Christmas Pinwheels

Are you after a frugal, simple bake that looks impressive for little cost? Have you thought of Christmas pinwheels? My cheat pinwheels are so simple, you can get your kids involved. All you need are 3 ingredients. These make great treats for the family, or gifts for guests etc.

  • Ready rolled puff pastry
  • Mincemeat (1 x jar)
  • Milk (50ml)

Method:

  • Pre-heat your oven to 200 degrees.
  • Lay out the sheet of puff pastry.
  • Spread on a layer of mincemeat to cover the whole sheet.
  • Tightly roll the pastry length ways until you have formed a Swiss roll shape.
  • Seal by brushing on a little milk.
  • Slice the roll at 2 cm intervals.
  • Transfer the slices to a baking tray (use the baking parchment that the pastry comes wrapped in.
  • Brush on a light coating of milk.
  • Bake until golden brown (about 15-20 mins)

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Free Christmas Activities for Families

Please, don’t believe that you need lots of money to make fun, Christmas memories with your family. We all know how expensive Christmas can be, especially with children to buy for, but don’t let that put you off spending time together. I have compiled a list of activities for you to try this Christmastime.

  1. Take a walk to see your local Christmas light displays.
  2. Have a family games night.
  3. Start a large, festive puzzle. You can, of course, start any puzzle you own if you don’t have Christmas themed ones.
  4. Go to the library to borrow Christmas books, then come home and spend the evening reading them to yourselves or each other.
  5. Have a Christmas movie night.
  6. Have a donate day. This helps clear toys and is a good deed for the Christmas period.
  7. Go for a nature walk to collect things to use for a D.I.Y table centrepiece.
  8. Create the D.I.Y centrepiece together.
  9. Check online for local events such as parades in your local area.
  10. Write letters to Santa.
  11. Christmas caroling. Find out when your local church holds carol services or Christingles etc.
  12. Print out free Christmas colouring templates to colour or paint as a family.
  13. Write out Christmas cards together.
  14. Make paper chains or snowflakes.
  15. Make D.I.Y gifts.
  16. Put together a photo slide show of the past year.
  17. Have a family games night.
  18. Make reindeer food with porridge oats and seed.
  19. Make bird feeder balls out of seed, oats, and lard.
  20. Make gift wrap. Stamping / painting on parcel wrap is a fun gift wrap craft idea.

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Day 17: Frugal Tip Advent

Welcome to day 17 of my Frugal Tip Advent. Each day until December 24th I shall post one tip here (and on Instagram).

Day 17:

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How to Re-Use Gift Wrap

Do you want a frugal tip for cutting costs next Christmas? What if I told you that you could re-use gift wrap from the presents you receive? I’m telling you this now, so you can be conscious of the idea of saving gift wrap this Christmas. It is especially good if you receive a gift in that annoying foil/ plastic gift wrap that can’t be recycled.

Of course, you can reuse gift wrap to wrap other presents, but I wanted to include a few other options for you to consider:

Cracker Decorations: You can make DIY cracker decorations using smaller, off cuts of gift wrap. I posted a tutorial for these : Sweetie Crackers. These can be used as decorations or a way to gift sweets etc.

Lining Drawers: If you get large amounts of gift wrap, why not cut to size and line a drawer?

Festive Bunting: This DIY decoration is a must. Even small amounts of gift wrap can be cut into triangles to create long lengths of festive bunting.

Festive Envelopes: This can be as large or small as you want. There are plenty of tutorials on Youtube on how to create a basic envelope with paper. Gift wrap would work just as well.

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One final tip I want to share is how to deal with particularly creased paper.

Ironing the paper on an ironing board works a treat, but there are some important points to remember. The iron MUST be on a very low heat, and you MUST always cover the paper with a dish towel before ironing. Directly placing the iron on the paper will scorch it.

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2020 Calendar Gift Idea

One sure hit at Christmas are kids crafts. Grandparents and aunts and uncles usually go all mushy over a cute, homemade craft from the little ones. This year, we have made 2020 calendars, and I want to show you how we did it.

What you will need:

  • 2020 tear off calendar pads
  • Card cut into A5 size
  • Green paint
  • Brown marker
  • Sequins/ buttons etc (whatever you have to hand)
  • Glue
  • Hole punch
  • String/ ribbon

You can buy calendar pads from Amazon in varying quantities: 2020 Calendar Tabs |Pack of 10| Insert White Mini Calendar Tear Off Pads Month to View

Method:

  • Take an A5 piece of card and place it in a landscape position.
  • Hole punch the top to attach string later on for hanging.
  • Paint your child’s/ children’s hand and place down on the card.
  • Allow to dry.
  • Draw on a trunk in brown marker. You can also write the child’s name and the date by the print.
  • Stick sequins onto the tree to look like baubles.
  • Allow to dry.
  • Glue the calendar tab to the bottom of the card.
  • Allow to dry.
  • Thread your ribbon through the holes in the top and tie in a loop.

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*Disclaimer: I am a member of the Amazon Associates program. This post contains affiliate links to products. At no extra cost to you, I may receive a commission for purchases made through these links

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