Christmas 2024

2024-25 School Year–Christmas School

This year’s Christmas school was a bit more low-key than usual, but still fun. I wanted to tie our Paris 2024 summer school to our holiday studies, so I decided to go with “Christmas in France.” Unfortunately, I had a challenging time finding things unique to France to learn about it…it seems as though many of their Christmas traditions and even carols are borrowed from other European countries, so I really had to stretch to come up with activities. We did read a few French Christmas legends, and learned about a few Christmas songs. Coming up with an ornament craft was next to impossible, but I finally decided on cork Christmas trees, since France is famous for wine:

Finding a few cookie recipes wasn’t too challenging…we’ve made madeleines and palmiers before, but the sablés (not to mention the icing) were new for us:

And today we went to the History Exploration Day for the month at the Missouri History Museum, where the theme was immigrants and holiday celebrations…very timely, and we even got to see German dancers!

We also got to see the dress and coat Judy Garland wore in the Christmas scene of Meet Me in St. Louis!

That’s it for us in 2024…see you next year!

Mani Monday

Today I’m featuring a mani with a special design just in time for the Christmas season! I used a base of the Holo Taco foil “Favourite Sister” and added Christmas trees with “Green Taffy.” The trees went on a little thicker than I wanted, but overall, I think I did a pretty good job!

Nikolaustag 2024

We’re a day late, but today we celebrated Nikolaustag! We wanted to wait until Bunny was home from college, which just happened to be today. We did all of our favorite Nikolaustag things, starting with stockings and decorating the tree. In addition to the children’s yearly ornaments, I also added two new ornaments…a Christmas Tree Cake that Ryan surprised me with this morning, and Hallmark’s rendition of “It’s a Small World.”

We always have wassail while we decorate:

And for dinner, we had our traditional meal of döner kebab:

I like to make a gingerbread dessert for Nikolaustag…this year, it was gingerbread whoopie pies:

This is one of my favorite days of the year, and between Bunny being home and the traditions, it feels like Christmastime is really here!

Sartorial Saturday–A Velvet Apron for Christmas

It’s that time of year again…a new Christmas apron from Rare Dirndl has been added to my wardrobe!

This is a newer tradition that I really look forward…once fall hits, I start wondering what this year’s apron will look like. I was super excited to see this green velvet variety with holly-print ties (it was also offered with plaid and Santa-print ties)…velvet just screams “Christmas” to me!

It’s so luxurious, and is such a great match for my elegant brocade dirndl!

I accessorized with a tiny pair of wreath earrings, an Erstwilder brooch worn as a necklace, and a stack of Splendette duchess bangles:

I love wearing a festive dirndl to the Christkindlmarkt in downtown Belleville!

I bought a new pair of ankle boots to go with some of my Miss Candyfloss dresses, but I discovered that they are also a perfect match for my Magician dirndl!

This is such a fun way to dress for Christmas!

What festive fashion are you planning this season?

Chickadee Thursday

We had so much fun checking out the Holiday Flower and Train Show at the Missouri Botanical Garden yesterday…it might be the best display we’ve ever seen!