Virtual Gingerbread Decorating Party

December 15, 2020 by Katie Wilson

Back in the Spring we put together a few Virtual Ice Cream Socials for some of our classmates and family members. It certainly helped to lift our spirits and gave everyone something to look forward to. Now that it’s December, the virus is raging again and parts of Illinois are essentially back in a shelter-in-place situation and we’re looking for new ways to make the season bright. Enter my newest TAKE on a virtual party…A Gingerbread Decorating Party!

It just so happens that my oldest has a birthday in December so we’re going to use a virtual Gingerbread Party as an excuse to celebrate her birthday. However, if I’m being honest I would have planned one anyway…anything to break up ALL the days at home and make some memories with friends. We’re opting to decorate Gingerbread houses but you could just as easily do Gingerbread people. As with the virtual ice cream social, we collected all the supplies and dropped them off at friends houses a day or two before the event. Sharing all the steps to create a virtual party of your own below.

Decide on the date/time and create an invite. I used this pdf from Art Bar Blog , customized and then printed and pasted on card stock. I also used scalloped pinking shears to make the invites a little bit more gingerbread-esque.
The biggest key to making this party easy for everyone involved is to buy pre-assembled Gingerbread houses or pre-made Gingerbread people. Whole Foods sells both and they are perfect for decorating…don’t wait too long though as they do sell out! If you don’t want to bake the Gingerbread people yourself, I bet you could call a local bakery and ask if they would sell you undecorated cookies - therefore, saving you time an supporting a local business.
The next step is to decide what kind of candy you’d like to include with your delivery kits. We opted for the following: Dots, Pretzel Snaps, Necco Wafers, M&M’s, Lifesavers and Mike & Ike’s. Nilla Wafers are also some of my favorite to use for roofing. What are some of your favorite candies to decorate with? Do you prefer bright or pastel colors? This site provided us some major decor inspiration.
Icing is a necessary evil in this party and again, I wanted to make this simple for myself and for the other families so I was thrilled when I found these pre filled pastry bags by Pillsbury. Wilton Cookie icing is also a great option and comes in multiple colors if you’d like something other than white.
Once all the supplies were collected we packed them into these bags, added tissue paper and tied the invite to the handle.

Finally, deliver your Gingerbread party goodies to friends and/or family (this is one of the best parts) and have fun during your virtual event. We’re hosting our Gingerbread Party this coming weekend and we’re going to play some holiday music and wear our new candy cane aprons…hopefully, they help to contain some mess! We’ll be sure to share our finished products…Happy Holidays!

***Affiliate links are included in this post.

25 Books of Christmas

November 28, 2018 by Katie Wilson

Christmas is one of my favorite holidays and I’ve always wanted to pair it with another favorite in my life; children’s books. So last year we tested out a new holiday tradition - A Christmas Book Advent Calendar! We ended up coining the tradition; 25 Books of Christmas. Trust me when I say that, homemade countdowns are incredibly easy to pull off but have a huge impact. So if you’re into holiday children’s books and looking for a new tradition to build excitement check out my TAKE on creating your own advent calendar.

Creating your own advent calendar just may be the simplest thing you do all year. With the help of my husband and mother-in-law we wrapped 25 of our hardcover Christmas children’s books in kraft paper. I then used red printable labels from Paper Source to showcase the number. Our printer wasn’t working at the time so I drew the numbers on with a Gold Sharpie marker. I then displayed the books on our fireplace mantle and we read one each night. It was so fun, the kids loved it and it made me so happy to repurpose books from our existing holiday collection. All of the books we read last year are listed below: Numbers 8, 13, 14, 17, 19, 23 and 25 are my absolute favorite.

This year I’m trying a new tradition but we’ve gotten all of our holidays books out and I plan to re-create 25 Books of Christmas another year. If you want to follow along and watch as this years’ tradition unfolds I’ll be posting to my Instagram stories every night from December 1st - 25th.

25 Books of Christmas

Kate's Book Corner - The Christmas Edit

December 05, 2017 by Katie Wilson

It may come as no surprise that Christmas is easily one of my favorite holidays. It goes without saying that the more I love the holiday the larger our collection of holiday books! The Christmas season was full of traditions in my house growing up and one of those was selecting a new holiday book to read every night. I loved when the Christmas books came out every year and spent hours poring over them. We do the same in our house although this year I've gone a step further and created a holiday advent calendar inspired by a blog post on Babyccino . I wanted to do this for years and you can follow along in my InstaStories as we unveil our book each night. So far it's been a huge hit!

