Horrible Histories is one of those unique children’s TV programmes which really does have mass appeal. I love watching Horrible Histories, it’s really, genuinely funny, it’s educational and the songs are catchier than the bubonic plague.
Back in April we went to see Horrible Histories – Groovy Greeks and Incredible Invaders when it was on at The Lowry in Salford Quays. It was a riotous romp through history and we all thoroughly enjoyed it.
This Christmas The Lowry is once again playing host to the Horrible Histories crew – from Wednesday 7 December to Sunday 8 January there really will be a Horrible Christmas at The Lowry!
When Christmas comes under threat from a jolly man dressed in red, it’s up to one young boy to save the day – but can he save Christmas? From Victorian villains to Medieval monks, Puritan parties to Tudor treats, join the Horrible Histories gang on an hair-raising adventure through the history of Christmas in the company of Charles Dickens, Oliver Cromwell, King Henry VIII, St Nicholas and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer as they all join forces to save the festive season!
It’s a celebration of Christmas in the most wonderful, wildly funny and moving way you’ll ever see! We can’t wait, what a brilliant way to kick off the festive season with a bit of Horrible Histories Christmas.
The show is suitable for children aged 4+. With tickets starting at £10, this is a furiously funny alternative to the traditional panto.
Horrible Histories – Horrible Christmas The Lowry is on from Wednesday 7 December to Sunday 8 January 2017.
Everyone enjoys a sing along at Christmas and children are no exception. The small boy loves to join in with a rousing chorus of Jingle Bells or Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. So when I heard about the new Mr Tumble’s Christmas Party CD I knew he’d enjoy listening to it in the run up to Christmas.
CBeebies favourite and star of Something Special, Mr Tumble, has released an album full of much-loved classic Christmas songs, with a Mr Tumble twist.
The festive hits on the Mr Tumble’s Christmas Party CD include –
Santa Claus is Coming to Town
Jingle Bells
Here Comes Santa Claus
Do You Wanna Build a Snowman
Winter Wonderland
Sleigh Ride
White Christmas
Frosty the Snowman
It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas
I Can’t Wait for Christmas Day
Silent Night
Let it Snow
All I want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth
Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
The Twelve Days of Christmas
Little Drummer Boy
The Christmas Song
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas Time
We Wish You a Merry Christmas
The CD is a cheery collection of Christmas songs, recorded especially for children and liberally dusted with Mr Tumble’s giggles, honks, Tumble chatter and other embellishments. It’s the kind of album which we’ll listen to in the car in December, ideal for getting the whole family in the mood for Christmas.
The selection of songs is really well thought out. From Christmas classics such as The Twelve Days of Christmas, carols such as Silent Night, to contemporary favourites like Do You Wanna Build a Snowman from the hit film Frozen sung by Mr Tumble and his friends, Justin, Lord Tumble, Aunt Polly and Grandad Tumble!
There’s something for everyone and if you’re looking for a Christmas CD for all the family, something which will engage pre-school age children and Mr Tumble fans, then the Mr Tumble’s Christmas Party CD fits the bill perfectly.
Mr Tumble’s Christmas Party CD is released on 4th November 2016, you can pre-order on Amazon and it is currently priced at £11.42.
Over the weekend I was invited to a Christmas preview event at Bents Garden Centre in Glazebury near Warrington. Bents is famous for their Christmas displays, decorations and products, so I went along to see what would be hot this coming festive season. So what are the Christmas Decoration Trends for 2016?
Steampunk
Steampunk style decorations, particularly clocks are everywhere this year. From replacing the star on the top of the tree, being feature decorations, to festively attired wall hangings, the steampunk influence is everywhere. Using less gaudy metallic tones that you’d traditionally see on a Christmas tree, the muted tones of steampunk bring a more masculine, contemporary feel to your Christmas tree.
Woodland themes
The woodland theme will be everywhere this Christmas, appealing to both adults and children you’ll find foxes, owls, deer and other woodland creatures nestling in the branches of Christmas trees. Not to mention stand alone centrepieces featuring large owls and majestic stags. Embrace the woodland theme fully, or hint at it with a statement piece or two.
