Bell Santiago: Christmas

Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts

Thursday, 10 December 2015

10 reasons to love winter

1. Christmas
I had to put this one first because, well, its Christmas. Cheesy songs, delicious meals and nights in watching festive movies. It is the perfect time to relax and get together with the family. Yep, even those cousins you haven't seen for a decade. Spreading love becomes everyone's motto and even those grumpy neighbours grant you a smile - your life is complete!

2. You can eat whatever you want
Take that extra piece of chocolate or third hot chocolate of the day - who cares? No one has a summer body in winter and it's beautiful. Whenever you feel a bit bloated you just throw on your massive jumper and it's impossible to tell. When your nan cooks there's no holding back anyways!

3. Cosy evenings in front of the fire
Sitting in front of a fire with a hot chocolate and a good song playing is one of the best things in life. Even if your fire is fake. The thought is what matters.

4. Christmas lights
Yes, this is a separate point from Christmas as the lights are a whole thing on their own. I mean, there's been tons of towns hosting 'light ups' around me and they were all spectacular. It's not every day that a giant tree gets lit up while people are singing holy night underneath. Even if it's not as romantic as I thought...

5. Snow
Living in England, we don't get this a lot. And when we do the whole transport system breaks down for a week. However nothing beats the magic of the first snowflakes on a cold winter morning or frantically running around the garden while trying to build a snowman.

6. Hot drinks
Whether you're into Starbucks' Gingerbread Latte or just a simple hot chocolate, winter is THE season for hot drinks. They can save your life when you're out shopping for gifts and it's freezing. And don't even get me started on the amazing sensation of having that first Peppermint Mocha of the season.

7. Layers
Too cold? Just throw on another piece of clothing. You could technically wear all your fave pieces of clothing at once and it would be fine! (Also us girlies don't have to shave the legs)

8. Candles
The candles in wintertime are always the best. I mean you can't beat a Yankee candle that smells like Christmas baking can you? Also candles are so much more effective when it's dark outside, which is pretty much most of the day in winter.

9. the TV programme
The closer it gets to Christmas, the better the TV programme gets. Harry Potter basically runs on loop and the Grinch is finally making his comeback. Oh and Michael Buble is singing himself through several shows as well.

10. New Years
New Year, new opportunities, new me. That's the plan. The feeling you get when you count down to a new year is indescribable and that alone makes winter amazing. Bring on the champagne and fireworks!

Tell me your favourite thing about winter in the comments! Have an amazing season 💕

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Sunday, 6 December 2015

Traditional German Christmas cookies

Christmas is approaching super fast, hence my family and I have been doing what we do every year around this time: bake Christmas cookies. When I first moved to Britain I was shocked to find out that they did not seem to know what proper Christmas cookies were (apart from Gingerbread men). In Germany people bake a variety of different sorts of cookies and biscuits around Christmas time. I believe my nan makes up to 30 different ones every year and they're all delicious. Anyways, I thought I would introduce one of the easiest and cutest recipes to you which always takes me back to my childhood.

What you need
For the cookies (makes about 60):

500g flour
250g butter
150g icing sugar
2 eggs
2 small packs of vanilla sugar
a pinch of salt
rolling pin
cookie cutters

For the icing

350g icing sugar
4-5 tbsp of lemon juice
tons of sprinkles
food colouring

First you need to combine all the dry ingredients for the cookies and mix them really well. Then mix the (softened) butter together with the eggs and slowly add this to the dry ingredients. Its best to use a spatula to combine everything to begin with and then make it into a dough ball using your hands. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and place it into the fridge for 2 hours.

After the 2 hours take the dough out of the fridge and roll it out to a thickness of about 0.5cm. At this point you should preheat your oven to 175°. Use your cookie cutters (if possible christmasy ones) to form your cookies and place them on a baking tray lined with non stick baking paper. Place in the oven for about 12 minutes or until golden brown.

These are a selection of the best decorated ones ;)

Now comes the fun part. Wait till your cookies are completely cooled down and mix your icing (you can add food colouring if you want). Spread it onto your cookies and go crazy on the decorations. The more sprinkles the better. And voila - you have made a delicious batch of Christmas cookies! I hope you try out this recipe, if you do make sure to send me a picture on twitter. Have fun!

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Wednesday, 2 December 2015

DIY Christmas Cards

I've always loved adding a personal touch to someone's Christmas present because it shows you have actually put thought and time into it. This year I've decided to do this by handmaking the Christmas Cards. I went online and looked up the cutest Christmas Cards for inspiration and voila.

The supercute cards by Love Layla Design have been an amazing source of inspiration and I'd totally suggest you go over there and buy one (they're as good as DIY). I feel like everyone loves a funny or personalised Xmas Card so I went all out and made sure each card fit the personality of the receiver. Here are some of my favourites:

You should seriously try this because its soo easy, all you need is some sharpies or coloured pens, paper and your imagination. Go wild on it, there are no rules!
I hope you enjoyed this first Christmas themed blogpost, there are many more to come. Have an amazing day <3

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Monday, 15 December 2014

The Christmas Tag

Time to get real. Thanks to the lovely Kerry for tagging me!

