Recycled Sugar-Plums for The Tree

       This has been too lean a year for any new Christmas decor. But sometimes I find the leanest years to be full of old-fashioned charm and that is the way we like it at our house! No fuss, no muss, just using our imaginations and a few supplies to turn a tiny table-top tree into something only a very hungry five year old would dream up . . .
        The supplies I used to make these small sweets or "sugar-plums" for our family Christmas tree included: recycled, vintage peppermint Styrofoam balls, a paper egg carton, gold foil mini cup-cake liners, gold foil holly petals, wire, hot glue, masking tape, red glitter glue pen and tacky craft glue.

I didn't have the heart to toss these vintage peppermint, foam balls. I kept them in our family
 Christmas craft stash until our daughters decided to craft a candy themed tree this year.

Step-by-Step Instructions: 

1. Remove any old wire from the Styrofoam balls; mine where formerly attached to old picks.
2. Cut shallow cups apart from a egg carton molded from paper pulp. Make sure that the sides of these cups have been cleaned up and are relatively uniform in height all around their edges. 
3. Hot glue each of the peppermint foam balls down inside of the egg cups, keeping the nicer halves facing up.
4. Take the gold foil mini cup-cake liners and smooth a small piece of masking tape onto the inside of the liner at the bottom. This will help the surfaces attach better using the tacky glue. 
5. Squeeze the tacky glue into the mini liner and then smooth and press it around the egg carton cup to cover the bottom and side surfaces.
6. Now bend a wire for hooks and poke as many as you need into the very tops of each recycled sugar-plum so that a wire may be twisted through these to make hangers for each ornament.
7. Hot glue the gold foil holly leaves to each sugar-plum and then apply a tiny bit of red glitter glue to the center of each sugar plum tip. See photos above.

More Peppermint Candy Crafts for The Christmas Tree:

• Craft cross candy canes from chenille stems
• How to make mini cotton batting candy canes 
• Make wool lollipops for the Candy Christmas tree 
• Sew penny peppermints using a blanket stitch or two
  

When was the very first Christmas tree erected in North America?

        It is said that the first Christmas tree in America was erected at Trenton, in New Jersey colony. In 1776, by Hessian soldiers hired by the British to help subdue the rebellious followers of General Washington.

• Washington's Christmas at War
• New Jersey's Revolutionary War Historic Sites

Little Drummer Boy

       "The Little Drummer Boy" (originally known as "Carol of the Drum") is a popular Christmas song written by the American composer Katherine Kennicott Davis in 1941. First recorded in 1951 by the Austrian Trapp Family, the song was further popularized by a 1958 recording by the Harry Simeone Chorale; the Simeone version was re-released successfully for several years, and the song has been recorded many times since.
       In the lyrics, the singer relates how, as a poor young boy, he was summoned by the Magi to the Nativity of Jesus. Without a gift for the Infant, the little drummer boy played his drum with approval from Jesus's mother, Mary, recalling, "I played my best for him" and "He smiled at me". Despite the song's popularity, the story of the drummer boy is fictional. However, it teaches a Biblical principle that is based upon the parable of the talents found in Matthew 25: 14-30. This parable demonstrates that dutiful servants who multiply the gifts/talents entrusted to them by God demonstrate faith in the Goodness of God. Whereas, to store or hide something given to you by God demonstrates contempt for God's agenda and His kingdom.

For King + Country sing "Little Drummer Boy"

The role of a drummer boy during battle was 
similar to that of a shofar when blown during
battles by Jerusalem and her enemies in the
Bible. The drum was used to give signals that 
might not be understood by enemies and to
 also rally the troops together to fight.

DIY Paper Mache Pomegranate Ornaments

   You might think that pomegranates are an unlikely fruit selection to represent the Christmas holidays here in the Western part of the world, but this fruit is very much a part of Christmas in the East. These colorful, delicious edibles have ancient origins and many folks attach their folklore and symbolism to them. I've linked to histories below the directions if you would like to learn more about the pomegranate's history and the meaning associated with them.

Finished pomegranates for the Christmas tree.

