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Felt Christmas Tree
Christmas Fun and Frugal for Kids holiday

How To Make Sweet Felt Christmas Tree Ornaments

Felt Christmas Tree

When I was little, my grandma had an ornament on her tree that was kind of like this and I always loved it. It had sequins glued on it instead of buttons, but I was digging through my stash of sewing things and found these cute red buttons and knew they would be perfect for this craft. My girls and I sat down, cranked up the Christmas music and spent a cosy afternoon crafting these little trees up for our Christmas tree. There is some very simple sewing required, but my 8 year old can do it so I know you can too!

You are going to need:

  • Green felt
  • Green embroidery floss
  • buttons
  • gems or sequins
  • sewing needle
  • ribbon
  • Tree cookie cutter
  • pen or marker
  • scissors
  • craft glue (optional, use if you have small kids who can’t use needle and thread)
First we need to trace around the cookie cutter with a pen or marker. You are going to need 2 tree shapes for each ornament.

Felt Christmas Tree

Cut them out….

Felt Christmas Tree

And now the fun part! Sew or glue on your buttons. You can do as many or as few as you like and this is the part where my girls really have a good time. They can “decorate” their trees any way that they like and I am sure to love it. Now, my 6 and 8 year olds use a needle and thread with no problem, however, if you aren’t comfortable with that it works just as well to glue the buttons on. I would use a craft glue and not school glue though, to ensure durability and a little faster drying power. It also seems to have better sticking abilities.

Felt Christmas Tree

Now comes the part where I do all of the work and my girls look on. You are going to sew the front and back together using a very simple blanket stitch. I used the same green embroidery floss (2 strands together) and went around the whole tree. When I got to the top, i sandwiched a piece of thin ribbon in before I sewed that section up. This ends up being our hanger.

Because every Christmas tree needs a little shiny bling, I sewed one metal backed jewel to the top of my tree to really finish it off. I love how it looks!

I loved making these with my girls and I think the parts of them that aren’t perfect are what make them so special. My oldest daughter sewed this one together and she left her string hanging out. But I will always remember how proud she was of herself for mastering the stitch and doing it herself. Truly precious and special memories were made one afternoon and I have these sweet little ornaments to remind me of it forever. Experiences like that are so priceless!

cooking Frugal Recipes recipes

How To Make Soft Pretzel Bites

We are a pretzel lovin’ house! Hard, soft, dipped in chocolate or jalapeno cheese sauce- we love them all. I have made pretzel buns for burgers many times, and I’ve used this same recipe for traditional large soft pretzels, but pretzel bites are relatively new to me. Since I’m always on the lookout for smaller, kid sized foods to serve to my girls for snacks and treats I was so excited when these turned out as well as they did.

Pretzel bites pack a punch of soft pretzel flavor, but are a cinch to make. Don’t let the multiple steps scare you off from making these, they are no more trouble than any other yeast bread. Boiling them before baking ensures that they have the traditional chewy pretzel crust and the dense interior. To sweeten the pot even more, this recipe is very easy to double and they keep very well in the freezer. Just re-heat in the microwave or toaster oven for a quick and satisfying snack.

I’m a huge Alton Brown fan, so when I saw that he had a soft pretzel recipe on the Food Network website I adopted it and have been using it with great success for about 2 years now. I’ve adapted it to use in my bread machine so I can be doing other things while it mixes, but you can certainly use a stand mixer or mix this up by hand if you wish.

Soft Pretzels

recipe from Alton Brown

  • 1 1/2 cups warm water
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 1 package yeast
  • 4 1/2 cups flour
  • 2 tablespoons melted butter
  • 10 cups water
  • 2/3 cup baking soda
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tablespoon water
  • salt for the tops of the bites

Put the water, sugar, salt and yeast into the bottom of your bread machine. Add the flour and melted butter on top and turn it on to the “dough” setting. When the dough has mixed and risen until double (about an hour and a half in the bread machine), remove it from the canister and put it on the counter. In a large stockpot, bring the water and baking soda to a boil. Pre-heat your oven to 450 degrees. Cut the dough into 8 even pieces. Taking one piece, roll it out into a 1/2″ thick rope. Cut the rope into 1″ long pieces and place them into the boiling water. Let them boil for 30 seconds and remove with a slotted spoon; place onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Repeat with remaining pieces of dough.

When all of the pretzel bites have been cut, boiled and placed on cookie sheets, brush the tops with the egg wash. Sprinkle with kosher salt and bake for 12-15 minutes or until a deep golden brown. Remove from cookie sheets and let the pretzel bites cool on a cooling rack for a few minutes before eating.

Here are some tips and tricks to making your pretzel bites turn out perfect every time:

  • Make sure you drain off as much of the water as possible when you remove the pretzel bites from the boiling water. To much water on the cookie sheet can make the bottoms of your bites stick and/or be soggy. No one likes a soggy bottom!
  • Try not to let the bites touch on the cookie sheet. Where they touch tends to be soggy because it can’t crisp in the high heat of the oven.
  • Instead of using salt to sprinkle on the bites, use cinnamon and sugar, garlic, ranch or any other dry seasoning that you might enjoy. Be creative! That’s the fun part of making them yourself.
  • Be creative with dipping sauces: cream cheese mixed with a little powdered sugar and milk can be a great sauce for cinnamon and sugar sprinkled bites while equal parts of honey and spicy brown mustard make a great dip for the salted ones. Don’t automatically go for the cheese sauce (although that is tasty too!), try a few different varieties!

 

 

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