1. What is your favourite Christmas movie?
It's Elf :) Just joking I've actually never seen that film before oops. Anyway my favourite Christmas movie is The Polar Express. It's just the cutest movie ever and it brings back so many good memories from when I was little.

2. Do you open your presents on Christmas eve or Christmas morning?
Surprisingly even though I live in the UK I open my presents on Christmas Eve. I was born in Germany and have many relatives there so we traditionally celebrate it on the 24th, as this is the official Christmas day there.

3. Do you have a favourite Christmas memory?
I honesty can't think of a particular one. I thought it was really special way back when me and my sister (SPOILER) still believed in Santa Claus but every Christmas is just so amazing. Spending time with all your family and making them happy is just the best thing ever.

4. Favourite festive food?
Well we usually have fish and baguette as Christmas dinner but my favourite food is all the Christmas cookies. My Grandma makes hundreds every year and they are just sooo good. I recently tried making some cookies myself which made me feel very festive!

5. Favourite Christmas gift?
Oh I really don't know. I'm so thankful for all the gifts I get but I especially love the ones where the person it's from has put it some thought and love (so probably everything). I do remember getting my cats as a Christmas gift tho and I still love them endlessly!

6. Favourite Christmas scent?
The Christmas tree and that of someone cooking/baking. I mean I love that scent all year round because I love food but at Christmas time it's just that tiny bit more amazing.

7. Do you have any Christmas eve traditions?
As I said before we actually give present then and we also have a lovely dinner. Afterwards my whole family sits together and sings some songs (cringe I know) and just enjoys the evening.

8. What tops your tree?
A really cute silver star that we've had for ages! I think its several generations old.

9. As a kid, what was one crazy gift you asked for but never received?
I'm pretty sure I asked for a dolphin. I had a few years where I was absolutely obsessed with dolphins (bit of a weird obsession for a kid if you ask me) so instead of a real one I just got several toy ones. It's not as if I still have them somewhere... ;)

10. What's the best part of Christmas for you?
Time to say the cliche: Spending time with my family. It's true though, It is the only time in the year where I see them all at once and actually have time to talk to them. I also adore seeing the people I love receiving gifts that make them happy (hopefully the ones I got them).

I hope you enjoyed this post, I tag everyone reading this!
Have the most amazing Christmas ever!!!!!

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Saturday, 6 December 2014

Christmas cookies

German 'Spitzbuben'

A tradition in my family is to start baking Christmas cookies as soon as December starts. It's one of my favourite things to do as it puts me in the Christmas spirit and I spend some fun time with my family who I normally don't see that much due to work and other stuff.
We have some recipes that have been in our family for several generations and this is one of them. It is a traditional German recipe of Christmas cookies that are called 'Spitzbuben'. Sounds slightly weird but I can't tell you how amazing they are. Sooooo delicious! Anyway, lets get started (Warning: Lot's of pictures are going to follow!)

You'll need:

200g butter
125g icing sugar
1 egg white
a pinch of salt
10g vanilla sugar
350g plain flour
Black currant jam (if possible without fruit pieces in it)

Mix the butter,icing sugar and egg white together. Then add the salt and Vanilla sugar.

Now add the flour and use your hands to make it into a smooth dough. Form a ball out of it and put it in the fridge for 30 minutes.

My sister and I got a bit carried away while forming the ball ;)

After 30 minutes take the dough ball out of the fridge and put it on a clean surface that you cover with a bit of flour to prevent the dough from sticking to it. At this point you preheat the oven to 200 °.

Now roll out the dough to a thickness of about 2mm (mine was a bit thicker it really doesn't matter that much).

Now you need cookie cutters of the same form in two different sizes, one has to be about 1/4 the size of the other. I used hearts, stars and weird circles. For one cookie you need to cut out two of the bigger sized forms and then cut out the middle of one of them with the smaller one.

I'm sorry for the bad explanation but this picture should make it clearer. Make sure you have one complete cookie half for each one with a cut out middle.

Put baking paper onto a baking tray and place your cookies on it. Put it in the preheated oven for 8-10 minutes or until they are golden brown.

These aren't quite ready yet.

Then take them out and put them somewhere to cool down before you add your jam. I accidentally bought jam with bits in it which made the next part a lot harder so make sure you buy jam of a jelly like consistency. It doesn't even matter what fruit jam it is but I like it with black currant.

This is the colour they should be when you take them out.

Now spread the jam on one of the hole free cookies. Make sure you use a generous amount so you can taste it in the end. Then place the matching cookie with a hole on top of it. (This is the worst description ever but basically just stick the two cookie parts together)

Don't they look so yummy?

Finally you can sprinkle a bit of icing sugar on top to make them look all fancy.
I hope you enjoyed this post, I am really sorry I am so bad at describing the different steps but the only guideline I had was a really old recipe in German.
If you decide to recreate it send me pictures on twitter:
https://twitter.com/fashionblogbell
Love you lots!