Listen to Best Christmas Songs Playlist

Photo Courtesy of You Tube

Everyone at Christmas Village has been listening to our favorite playlists on our favorite station called Christmas Channel while we lay down our plans for this year's festivities! You can find it on You Tube. Look for Christmas Channel with Santa's joyous face. There are a few channels with similar names. Nothing is more relaxing and fulfilling to our souls than listening to wonderful Christmas music.  Enjoy!

P.S. I didn't include the link because it automatically connects to my account for some reason.

Charming Snowman Ornaments Made From Felt or Wood

Phote Courtesy of DIY Creator

Hello my dearies! Are you starting to gather up your supplies to craft some new decorations for your tree this year?  We have and look what we found! These charming little snowman ornaments. We just love snowmen after all and have lots of them all around as I'm sure you can image living up here at the North Pole.  

There were no directions included but it looks pretty basic to follow just by looking at it.  Here are the ones I drew up which you are more than happy to follow.  You can either sew or glue them together which makes it very easy.

Before you begin, I would highly recommend having a batch of cookies baking in the oven so you have something to snack on after making these! 

Materials:

• Felt: cream, red, orange, brown
• Scrap of plaid fabric 
• Button Thread or thin ribbon.
• Black Scribble Paint
• Blush
• Q-Tip
• Fabric Glue or matching thread for felt pieces
• Glitter Spray Paint

Instructions:

1. Cut 2 egg shape snowmen bodies from cream felt. You choose size you want.
2. Cut out heart, arm, nose and scarf from other fabric. Imperfection adds to their charm.
3. On 1 snowman body, sew the heart, arm, nose and scarf.  (We are using the black scribbles paint to make the eyes but if you want, you can use black embroidery thread and make little French knots for the eyes instead.)
4. Take the other body and sew it to the front of the body, with the wrong sides of the fabric facing each other. 
5. When you get to the top of the ornament, knot the button thread at the end, insert into the top of the head between the fabric and stitch in place. If using thin ribbon, do not knot ends. Just insert in between fabric and stitch.
6. Use the black scribbles paint to add 2 little dots for eyes.
7. Take the Q-tip, rub it in blush and very gently rub in little circular motions on the fabric where the rosy cheeks should be.
8. My favorite part of all! Spray with glitter! A nice sparkly, crystalline glitter spray!  This catches the light and just sparkles up a storm! What fun!
9. Let dry and hang!

OPTIONS:

• Use fabric glue to secure everything together. No thread needed.
• Use egg shaped pieces of wood found in your local craft store. Paint the shapes white or off-white. Add the fabric pieces with a glue gun. If you want a more rustic look, after each coat of dried paint, take sand paper and scratch over surface for an aged look. You can also water down a little brown paint and lightly coat the surface for a country vintage look. Then, you can add the fabric pieces.

Free Printables including Holiday Gift Tracking Colorful List

Holiday Gift Tracking

What fun to keep track of all the little goodies you plan to give your loved ones! I love color! The more color there is, the more fun I'm having! 

There are many other free great printables at I Heart Organizing including To Do Lists, Monthly Calendar, A Letter To Santa, Gift Tags, A Weekly Planner and so much more!  Ohh! I especially love The Countdown to Christmas Labels!  Take a look! See! 

Countdown to Christmas Advent Labels

A Letter To Santa!

Visit I Heart Organizing to see all her other free printables, many more than I listed above. She also has an Etsy shop for more very very verrrry affordable downloads to help you stay organized and your holidays tame! 

Christmas and Holiday Planner

Good morning all my dearies! Now, I wanted to talk to you a little about planning for the holidays. You know its just right around the corner and its going to sneak right up on us before we know it!  The best time to start is now...although Santa and I do take a little break in January, then start planning for next year's events shortly thereafter.  What better month to plant seeds of love for the Christmas season than in February! But its not too late to start now!

I know. Summer isn't even officially here until June 21 but doing a little planning every month will make things so much easier for you AND for your family because you'll be getting things out of the way. You'll be reducing the stress that often can come from the hectic crazy season ahead of us and everyone will be able to enjoy Christmas for what its meant to be celebrated for...and that's not expensive presents. (Please remember money and gifts are not equated with love. Be conscientious of the lessons we teach our young ones so we don't foster attitudes of entitlement and spoil them.   This will not serve them well at any time in their lives and will only set them up for a harder life, unrealistic expectations and lots of disappointment.)

Anyhoo, back to what we were talking about...there are lots of planners out there to choose from but the best I found are Erin Condren Life Planners.

What I love most about them is:

1. The days are separated into day, afternoon and evening sections. Makes it easy when quickly glancing.
2. You can change the covers! 
3. You can personalize the covers by adding any name you want or create your own cover!
4. The bright colorful stickers fit perfectly in the monthly and daily slots! 
5. The perpetual calendar is now sold separately and fits easily into the back pocket folder of the planner! 
6. You can download pictures to make your own personalized stickers!
7. The coil clips are little tabs you can attach to the planner and adhere additional notes to it!
8. Who doesn't love the metallic elastic ribbon that comes with the planner for the final touch?! 

The video above shows 2 examples of Erin's platinum and gold planners. (You Tube also offers great videos how other people are using them. They share ideas on where they found additional accessories and how they use them to keep everything organized. I must confess we use these little tips up here at the North Pole! It takes a lot of planning to get Santa, the elves, reindeer, woodland birds who decorate the trees, Bumble the Abominable Snow Monster, Rudy. and all our other helpers coordinated. Otherwise, Christmas would be late every year...or never come at all! Oh, my goodness! I feel the panic setting in. Breathe. Where's my tea?...sip...okay...)

Photo Courtesy from The Fine Art Diner

The video below is Erin giving you a tour of the planner.