Supply List:

• paper mache pulp
• Styrofoam pellets
• acrylic paints: brown, red, pink, green and white
• masking tape
• recycled paper egg carton
• tissue paper
• white school glue
• 3 cotton balls
• wire for the stems
• typing paper, one sheet
• Mod Podge

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Cut out the cups of a cardboard egg carton. You will need two per pomegranate. 
2. Use masking tape to form a larger hollowed out cup of this ancient fruit.
3. Mask the surfaces of the cups, first with tape and then a layer of shredded typing paper and white glue.
4. Attach also the calyx shaped using masking tape and paper.
5. Mix together part water and paper mache pulp. You will not need much of this pulp to cover the outside surfaces of the skin. Mix it according to the directions on the package. Let it harden over a few days. You can strategically place the faux fruit near a space heater or in the sunshine. This will help the pulp to dry faster.
6. First fill the cavity of each pomegranate with tissue paper and tape the tissue down to give it a smooth surface on the inside of the ornament.
7. Then fill the shallower part of that same cavity with white school glue and press the Styrofoam pellets or beads down into this glue. Let it dry. 
8. Unravel the cotton balls and line the outer edges of the cavity with layered white glue and cotton batting. See pictures.
9. Now paint all of the surfaces red and white just as you see these in the pictures included here.
10. Take more of the unraveled cotton batting and roll this around the wire to give it more thickness.
11. Use a sharp-tipped pair of scissors to poke a in the top of each pomegranate. Fill the whole with glue and poke the cotton covered wire down inside. Let dry before painting the stem green.
12. Shape the stems into curly looking vines. You may hang the fruit form this stem or attach a hook to it.
13. Seal off all of the surfaces using Mod Podge once the glue and paint have dried.

More About Pomegranates:

• A 16th Century Pomegranate Design for Chrismons
• The Pomegranate Cross
• Color the pomegranate or use the image here for embroidery 

Left, the hollow shaped pomegranates before the paper pulp has been smoothed over the outside
surfaces. Right, what these ornaments look like on the back when finished.

Sleep Holy Babe

       Edward Caswall was born 15th of July 1814 and died on the  2nd  of January in 1878. He was a clergyman and hymn writer who converted to Catholicism and became an Oratorian priest. His more notable hymns include: "Alleluia! Alleluia! Let the Holy Anthem Rise"; "Come, Holy Ghost"; and "Ye Sons and Daughters of the Lord".
       He was born the son of  Rev. R. C. Caswall, sometime Vicar of Yateley, Hampshire and  was educated at Chigwell School, Marlborough Grammar School and Brasenose College, Oxford, where he graduated Bachelor of Arts in 1836 with honors. Later  he proceeded to Master of Arts and in 1838 he was ordained a deacon, in 1839 priest, in the Church of England. Before leaving Oxford, he published, under the pseudonym of Scriblerus Redivivus, The Art of Pluck, a satire on the ways of the careless college student.
       He was curate of the Church of St Lawrence at Stratford-sub-Castle, near Salisbury from 1840 to 1847. As curate, he would invite the children who had attended morning services to the parsonage and give them breakfast. On the anniversary on one's baptism, he would give some money to buy clothes.
        In the summer of 1846 he, his wife, and his brother Tom visited Ireland and one year later he resigned his curacy and, in January 1847, was received into the Catholic Church by Cardinal Januarius Acton in Rome. His brother Tom had converted to Catholicism previously. Caswall's conversion caused an estrangement from some members of his family, including his mother and brother Alfred.
        His wife, Louisa Stuart Caswall, who had also become a Catholic, died of cholera on the 14th of September in 1849 while they were staying at Torquay. The following year Caswall joined the Oratory of St. Philip Neri under future-cardinal John Henry Newman, to whose influence his conversion to Catholicism was due. 
       He was ordained a Catholic priest in 1852. Caswall was delegated the responsibility of establishing the Oratory school, which opened in 1859. He often served as acting superior in Newman's absence.

"Sleep, Holy Babe" performed by the Magdalen College Choir, Oxford.