin the decorating with that album.

P.S. I dare you not to smile at Miss Piggy during Christmas Is Coming  or the 12 Days of Christmas. 

Posted by: @dannyboy

@jeanne-mayell I LOVE this thread already!

In my family I've been trying to push everyone (my daughters included) toward "Presence" instead of "Presents" ...season passes last year to one of the Cedar Fair amusement parks in my state.  My mom, pre-pandemic, bought all of us season tickets to one of the two major theaters that brings touring broadway shows to our state.  My brother gave us certificates for dune buggy rides and a cookout at his house when summer arrived.  This year he bought us all nutcracker ballet tickets....

I love this idea. Mark & I gave each other restaurant gift certificates for a few years which helped us  to go out on dates together. Now we aren't into restaurants anymore. So we will have to think of something that is covid-friendly. Skiing anyone?  

@jeanne-mayell I'm hoping this year's "Hot Air Balloon" one takes off (I'll see myself out...)  

@marigold The butter cookie recipe is from a 1943 edition of the Boston Cooking School Cook Book that belonged to my mother.  It's old and has dough stains and her notes all throughout which I cherish. As a child we spent every Christmas making these cookies.  My mother would dip them when they were still warm from the oven into a bowl of powdered sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg and we'd give them to all the neighbors. But I preferred a butter creme icing to the powdered sugar. So when I grew up, I whipped up a vat of butter cream icing (softened butter, vanilla, creme, and powdered sugar) until it was just the right consistency and would spread the butter creme on each one. O.M.G.

Butter Cookie Recipe: 1/2 cup butter, 1 cup sugar, 1 egg or two egg yokes, 1 tbsp creme or milk, 1/2 tsp vanilla - I prefer to use almond flavoring, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tsp baking powder and 1.5 cups flour. I usually quintuple the recipe.  

Wait until the butter is room temperature soft.  Then beat the butter, sugar, vanilla and eggs until smooth.  Then sift in the remaining dry ingredients and mix until you have a big ball of dough which you wrap in wax paper and chill for a few hours. The dough is hard to resist. Then when it's hardened, you remove from fridge, pinch off a little 1-inch diameter wad, roll between your hands until it looks like a fat worm, make into a curly cue and place on a greased baking sheet. It has a little hole in the middle but after baking it fills in. Bakes at 375 for about 8 to ten minutes. When they are done, and cooled on a plate, you can ice them.   (Do make the dough quickly without too much kneading and do not forego sifting the flour or the cookies will end out like rocks.)

I use almond flavor instead of vanilla. You can also use peppermint flavor or add chocolate and chocolate icing. Or chocolate and mint flavored icing. One year Starbucks sold some variation of  this recipe and made them in four flavors with different colored powder sugar:  yellow with almond flavor; green with mint flavor, red with vanilla flavor, and chocolate. I actually found different colored powdered sugar and made them but it was too much work to do all four types.

Icing: I don't have the exact proportions because I make it from gut feel and it is hard to get this wrong.  You start with room temperature -softened butter. Then begin sifting in powdered sugar. Always sift to keep it from getting lumpy.  I use an old fashioned hand blender to get it whipped and smooth.  I add some vanilla for flavoring, but you could use another flavor if you prefer chocolate, peppermint, lemon, or almond.  Once it starts getting too thick from all the powdered sugar, I use any kind of creme (half & half, heavy creme, milk, even canned milk, or coconut milk)  The main ingredient is powdered sugar. 

This is such a happy thread! @Jeanne I love this recipe and your instructions and the copy of the well-worn recipe from the book. Thank you for posting. I will be trying it this December.

Do you know that my grandmother had this exact cookbook, maybe an earlier edition. She was born in Boston and ended up elsewhere, her father was first generation immigrant and a German beer maker. I have had the book it for years and recently passed it to my daughter-in-law. So this recipe reminds me of my grandmother and her kitchen, warm memories, she was a good cook and reigned supreme in her kitchen. I was first exposed (as a child) to meditation through her, she would sit in her sun room in the morning, very peaceful. 

@jeanne-mayell Thank you for the cookie recipe! It sounds really tasty. I have the same book. My mother gave it to me years ago. It must have been very popular at some point if a few of us have it. What a nice connection!

@baba @jeanne-mayell

I was given a 1980 12th edition of the Fanny Farmer cookbook as a gift for my first (and ill-advised) wedding. (Lesson:  Do not get married before your brain finishes maturing. ? )  

It's great for basics and I still use it all the time.  It's stained and the binding is beginning to fall apart.  

@dannyboy  This is a great thread.  Many of us don't need more stuff, but experiences are irreplaceable. 

@jeanne-mayell @dannyboy  My Pops got me tickets to the Picasso/ Alexander Calder exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts.  These are two of my most favorite artists, and i am beyond excited!

in case you haven't seen it yet, this little video is  a Christmas present to the world, from Norway

❤️

@unk-p Funny and a little...disturbing? Thanks for the X-mas cheer.

A sustainability group in my town just sent out these holiday gift ideas for gifts that reduce the carbon footprint. 

By Eliza Letteney. This year, instead of letting the shopping rush make you feel like a frenzied consumer, discover ways to shrink your ecological footprint and calmly prepare for remaining festivities. Here are a few tips for locating and wrapping gifts in a stress-free and sustainable way.

1. First, do a little brand research. Identify items that will last, are produced and packaged sustainably, that offer refills and are made out of reused materials so that when you are out shopping you can locate them. 
   
2. Gently used is au courant. Consider a vintage or pristine second-hand item. Wellesley has a number of Facebook groups including Give & Take that post some extraordinary finds for free. Sometimes the best gift is something practical that a sibling or friend really needs. There are a range of home furnishing and clothing consignment shops in and around town.
   
3. Avoid products that have to travel far by air, sea or highway. Pollution generated by that voyage should be factored into a gift’s footprint. If you order from a distance, consider buying in bulk. A favorite bath salt packaged in pretty cardboard containers may be the perfect present for a number of people on your list. 
   
4. Shop local to not only support your area's businesses but also to save on the packaging and carbon emissions to ship. In addition to the usual retail offerings, Wellesley has several holiday-specific pop-up stores worth browsing. Remember that locally made specialty food items like jams, maple syrup, cheeses, homemade crafts, candles, soaps, and art make terrific gifts. 
   
5. Better yet, make your own. A tin of cookies or handmade candies, apple butter, pickles, a simple hand-knit hat, tie-dyed cotton socks,  a bulb planted in a reused planter, or a gift certificate to offer a helping hand on a  project  are heartfelt gifts and sure to be well-received. (See Jeanne's incredible holiday cookie recipe in earlier post!)
   
6. Experiences, like a cooking class or a gift certificate for a massage, make wonderful gifts. Many nonprofits also offer opportunities to give in someone’s name to plant trees, fund a shoreline cleanup or support efforts to speak out on environmental justice issues. 

@unk-p That exhibit is going to be fastasmic. And I found the Christmas video very moving (and totally unexpected). The final words moved me to tears - In 2022 Norway marks 50 years of being able to love whoever we want.