Each year I look forward to getting out my Christmas decorations. While it’s not yet Thanksgiving, I am already looking forward to all of the favorite things I’ll unpack. Sometimes the anticipation is half the fun.
With ornaments, our Nativity, and all of the other holiday items, there’s something so special about adding festive touches to our homes.
This year I’m especially excited to get some fresh inspiration from our latest volume of Christmas with Southern Lady. This new coffee-table book has pages and pages of décor and entertaining ideas. I love seeing the beautiful ways that my fellow Southern women have decorated their homes, and I’m always inspired by the beautiful giftwrap ideas created by our editors.
I couldn’t resist sharing one of the creative ways that you can create a delicious treat to share with loved ones this year. They have a variety of “goodies to give” that all sound as fun to make as they would be to receive.
- 8 cups pecan halves
- 2 (12-ounce) bags semisweet chocolate morsels, melted
- 3 cups sugar
- 2 cups heavy whipping cream
- 1½ cups light corn syrup
- Coarse kosher salt
- In a large bowl, combine pecan halves and melted chocolate, stirring to coat. Drop pecan mixture by rounded tablespoonfuls 2 inches apart onto parchment paper. Let stand for 1 hour, or until chocolate is set.
- In a large heavy-bottomed Dutch oven, combine sugar, cream, and corn syrup over medium-high heat. Stir constantly until sugar mixture registers 240° on a candy thermometer. Remove from heat, and let cool until sugar mixture registers 190°. Spoon mixture over top of each pecan cluster, and sprinkle with kosher salt. Let stand for 1 hour, or until completely cool. Store in an airtight container.
Comments 8
I’m inspired by all the Christmas rubber stamps and the new ink colors from Tim Holtz. I am making Christmas cards again this year. I will be making a garland for our fireplace mantel and placing our Nativity set out to view throughout this Holiday season
This year I feel more inspired than in some years past. With all the evil and tragedy in the world, I think it is so importNt to celebrate a holiday that is all about love and hopes for peace.
Your Christmas inspiration is just so beautiful and timeless…..so much inspires me. On a sad day like today, it is a cruel reminder of how precious life is and how it can be fleeting yet I see how people come together and unite and perfect strangers bond…so that unity and hope is what inspires me today. Happy holidays!
I am inspired by all of the holiday magazines that come out at during the Christmas season!! I look through all of the pages and keep those I like for the following year. Some I just can’t resist trying as soon as possible. I look forward to unpacking my Christmas tubs each year – all 50 or so – it’s like getting reacquainted with old friends !
Southern Lady is my all time favorite! The Christmas issue is as anticipated (almost) as Christmas itself!
Sherry
I’m going to really try and do some baking, I’ve gotten in a rut of oh well maybe I’ll do it next year. This week I’ll get my Christmas decorations, out a little earlier than in years pass so I can take my time looking through them and decide what I’ll put out. Time to find a big box to start putting away what I have out now do a good dusting, oiling on my wood furniture. Maybe in the past I’ve waited to long to get started and that is why I dread doing it.
I always save my Christmas issues of my magazines–Southern Lady, Victoria Bliss and Cottage Journal–from previous years, and around the middle of October I begin looking through all of them for new ideas for decorating that I might incorporate in my Christmas decorations for the current year. The alternate years my grandsons are here, I incorporate more of a children’s theme on my mantle and on the hearth area; the years they are not, I decorate a little “fancier”. Every year my tree is decorated with my Old World ornaments as well as antique ornaments from my husband’s grandmother and ones I have purchased. This will be the first Christmas in 42 years without my sweet husband who passed away, but I am determined to carry on our traditions that he also enjoyed so much. Thank you for your blog–enjoy it so much!
I love Christmas, by the time December rolls around, I’ve has several photos shoots for Christmas stories here at home, in August (!) and I’ve had time to think about what I will add. Traditional Christmas decorations always stay central, the nativity my Mom and Dad made together, our tree filled with Victorian ornaments and ornaments our children made.Some years we have a formal dinner table, some years it’s casual, but always, I relish the thought of celebrating with our family and dearest friends. Looking forward to the inspiration in Christmas with Southern Lady.