25 things that I wish for each of you this holiday season

In the chaotic mix of the holiday season, I often find that there are moments of almost startling serenity. Perhaps it's a matter of being in the eye of the storm, or maybe, as the classic Christmas carol, Silent Night, reminds us, all really is calm and bright.

It was in the midst of one of these wee pockets of tranquility recently that I was almost overwhelmed with the desire to send out Christmas cards to each and every one of my readers - especially after the staggering outpouring of love and assistance that you guys have bestowed on us after the fire.

Naturally, for a myriad of reasons, such isn't possible - however, I can convey the same kinds of festive sentiments here on my blog, which I hope you'll agree with me is quite similar to classic greeting cards themselves.

In particular, my mind is overflowing with thoughts of what I truly hope that life, the universe and all other forces at play in this vast world of ours - the spirit of Santa Claus very much included - will bring your way during this profoundly meaningful time of the year.

Some of the following 25 festive wishes - one each for the first 25 days of December - are deep and serious, whereas others are more lighthearted and just for fun.

So, my immensely dear friends, please accept this today's post as my holiday season greeting to each and every of you.

It comes wrapped in love and, I hope, really will ring true through the beautiful days that fill the very last chapter of another exciting year.

1. Tons of festive cheer!

2. That fond nostalgia fills your heart, while...

3. You also create amazing new memories this year

4. Quite time to savour and reflect on what this season really means to you personally

5. Peace in your heart, your family, and all areas of your life

6. Lots of opportunities to rock your favourite vintage/repro/rockabilly/pinup/or any other type of holiday attire (adorable Christmas themed novelty brooches very much included)

7. Serene walks taken in the crisp early winter air that remind you of the powerful, though sometimes not instantly obvious, beauty that this time of the year houses

8. The joy that comes with giving a gift or otherwise doing something that truly brightens someone's holiday and leaves a lasting impression on them for years to come

9. A new vintage treasure or two amongst your gifts

10. The ability to still enjoy at least some of the elements of the season with the same sort of wide-eyed wonder you had as a child

11. If you live in a part of the world where such is possible, that you're greeted to a white Christmas on the 25th

12. Zero (or, if that's not realistic, as little as possible) family drama during the holidays

13. May you have at least one - and hopefully many - reason(s) to smile every day

14. Fantastic company (friends, family, SO - you name it!) around you often

15. A powerful sense of contentment in your heart and more blessings than you could ever count

16. That your favourite Christmas songs are the ones you hear most frequently

17. A festive season that is sweeter than all the candy canes, sugar cookies, and hot cocoa on earth

18. Gorgeous holiday light displays all throughout your neighbourhood

19. Reminders of the good old days and what Christmastime meant for the generations that came before us

20. The ability to celebrate the season with your pets and/or other favourite animals in your life

21. Fests that fill your belly and warm your soul alike (with lots of yummy leftovers to enjoy for days afterward)

22. The very best health possible

23. Time to watch at least one or two of your favourite holiday TV shows and/or movies

24. The happiest festive season one could ever ask for!

25. An incredible new year ahead that helps you to grow, develop, blossom (as a person), and follow your bliss all the more

{To learn more about a specific image that was used in today's post, please click on it to be taken to its respective source.}

♥ ♥ ♥

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for the unending gift of your readership, your support, your friendship, your encouragement, your care, your inspiration, and unquestionably your incredible help, generosity and kindness throughout 2016.

I treasure, value and appreciate such more than I could ever put into words and am sincerely looking forward to soon launching into 2017 - a brand new year to put the substantial troubles of this one all the more behind us - with each of you.

First though, we have Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year's to celebrate. This will be my last post of the year, but I'll be back in January with multiple new entries here throughout that month, as I begin to ease into blogging on a more regular basis once again (insomuch as the continued post-fire related demands and uncertainty - very much including our longer term housing needs - of our daily lives, as well as my health, will permit).

Wherever you are, however you celebrate this time of the year, and whatever you may be doing as we embrace the last leg of December, from both myself and Tony (as well as our darling Miss Annie), merriest wishes, dear friends!

May you your festivities sparkle and shine, and may all these of the things listed above - and countless more blessings - be yours this holiday season.

15 Timelessly Wonderful Vintage Christmas Dessert Recipes

Halloween wins out as my favourite holiday ever, as many of you know, and as much as I adore cooking and baking for it, there's no other seasonal event that I create quite as much food for, nor love cooking/baking in celebration of, quite like Christmas.

I think that stems in part from the fact that while Halloween is just one day. Yes, I start celebrating well in advance, but it doesn't usually call for the same degree of feasting or the endless trays of baked goods that early December  straight on until the first new days of January does.