1950’s Nostalgia
Think white picket fences, big wreaths on brightly painted doors, and little 50’s style retro touches. We all have heirloom Christmas decorations we like to get out at Christmas or hang on the tree, I have some lovely original 1950’s decorations I carefully get out and display each year. This Christmas decoration trend is surely a recreation of that. Nostalgia for the Christmas trees belonging to our parents and grandparents.
Muted Tones
In stark contrast to the traditional reds and golds of years gone by, this year soft pinks, eucalyptus, champagne and dusky golds are taking centre stage, and very restful they are too.
Frosty, ephemeral tones are in and all over the place. They’re soft and feminine and the perfect antidote to the brash and brassy Christmas decorations you might have tired of. These soft, subtle tones ooze sophistication.
Christmas is a time for expressing your own personal style. For pushing the boat out and making a statement about you and your home. I was enchanted by the woodland themes and the soft pinks, eucalyptus, champagne and dusky golds were beautifully restful. But I’m a traditional girl and I was very, very taken by the 1950’s nostalgia.
Whatever your personal taste; traditional or contemporary, Bents Garden Centre is well worth a visit in the run up to Christmas. Their Christmas shop opens to the public on 12th October 2016, you never know, you might even spot Father Christmas whilst you’re there!
As autumn turns into winter I like to fill my house with festive smells. Cinnamon and spruce are my go to scents at this time of the year. I think scented candles, especially in the run up to Christmas are a simple way of creating a cosy and festive atmosphere in the home. We were sent the Voluspa Maison Candle scented with spruce cuttings to put to the test, but what did we think?
The two wick Voluspa Maison candle comes in a beautifully decorated tin, so you can take it wherever you go. The “Spruce Cuttings” candle is made from royal Colorado blue spruce cuttings, so when you light this candle the room is filled with an authentic spruce fragrance. The tin is also useful for keeping your candle dust free. I always find you can never adequately dust your candles, so a candle with a lid or cover is always welcome.
All Voluspa scented candles are made with without phthalates, parabens and sulfates. This lovely two wick scented candle is made from 11oz of coconut wax and has a burn time of around 50 hours.
The “Spruce Cuttings” Voluspa Maison Candle would be a lovely candle to have in the same room as your Christmas tree, enhancing its natural tree fragrance. The candle has a good throw – meaning that it fills the room fairly quickly with fragrance. I’ve had it lit downstairs this morning and I can still smell it upstairs. A good throw is generally an indicator of a good quality candle.
The Voluspa Maison Candle costs £20 which compared to other high end candles of this quality is good value. It’s made with high quality ingredients and the tin looks lovely and is the kind of thing I’d keep and keep bits and bobs in afterwards.
The Maison “Holiday” range includes several different festive fragrances including Cinnamon Ceylon and Copal and Visions of Sugar Plum, as well as a selection of different candle types including gift sets.
Voluspa candles are available on their website and from a range of retailers including House of Fraser.
I was a bit old for a Furby the first time around, I was too cool for school and didn’t really get the attraction. But now I have a small boy of my own I see things through his eyes and the new, all singing, all dancing, all action Furby Connect is possibly the most exciting thing he’s clapped eyes on for a while.
He’s never seen anything quite like it, and neither have we. It’s like one of the Gremlins has come to life! We will try our best not to get him wet – who knows what would happen if we did!
The Furby was launched this autumn in time for Christmas and although he costs around £80 (though as ever there are deals and discounts widely available online), he would make a good “big present” for someone.
The Furby Connect is Bluetooth enabled, and apparently this means it knows what day it is. I imagine it will have a thing or two to say on Christmas Day morning.
He is easy to unbox, though you will need to unscrew his base from the cardboard and insert 4 AA batteries. Once he wakes up his eyes open and the talking, singing and giggling begin. We’d never quite seen anything like it and we were all in stitches within minutes.