She also has wedding planners, teacher or lesson planners, and address books for anyone who might need these.

Don't forget to look at Emergency Sanity Savers right here on Mrs. Santa's Blog for other planner ideas and checklists that you may not think of. I incorporate many of these into my own planner.

• Holiday Gift Tracking
• Room Planning - Scroll to the bottom of the page for a list of each room

To keep your planning supplies together, here are a couple of cases discussed in this video. Most notably is Target's Weekender Cosmetic Case which is all the talk on organizational blogs lately.  Its big enough to hold a couple of planners, too.

Even if you get a regular binder, some colorful tabs, and print off templates to create your own planner, that's fine, too. I would suggest decorating the cover to make it fun to look at!

Whatever planning system you choose...it doesn't have to be this one...I chose Erin's because they are my absolute favorite to work with every year...what is important is to start planning now. A little at a time now will make a big difference for you and everyone else then!

Until next time!....ohhh, I think the cookies are burning.....

Mom's Baked Chicken from Mrs. Santa!

Well! Look what I found tucked away in my mom's tattered old recipe box. Well worn and loved. This was something she made all the time and many people loved it. It was a regularly requested recipe and no family function could pass without it. It is very old fashioned with few ingredients.

(I must confess I do plan on "tweaking" it a bit myself to add in extra seasonings that I particularly love, like marjoram, rosemary, a dash of Italian seasoning. But I am a bit heavy handed and lean towards Irish cooking where everything goes in the pot but the kitchen sink. However, considering I have heard other Mrs. Santa's across the continents do the same thing, it just be the savvy thing to do to feed many mouths and satisfy many hungry bellies!)  

Recipe:

1. Put 2 cups flour, pepper, thyme, sage, poultry seasoning, etc in a bag and shake to mix.
2. Put about 6 pieces of cut-up, cleaned chicken in bag and shake to coat, at a time.
3. Melt 1 stick oleo in pan in oven until melted.
4. Add chicken pieces, cut up onion over it.
5. Bake at 425 for 1/2 hour, then turn pieces of chicken over and bake another 1/2 hour.

Santa's Favorite Stew! The Official North Pole Soup! Best in the World!

My husband makes this phenomenal beef veggie soup. This is definitely for either cold or rainy, stormy weather when you need to warm up inside and want to feel nestled and cozy. Its guaranteed to give the ones you love that "Home-feeling" inside. 

Well, Santa stopped by one day to pick up some supplies and couldn't help but to get a huge whiff of this wafting through the house. Of course, we invited him for lunch.  He had 2 big bowls and its now his all time favorite. Mrs. Santa called me for the recipe and said he couldn't stop talking about it. Now she makes it on a regular basis for Santa and the elves. Even his reindeer sneak a little nibble if one of the elves leaves a bowl down while they're grabbing some warm buttery biscuits fresh from the oven.

Try it for your Mr. Claus and little helpers! Its sure to become a family favorite for them, too!

Ingredients:

2 lbs of beef stew meat
1 pkg of Soup Greens
1.5 yellow onions
3 celery ribs
1 potato, peeled and diced
1 cup frozen corn
1 cup frozen peas
1 cup of mushrooms
28 oz can of Hunt's diced tomato
3.5 cups of beef base
2 bay leaves
3 cloves of fresh garlic (the one if the glass jar...use garlic press when adding to soup)
a few shakes of garlic powder
2 T of olive oil
2 t hot pepper sauce
Pepper
Italian Seasoning
Oregano
Red pepper flakes
7.5 cups of water


Directions:

Cut meat in 1/2" pieces

In large pot, sauté meat in 1 T olive oil on medium-high heat until all sides are brown.

Set aside on plate.

Chop celery, onion, potatoes and carrots in bite size pieces.

Sauté celery, onion and fresh garlic in remaining 1 T oil until onion is golden, about 10 minutes.

Add beef, water, beef base, tomatoes with juices, carrots, potatoes, corn, bay leaves, mushroom, garlic, Italian seasoning, oregano.

Bring to a boil.

Reduce heat and simmer covered but with lid a jarred so steam can escape from side. Simmer until beef is almost tender. About 1 hour.

Add peas and hot sauce to soup.

Cover and simmer until beef is tender, about 30 minutes longer.

Serve and season with ground pepper and hot sauce.

Don't forget the warmed biscuits or egg knots with butter!

You've Been Elf-ed!

Photo Courtesy of Organized Christmas

 

 

 

This is a new game I learned today called You've Been Elf-ed! You leave a basket of treats at a neighbor's door with an elf sign and poem explaining how to play. I'm thinking about substituting the basket with a bag or handmade felt elf shoe.  It doesn't have to be anything grand.  Some homemade cookies or bread with jam?  How about a few holiday ornaments as a surprise?  It's the meaning behind the gift, the action you're taking.

 

It's a great way to spread some holiday cheer! On top of that, getting involved in different holiday activities is a huge way to fill your home and heart with that holiday. 

 

Try to step away from all the commercialism as much as you can.  It stresses people out, causes arguments and gets you into debt afterwards. That's not the meaning of the season. Playing Christmas music, writing cards, decorating, reading Christmas books, making ornaments, going to mass, singing holiday songs, watching Christmas shows, sipping apple cider or hot cocoa, building snowmen, driving or walking at night to look at the holiday lights, having a snowball fight...there are many things you can do to enjoy the holidays and bring the real meaning back to you and your family.  Its the simple things that really mean the most to people. Love is not measured by how much you spend on a gift.  I often think some of the children in our world are being raised (trained) to equate the amount of money that is spent on them is equal to how much someone loves them.

 

Instructions for this new tradition can be found at Organized Christmas.