BlogNog: Mini Edible Christmas Presents

Our first BlogNog today is talented Melissa of I Still Love You. Welcome Melissa!

Season’s Greetings! It’s Melissa Esplin here, from I Still Love You (aka IS•LY). I’m so thrilled to be part of the BlogNog series, although I had NO idea what I was going to do until the last minute. After giving some serious thought about everything I do (or don’t do) for Christmas, I gave up and started thinking about what my mom did. She’d go all out with decorations; a cross-stitched advent calendar, crazy decorated Christmas tree, handmade Christmas tree skirt, handmade stockings, etc. With all of that, my mind kept wandering back to the funny little raisin boxes my mom wrapped up to use as tree ornaments, the ones that she reused every year for the next 10 or 15 years. And yes. There were raisins in them. For 10 years.


I was always drawn to those little raisin boxes. They were so cute, small & adorably packaged in bright red; green plaid wrapping! I knew Penelope (my precocious 2 1/2 year old) would be equally drawn to those boxes, and thought perhaps she might like to open (and eat) a few gifts before Christmas. So, without any further ado, here’s what I did:

MINI EDIBLE CHRISTMAS PRESENTS
Supplies:

  • milk glass vase – $1
  • various ribbons – on hand
  • wrapping paper – $3
  • tape
  • mini raisin boxes – $2
  • crappy serrated knife
  • styrofoam form – $1.50
  • scissors
  • gold flocked Christmas sticks – $2
  • tissue paper – $2

First, I cut the styrofoam to fit into my milk glass vase.

Second, I placed it in the vase, cutting off a little extra to allow for tissue paper & raisin boxes.

Third, I cut 1″ strips of various tissue papers & randomly stuffed them around the styrofoam.

Fourth, I wrapped up the raisin boxes in different, but coordinating wrapping papers (I used wallpaper for some of those) and tied pretty little knots around each one with coordinating ribbon.

Fifth, I placed the flocked sticks into the styrofoam and placed the wrapped raisins around the sticks.

Last, I tied a bow around the container; set it on some hap-hazardly pleated tissue paper. Voila! I’ve got a lovely little center-piece that no 2 1/2 year old would truly appreciate. After Penelope woke up from her nap she saw it;  exclaimed, “OOoooo, pretty! Presents?” So, I let her open one. She opened it, saw that they were raisins, tossed them aside; headed to open the rest of the boxes to see if there was anything better. Fail. I don’t blame her, I don’t much care for raisins, either. So this may not be the best decoration to get your kids to eat raisins, but I’m thinking I will use this (in some form) as a center piece for a dinner sometime.

Wouldn’t it be oh so fun to open presents at a dinner party for dessert (like cookies or chocolates)?

Comments

What a fantastic idea! This sounds like something my 2-1/2 year old would love!

Now I'm missing my Grandma. She would wrap up little boxes, but they were inedible as she used little empty match boxes.Love the idea of using the vase in this way. I have one listed on Etsy and think I'll set up a photo to take like that!http://www.etsy.com/shop/CherishedHearts

@Karolynah, I use that vase for serving lettuce when I'm doing buffet-style hamburgers or sandwiches. It makes for some pretty lettuce presentation

This absolutely beautiful! I have a milkglass vase very similar to yours! Ideas are brewing now! Thanks for the inspiration!

This is so pretty! I love the little boxes and I like how you didn't use the typical xmas green and red colors!

This is adorable. What a festive, yet simple idea! Thanks so much for sharing and introducing me to ISLY, what a lovely blog!

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