Each Furby has 150 expressive animations which he conveys using his big LCD eyes, wiggling ears and light-up antenna. He is also the softest, fluffiest toy I’ve ever cuddled.
Apparently each Furby is different and acts and reacts differently to how you treat them. Our Furby liked to sit on my knee while I gently massaged him, I knew he liked it because he kept crooning “Oooo deep tissue” and making a happy face.
We downloaded the app onto my son’s iPad and between the Furby and the app he’s already had hours and hours of fun with it all. With the app you can feed him, play games or take him to the toilet. The Furby Connect World app keeps your Furby updated and apparently brings in new Furby phrases, music, and videos every week that your Furby can interact with.
When the antenna glows on your Furby Connect, it means it is getting an update from the Furby Connect World app and there is something new to discover next time you open the app.
One of the things my son had enjoyed most with the app is hatching and raising Furblings from egg. Another big hit was feeding his Furby who would then let out a large burp – this is not the toy you use to teach table manners, but it is a lot of fun.
I did wonder how I’d ever be able to get our Furby to shut up so we could all get to sleep. Thankfully he comes with his own sleep mask which you attach to his face. After 30 seconds or so of snoring and sleepy noises, he does settle down for the night, only waking when you take his mask off. I really like this feature, I’ve spent the last six years jumping out of my skin when a noisy toy sets itself off in an otherwise silent house at night, so being able to guarantee silence is a big plus for us.
Watch our “Meet our Furby Connect” video here…
I am surprisingly un-irritated by our Furby Connect. I’ve come to look at him as a pet I don’t have to clean up after, and one I can switch off if I need to.
The small boy absolutely adores him. It’s early days but he is enjoying looking after him and making sure he is happy.
I like that the app keeps him updated and that there are lots of additional play options in the app with the Furby. We also like that he’s really snuggly and adorable. He looks at you with these big eyes, coos gobbledygook at you and you can’t help but be a little bit smitten by him.
The Furby Connect is available for around £80 and you can find them in Purple, Teal, Pink and Blue (ours is the blue one). They are suitable for ages 6+, though younger ones may need some help navigating the app at first. They are widely available in toy shops and through online retailers such as Amazon.
Disclosure: We received our Furby Connect for the purposes of writing this review, all opinions and images are our own. Contains Amazon affiliate links.
It’s not often I have a guest post to share with you, but when Bobble Bardsley tweeted a picture of his Mincemeat Vol au Vents I knew it was a stroke of genius that needed to be shared. I dislike pastry so I struggle with mince pies, but the idea of a Mincemeat Vol au Vent is fantastic. They have all the traditional mince pie taste but with considerably less of the claggy pastry. I am definitely going to try these out! Over to you Bob….
These delicious morsels were an accident – we ran out of fillings for our vol au vents one Christmas (in the 2010s, not the 1980s!) so the mincemeat came out of the cupboard and we filled the last few pastry cases with that.
It was a revelation. If you find homemade mince pies a bit too chewy, or your pastry always goes ‘caramelised’ (AKA burnt) these are a great alternative, and can be made from scratch within about 15 minutes.
Mincemeat Vol au Vents
If you find homemade mince pies a bit too chewy, or your pastry always gets burnt these are a great alternative, and can be made from scratch within about 15 minutes.
Instructions
Remove the vol au vent cases from their packaging, wash with milk or egg so they go golden brown when baked, and arrange on a baking tray with a small gap between them.
Bake according to the packaging instructions – I used Jus-Rol vol au vents, and the instructions were 220C for about 13-15 minutes.
With a few minutes spare, remove the vol au vents from the oven. They should already be golden, and very nearly cooked.
Push down their ‘hats’ to create a hollow, and add a teaspoon of mincemeat to each one. A dozen vol au vents will take anywhere around 150-200g depending on how much you fill them.
Return to the hot oven for a few minutes until the suet has melted and the mincemeat has ‘relaxed’ into the bottom of its pastry nest.
Remove and allow to cool. At this stage I used a flour sifter to dust them with icing sugar. If you don’t have a sweet tooth, the mincemeat and pastry alone are delicious together.
