This Christmas found us with the happy problem of an extra Christmas tree. The "real" tree is a given with us- the trip to pick one out is always a treat, as well as the way a freshly cut tree fills the room with fragrance. When we inherited an artificial tree from my Dad, I definitely didn't want to give up our yearly tradition! I figured we'd just put two up- the artificial one in the living room, and the fresh tree in the family room. Is there a such thing as too many Christmas trees? I hope not...
Unfortunately, we didn't inherit an extra set of Christmas ornaments- that's something that was sorted out a long time ago. I did have lots of ingredients on hand, though, and liked the idea of a Christmas tree full of sweets. Candy canes, chocolate ball ornaments, gingerbread cookies, popcorn cranberry garland, as well as a few sets of copper cookie cutters- the tree looks so fun and festive and came together with surprising ease. Should you ever find yourself short on ornaments and long on trees, why not try something like this? For our prelit artificial tree of a height that has, for now, escaped me (8 feet-ish?), we used:
-36 candy canes.
-36 chocolate ornaments. I've picked these up at Target for the past few years- Superior makes them.
-24 copper cookie cutters. Grabbed these at Michael's on sale- they were a steal- and hung them on the tree with some green and red stain ribbon.
-40-ish feet of garland. I popped a few batches of plain popcorn, grabbed some 26 gauge wire and a bag or two of fresh cranberries. Mike and I (mostly Mike) strung the garland in sections while watching a movie.
-48 gingerbread cookies. The cookies required a bit more labor, but were still relatively easy to put together. I used pre-made gingerbread cookie dough to roll and cut out. This makes me a total cheater, but I figured since we wouldn't be eating the cookies anyway, it was a shortcut worth taking. I used a chopstick to poke a hole in the top of each cookie, baked them until they were very golden brown, and used the chopstick to reinforce the hole once the cookies came out of the oven. Once they were cool, and very crisp, I piped simple designs in royal icing (recipe follows). Royal icing dries hard and is perfect for Christmas cookie ornaments! After icing the cookies, I dipped the snowflakes in nonpareils, added a few M&M's to the gingerbread men, and looped some red and green satin ribbon though each hole to hang the cookies on the tree. Even though I'm sure I could have spent more time doing the detail work, I'm pretty happy with how they turned out- they make the tree look really cute!
Ingredients:
4 ounces cold water
2 rounded tablespoons Meringue powder (found in the cake decorating section of craft stores)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
16 ounces powdered sugar
Directions:
-Measure the water into the bowl of a mixer. Add the meringue powder and stir to dissolve slightly.
-Whip the meringue powder and water together until soft peaks form (this looks like the consistency of a milkshake).
-Add the vanilla and gradually add the sugar while whisking at a low speed until combined.
-Whip at a medium high speed until stiff peaks form- it will be very thick and glossy.
-Keep covered when not using as the icing will dry out and become hard.