{As soon as the calendar flips over the twelfth month of the year, you'll find me - like jolly old St. Nick here - in the kitchen, apron on, oven fired up, and mountains of scrumptious holiday fare being churned out more days than not (and I wouldn't have it any other way!). Charming mid-century vintage Santa Claus illustration source}


Christmas food is nostalgic. It calls to mind our earliest days, (often) relatives that sadly are no longer with us, and good times that we may very well have memorialized in our memories. It is the first distinct bite of fruitcake, the luxuriously rich feeling of eggnog on your tongue. Christmas tastes like cranberries, all-spice, roast turkey, chocolate fudge, mincemeat, pumpkin pie and countless other flavours each so common to the human experience and yet individual to each of us an our own culinary lives.

Throughout the duration of each year, I delight in finding vintage recipe posts with a festive flare to them, which I tuck away for safekeeping until December rolls around. Most of these recipes are wonderful classics that many of know and love dearly, but a few are more - how shall we say - whimsical mid-century offerings that might be new to your Christmas dessert repertoire. Whatever the case, they all share in common certain tastes, scents, and even textures that we automatically associate with the holiday season and that are bound to make both you and all who gather around your seasonal table pleased as punch about what you've set down before them.

Today, with precisely two weeks to go until Christmas Day and festive food making really starting to hits its stride for many of us, I wanted to take this opportunity to share fifteen of the most delightful, timeless, family pleasing vintage holiday recipes that I've encountered online this year. Whether they're old favourites or new-to-you treats, I hope that any and all of them that you should happen to try out prove to be firm favourites that only add to the many terrific Christmas food recipes you already cherish.



The mid-1940s delivers this classic recipe for Grandma'a Molasses Cookies, which is low on sugar but big on old-fashioned gingerbread taste and seasonal appeal!




This mid-century recipe for Walnut Fruit Ring not only looks elegantly pretty (wouldn't it make for a marvelous Christmas Eve or Christmas Day breakfast treat?), but sounds thoroughly delicious as well. If walnuts aren't your favourite, you could easily substitute them with another nut that holds up well to baking, such as pecans, almonds, or macadamias.




Orange and almond extras add seasonal flavour and a sublime aroma to this wonderful looking Merrie Companie Cake from 1960, which you could further jazz up with candied peal or citrus slices inside or as a decorative finishing touch on the outside (in lieu of the fruit and nuts that are suggested). A dark chocolate icing or ganache (instead of the fluffy egg white icing) would also pair excellently with the flavours at work here.




Don't let the potential hurdles of making candy from scratch at home put you off, especially when there are so many dead simple recipes out there that involve little to "staging" of sugar, such as this classic Chocolate Marshmallow Creme Fudge, which spends a few minutes on the stovetop and that's it in terms of the cooking involved. Fudge is one of my favourite treats to make - and to give as a gift - at Christmas time, and I love whipping varieties such as rocky road, cherry nut, maple pecan, creamsicle, and classic chocolate versions such as this great fifties offering alike.




If dark fruitcake finds favour with you and your family, then why not step several decades back into the past and make this classic, tasty sounding vintage fruitcake recipe offering from 1927.




This recipe from 1949 for Peppermint Tapioca Cream is just the thing after a rich, heavy main meal, when you still want dessert, but nothing too substantial. If tapioca isn't your cup of tea, you could easily make as a rice, quinoa, or even oat based treat instead.




I don't know about you, but this lovely early fifties recipe for Peppermint-Stick Cake sounds December on a fork to me! It marries the always awesome combination of peppermint and chocolate together for a fun, crowd pleasing dessert that would be fabulous in cupcake form as well.




Need something sweet, fun, and apt to please everyone in your family from the ages of three to 103? Whip up a batch of these charming Chocolate Krackolates (and do feel free to rename them to something that rolls off the tongue a little better, if so desired). They're quick, delicious, and fairly easy on the wallet, too boot - something we can all use during the expense filled holiday season!




No other time of the year suits, or calls for, raisins better than Christmas season, if you ask me, and as I'm a huge fan of these sweet, zingy little dried fruits, I always stock up well in advance and use them in all manner of sweet and savoury dishes alike throughout December. This fun California Raisins recipe ad from 1962 provides ideas for two festive ways to use of some of those that you might have kicking around - the raisin bars in particular are calling my name!




A well known breakfast cereal (Weetabix) is the unexpected star in this creative early fifties take on the centuries old beloved classic that is Christmas Plum Pudding.