Notes –
I prefer to glaze with milk rather than egg. Be generous, so your pastry is quite ‘wet’ when it goes into the oven.
Have a palette knife or sharp-edged silicone spatula ready to prise the pastry cases off of the baking tray once they’re done. Alternatively use non-stick baking parchment if you have any.
Be quite frugal with the mincemeat. They might not look very full, but you’ll be glad of that when you take a bite, and the flaky vol au vent pastry starts to collapse. It’s much easier to just shove the whole thing in at once and then reach for another.
Don’t let ANYONE tell you vol au vents are old-fashioned. They’ll soon change their tune once they taste one of these. Mincemeat vol au vents are the future!
If you enjoyed this recipe, you might also like to try these mincemeat flapjacks.
There’s nothing like the Christmas episode of your favourite programme to get you in the Christmas spirit. We were lucky enough to get our paws on a preview copy of the Pip Ahoy! Christmas Ahoy! DVD before its release date on 14th December. I can hand on heart say that you’re in for a treat. The DVD features the 22 minute long Christmas Special which will be shown on Christmas Day, as well as 4 other Pip Ahoy! episodes. The first 200o copies of the DVD sold will also include a bonus 9 track CD with 4 additional Karaoke tracks.
Take a trip down to Salty Cove this Christmas and join the festive fun as Pip, Alba and Skipper decorate the lighthouse; meet Alan’s special Christmas visitors – one of whom doesn’t like bouncing (can you believe it?) and meet Father Christmas!
I don’t want to give too much away, but the Pip Ahoy! Christmas Ahoy! episode is wonderfully heart-warming and full of festive fun. It truly made my heart melt a little, definitely made me want to get my hands on a penguin snowball, and really got me in the mood for Christmas. As for the small boy – he watched it four times in a row, which I think is a pretty good indication of how good it is.
The pre-school series Pip Ahoy! features Sir David Jason as the voice of Pip’s kindly uncle, Skipper, along with singer and reality TV star Stacey Solomon who sings the theme song and is the voice of the pink flamingo, Fuchsia.
The Pip Ahoy Christmas Ahoy DVD is released on 14th December, is rated Cert U and has a running time of 66 minutes (approx). The Pip Ahoy! Christmas Ahoy! DVD is available for order from Amazon today.
The lovely people who make the brilliant cartoon Pip Ahoy have given me a fantastic set of 12 Christmas Pip Ahoy! printables to share with you.
If you’ve not yet heard of Pip and his friends, Pip Ahoy! is a cartoon about Pip the puppy, and his friends including cute kitten Alba and adorable Alan the penguin in the seaside town of Salty Cove. You can catch up with Pip Ahoy! on Channel 5’s Milkshake and on Cartoonito.
This set of free Christmas Pip Ahoy! printables includes lots of festive pictures to colour in, as well as template letters to Santa and Christmas craft ideas. Lots to keep the little ones entertained throughout the Christmas period.
To download the free Pip Ahoy! printables click here.
Don’t forget to join us for the Pip Ahoy! Twitter Party on 1st December, follow @PipAhoyUK and join in with the hashtag #ISpyWithPip to be in with a chance to win some prizes. You can download your free Pip Ahoy party pack here.
Your invitation is below…
Don’t forget you can win your very own Pip Ahoy! Skippers Bucket Toy in my Christmas competition – it ends on 13th December 2015, click here to be in with a chance to win!
When Duerr’s asked me to try their new Chunky Ginger Preserve, my first thought was lebkuchen. I’ve never made them before but I thought it might be nice to try. If you like ginger, you’ll like the Duerr’s Chunky Ginger Preserve, it is sweet and spicy, full of chunks of fiery ginger, and great for cooking with, especially for my Lebkuchen cake.
One of my favourite things to eat around Christmastime is lebkuchen. Lebkuchen are a German cakey-biscuit, usually a soft spiced gingerbread covered in icing or chocolate, sometimes filled with jam, sometimes not. I find them irresistibly moreish and any bags which find their way into our house have to be kept from me and a small ration allocated daily.