All of our Christmas books have received a lot of love over the years but the eleven books in my Christmas Edit are at the top of my list for the age ranges in our household. I'd recommend Little Blue Truck's Christmas to anyone and everyone with little kids because no one can resist the lights on the tree at the end! The Jolly Christmas Postman, The Sweet Smell of Christmas and The Christmas Cookie Sprinkle Snitcher were all some of my absolute favorites growing up. I still love to pull out the letters in The Jolly Christmas Postman, smell the scents from The Sweet Smell of Christmas and dream about baking Christmas cookies in the The Christmas Cookie Sprinkle Snitcher.

My eldest can't get enough of the Olive, the Other Reindeer and Olivia helps with Christmas. I love the play on words in Olive, the Other Reindeer (genius + my grandmother's name is Olive) and any book involving Olivia the pig is a win in my book. She has so much spunk I hope it jumps off the page and passes to my own daughters. The Snowman and The Mitten are so beautifully illustrated and almost all of these books have lovely messages tied to them which makes them all the more important to read to our children.

Happy Reading!

The Christmas Edit

DIY Holiday Planters

November 26, 2017 by Katie Wilson

One of my favorite things about staying home for Thanksgiving is that we have an extra couple of days to prepare for Christmas. My eldest has a December birthday so I need all of the extra time I can get to prepare for the month of December. One of the first things I like to tackle each year is our planters!

We have one of the most wonderful Garden Centers close to our home called Gesthemane Garden Center. It is a glorious place and they have beautiful pre planted planters for purchase but a few years ago I wanted to see if I could accomplish a similar look on my own. I use a combination of real and fake elements and I think I've come up with a great option. In order to keep the cost down I reuse some components year after year i.e. birch logs, pinecones and faux berries and then buy a selection of fresh greens from Trader Joe's and Gesthemane Garden Center. Read on for my TAKE on a holiday planter!

Planter Components from Left to Right: 1 Decorative Holiday Bough (Trader Joe's), 2 Bunches Holiday Swag (Trader Joe's), 1 Bunch Boxwood (Gesthemane Garden Center), 3 Birch Logs (Gesthemane Garden Center), 3 Bunches Red Berries on Sticks (Gesthemane Garden Center), 5 Sprayed Pinecones on Sticks and in various sizes (Gesthemane Garden Center)

Planter Size

First things first, it's important to note that the planters I use are about 12 inches wide in diameter (at their widest point) and nine inches deep. They also had about 2-3 inches of soil in them that helps when placing the elements in the planters.

Step One

The first pieces to go into the planters are the 2 bunches of holiday swag from Trader Joe's. These are pre-wired as you would typically hang something like this and it really helps to give the planters a sturdy base and shape. Don't forget to remove the red bow and pinecones before placing the swag into the planter!

Step Two

Once the holiday swag is firmly placed in the soil I add the three birch logs to the arrangement. You can always play around with their placement once you have added everything to the planters.

Step Three

Next I separate the decorative bough from Trader Joe's and place each item separately. The boughs typically include some holly, evergreen and berries and I like to add them piece by piece to provide some color variation and texture.

Step Four

The last fresh greens to be added are the Variegated English Boxwood that I buy from our local Garden Center. This comes in a bough or bunch and I separate and place the stems individually. This also helps to to add more color to the planters and more stability.

Step Five

Next come the berries. I tend to prefer having a mostly fresh planter but this year opted for faux berries from Gesthemane as our neighborhood squirrel population tends to like to eat the fresh ones. I bought 3 sets of berries and placed them randomly in the planter breaking up the monotony of the green with the bright red.

Step Six

The final addition to the planters is the pine cones. I also place these randomly throughout the greens to break up the colors and texture as well as to fill in any gaps.

et Voilà!

In about six steps the planter is complete and you are on your way to a festive home for the holidays! Truly, these planters will last throughout the holiday season with little to no up-keep. No watering is needed but if you receive a heavy snowfall I will reposition some of the planter elements as they tend to shift due to the weight of the snow. Happy Decorating!