Three vintage molasses recipes - each splendidly well suited to the holiday season - call this lovely Brer Rabbit ad from 1950 home. I'm really intrigued by the the brownies and look forward to giving them a spin!

If jelly candies are a hit at your house, why not try making this 1940s recipe for Holiday Danties? Knox gelatin helps speed the process along in the kitchen, and the festive colours and flavours are bound to impress your friends and family alike when you bring them to the table!

{To learn more about a specific vintage recipe above, please click on it, or the name of the recipe I the description below it, to be taken to its respective page.}

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Yum, yum, merry yum! :) All of these recipes appeal to me and though I would have to modify most of them for my own medical dietary needs, that never stops me in the slightest! There are workarounds for so many different special diets these days (thankfully), so it's well worth at least experimenting - even if it means deviating a fair bit from the original recipe - to try and still enjoy as many of your seasonal favourites as possible.

Speaking of which, if you're looking for more thoroughly fun vintage holiday season dishes and sweet treats, be sure to check out my vintage recipes page, where you'll find all of the others that I've shared here over the years. Between today’s selection of fifteen desserts and those from years past, there's bound to be at least one or two awesome old school Christmas recipes that call your name and send you rushing to see how much cinnamon, candied fruit, molasses, or cocoa powder you still have in the pantry!

Enjoy this marvelous time of the year and all the food, be it homemade, store bought, or created by others in your life, that it delivers. Before we know it, Christmastime will be over for another year and our meals will go back to their wintertime norm.

Feast now, bake often, treat those you love to your scrumptious seasonal eats, and don't shy away from vintage holiday recipes - after all, they've been the backbone of many of our holiday meals and memories alike for generations now and that alone is well worth baking a fruitcake or two in celebration of! :)

Saturday Snapshots: Christmas 2012 edition

{Oh what I - and a great many of you - wouldn't give to have this fabulous prop for use in our own family portrait Christmas cards.}




{The stockings were hung by the silverware chest with care, in the hopes that St. Nicolas soon would be there.}




{It's matching holiday outfits all around for this trio of sisters, with little brother coordinating quite nicely, too, in his festive red plaid shirt.}




{A family eagerly awaits their festive feast in this super easy to relate to image from December 1949.}




{The weather outside might be a touch frightful, but that isn't stopping this group of 1950s youngsters from belting out Christmas carols with all their might.}




{Three generations, spanning junior through grandpa, pitch in to help trim the tree in this classic slice-of-life shot from 1954.}




{The holidays can sure take a lot out of you at times, no matter how cute and - normally - rambunctious a cowboy you are.}




{In this heartwarming photo titled "Mom and Kat", a mother dressed in pale blue gazes down lovingly at her her baby, creating an image that cannot help but make one think of the classic nativity scene.}

{Group shots are a standard must when the family gathers for the holidays, and this black and white portrait 1959 embodies the spirit of so many like it that have been taken over the years: a range of ages, expressions, and excitement levels captured forever on film.}

{With wide-eyed wonderment a darling little girl looks up at the towering Christmas tree, a doll - perhaps a new present - cradled in her arms, as all the innocence and wonder of youth radiates from her sweet face.}


{All images above are from Flickr. To learn more about a specific image, please click on it to be taken to its respective Flickr page.}


 


Good years do not necessarily come often or easy. Like bumper harvests, blue moons and spirit bears, they sometimes elude for a very long time. This year however, when all (minus the nine remaining days) was said and done, was a very good one. It ushered in much needed change, brought increased happiness, moved thousands of miles, set up a new home, spend countless hours with beloved relatives, made new friends, thrifted and yard saled, baked, photographed and poised, blogged, created, dreamed, cried tears of joy, laughed, and celebrated.

For there was - and still is - much to be grateful for, and never has this year, or the approaching holiday season, looked more beautiful than it does right now, the twinkling gleam of holiday lights waltzing in the background, the smell of gingerbread cookies and hot cocoa wafting through the air.

Christmas has indeed waved its magic wand over this place, this grand and glorious world of ours, but this year, for Tony and I, it didn't have to work as hard or wave as vigorously as it often has. The universe had already sprinkled its own generous dose of wonder over us and set our hearts ablaze with smiles and gratitude.

As 2012 winds down and Christmas looms just three sleeps away, I am acutely aware that years like this are a rarity. The tough ones always return. Yet swept up in the merriment of the season, tummy full of festive eats, Bing crooning us with carols from the record player, I can't help but look at life through Christmas rose coloured glasses and view the world as a very lovely place these days.

It is my sincerest hope that, no matter the year you've had up until this point, the holidays and these last tinsel covered days of December will leave you each feeling as though all is merry and bright, and more than a little bit beautiful, too.