You can find the recipe for my Lebkuchen Cake below, don’t be put off by the large-ish list of ingredients, it is literally stick them in a bowl and give them a good stir. It is probably the best cake I’ve ever made and a great alternative to the traditional Christmas cake if you don’t like all that fruit!
Recipe: Lebkuchen Cake
Serves 10
A delicious cake version of the traditional German Christmas treat – easier than it looks to make and truly scrumptious!
Ingredients
125g of butter, softened
150g sugar
1 egg yolk
3 eggs
200g of runny honey
3 heaped tablespoons of sour cream
300g self-raising flour
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon of baking powder
5 teaspoons of ground ginger
A pinch of salt
2 tablespoons of Duerr’s Chunky Ginger Preserve
For the chocolate glaze
150 g dark chocolate
180 ml double cream
Instructions
In a large bowl beat the butter and sugar until well combined. One at a time add the following ingredients and mix – one egg yolk, honey and sour cream.
In a separate bowl mix the dry ingredients – self-raising flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, pinch of salt and ginger together. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and gently mix.
Mix the eggs and add to the cake mixture and stir.
Pour the cake mix into a lined cake tin. I used a large loaf tin. Bake in a preheated oven at 180ºc. for about 50 minutes until it is cooked through. Remove from the oven and leave to cool, preferably overnight.
When cool cut the cake in two lengthways and spread the Duerr’s Chunky Ginger Preserve on the bottom layer, then sandwich back together.
To make the chocolate glaze, put the double cream in a saucepan and bring it to the boil and remove from the heat. Add the crushed chocolate and stir until dissolved, keep stirring until it has cooled a little, but is still liquid.
Pour the hot chocolate glaze on the top and sides of the Lebkuchen cake and leave it for a few hours to cool and set.
Notes
Five teaspoons of ground ginger does sound like a lot, but once it is cooked the fiery ginger tones down a little.
This does make a large cake, so you could split it into two cake tins and make two smaller cakes if you’d like.
If you don’t like dark chocolate you could use milk chocolate instead.
To taste test the lebkuchen cake properly we bought some proper lebkuchen from the Christmas Markets and I’m pleased that the two were comparable. Despite the long list of ingredients it was so easy to make and I will be making it again, probably several times before Christmas for various occasions.
With my Christmas recipe repertoire now including Finnish Joulutorttu and German Lebkuchen cake, we are in for a truly continental Christmas – and it’s all the better for it!
We were sent this reindeer crown from Baker Ross for review purposes. All images and opinions are our own.
Now the weather has taken a decidedly wintery turn I’m starting to get into the Christmas spirit. This weekend was an especially cold one, the small boy had a nasty cold and we decided to stay in, cosy in front of the fire and have a lazy weekend. Keen to get cracking with some Christmas crafts we busied ourselves by making a reindeer crown using hand prints and we were pleased with the results.
The reindeer crown kits are available from Baker Ross and come in packs of 4 or 16. The packs contain everything you need to make the crown, except for glue, though we used double sided sticky tape because it’s quicker and there’s less mess than with glue.
The instructions are really easy to follow. Draw around your hands and cut out your hand print shape. I did the cutting because the small boy is terrifying with scissors or anything with a blade. The instructions suggest you use glue to stick the cut our hand shapes onto the headband; but I used double sided sticky tape for this. The other pieces, the ears, the reindeer hair and the holly and berries are self-adhesive, so the small boy peeled the backing paper off these and stuck them onto the headband.
Once he had finished he very proudly wore it around the house for a few hours. I think these make a nice alternative to the paper cracker crowns we are forced to wear for Christmas dinner; so I might make myself one to wear on Christmas Day.
There was some parental supervision required with the cutting out of the hand shapes; but other than that he did the rest himself. It was something he enjoyed doing, he likes peeling and sticking things. It was pretty simple, but it kept him interested and entertained for a while. Another good and fun Christmas activity from Baker Ross!
is available for order from Amazon today.
