Happy 80th Birthday John Williams - Da-Ah Dum, Da-Ah Dum!

It says a lot that five single notes almost eclipse any specific memories of a film. I’m betting that most of you can remember the five note call played between the humans and the alien spaceship in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Got it? Thought so. But I bet you can’t remember who played the lead role, or any of the lines from the script! (Incidentally, it was Richard Dreyfuss, and one memorable quote is “Well they’re not moon burns, goddammit.”

If you’re planning a party we can’t help you with your moonburns, but we can help you when it comes to decorating for a music inspired event. From Rock Star to High School Musical, and from musical instruments to an edible electric guitar cake, we can help you deck the halls with a great selection of musically themed banners, posters and other decorations.

We know children love making music, which is why we have a whole heap of very affordable musical instruments for giving away as party prizes or in party gift bags. Sorry parents, we don’t sell ear plugs or volume controls – our advice is always that if you can’t beat them (with their instrument) then join them! After all, it can’t be much worse than some of the X Factor contestants!

But if you’re going to have a film night, here are a couple of suggestions to make it feel more like a film night and less like just another evening watching TV. Grab some popcorn – the stuff you microwave works brilliantly (and kids love watching it!) and then give everyone one of our popcorn bags full of the traditional snack. You just can’t watch ET The Extra Terrestrial without popcorn – it’s a rule.

If you want to go all out and really make film night special then we have a range of other Hollywood and film novelties and decorations which you can browse here: http://goo.gl/m41ov

So here’s a tip – why not get started on your charades list now? You could each start building a list now, for use at the time. Or alternatively you could buy a pack of blank cards and write possible charades on them shuffling them up and then letting people choose one at random on the day.

If you’re really stuck or you don’t have time then we have found a great list of UK charades suggestions here: http://www.give-presents-find-gifts.co.uk/partygames-Charades-topics.html

But amidst any sorrow you may be experiencing should your boss declare the Yuletide celebrations cancelled spare a little pity for the City hedge fund owner who recently took nine members of staff to a London club for a Christmas drink. It was a fairly quiet affair – just ten people, one club and a few drinks. Quite a few drinks actually. In fact the bill came to £71,000, and included £44,000 on vodka, £7,000 on champagne, and of course a £10,000 tip. Poor things, it must be tough having to cut back that far…

News story source: http://goo.gl/3GwBp

If your child is having a pirate themed birthday party, which is certainly one of the more popular choices at the moment, then maybe you could try to tie in the party food to this theme. Let me offer a few suggestions. You know that jug of juice you have sitting there? How about drawing, or printing off a pirate themed label which explains clearly to all budding scallywags that this ‘ere be Pirate Grog.

You can easily label plates of food such as sandwiches and sausage rolls using sandwich flags. You can label these anything you like, such as transforming crisps into ‘Pieces of Eight’, cheese sandwiches into ‘Map Slices’ and of course the plate of cocktail sausages could be ‘Pirate Fingers’!

It’s surprising how simply labelling food like this sparks children’s imaginations, and often you’ll find less food being thrown away at the end. Children have fantastic imaginations, and just by doing something as simple as this you can turn the meal into another game.

Of course, planning a children’s party and preparing the party food is time consuming, but if you do find you can call upon some extra help and you have enough time you can always try doing one or two fancy things with the food. For example, rather than cutting the sandwiches into triangles or rectangles, how about cutting them into bone shapes? Or skulls? Just draw or print out a template onto cardboard, cut it out and then use this as a template.

If you have any suggestions of how you can turn ordinary party food into themed food, do please share your suggestions by using the comments box below!

Gingerbread men are often a popular decoration, and with salt dough it couldn’t be easier. To make good gingerbread men salt dough Christmas decorations the trick is to throw in a little cinnamon with the salt dough mixture. This gives the salt dough a gingerbread colour when hardened.

I also get two or three coloured beads and push these on for buttons (before baking) and then decorate the cooked decoration afterwards. I actually find that using a felt tip pen is a great way of adding details such as scarves, eyes and mouths. Rather than over decorating them, keep them fairly simple so they look just like real gingerbread men hanging on the tree.

It’s also important to seal the decoration so that it lasts a long time. The cheap and simple method is to use PVA glue, but for a longer lasting solution use clear varnish.

Fact #1: Robins on Christmas cards were included as they have festive red chests, and are most evident at this time of year. Wrong – in fact around 150 years ago robins were included as a joke. Postmen at this time worse red tunics, and were referred to as robins.

Fact #2: The traditional Bible account of the Nativity describes three wise men coming from the east. Wrong – at no point in the Bible does it ever mention that there were three wise men. It simply refers to ‘wise men’, but doesn’t number them.

Fact #3: The Christmas story, as told in the Bible, describes angels singing. Wrong – in fact there is no mention anywhere in the Bible of angels singing.

Fact #4: We all know that Santa Claus lives at the North Pole, which is of course on the northern most continent on the planet. Wrong – The North Pole isn’t technically on a continent at all, it’s in the Arctic Ocean.

Fact #5: The turkey has always been the traditional English Christmas dinner. Wrong – in fact it always used to be a pig’s head with mustard. I have no idea why they ever changed it.

Fact #6: ‘Jingle Bells’ was written as a Christmas song. Wrong – it was actually written for Thanksgiving originally.

Fact #7: Santa’s reindeer are all male. Wrong – male reindeer shed their antlers at this time of year, and so they must be all female.

There are many ways in which you can make Christmas decorations for the tree, but one of my favourites is to use salt dough. If you have never come across it before, or only vaguely remember the concept from your early school days, salt dough is a tough modelling dough which can be cooked to become a rock hard decoration which can be painted and decorated, and which will last for many years. It’s really easy to make, and the opportunity to create your own designs is endless.

In today’s blog post I’m going to give you my own preferred way of making reliable salt dough which is easy to knead and to model with, is extra strong, and perfect for making Christmas decorations out of. Over the next week I will be providing you with a variety of ways in which you can then decorate your salt dough decorations, including painting, embellishing, glittering and using mirrors and gems for long lasting designs.

The recipe uses three basic ingredients, plus two optional extras. You will need:

• 2 cups of plain white flour
• 1 cup of table salt
• 1 cup of water

In fact if you have several children (or one highly creative child!) you can easily double or triple these amounts. The actual quantity isn’t important, it’s the proportions, and so feel free to vary these quantities proportionally.

The two optional extras I recommend using are:

• 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon of lemon juice

The vegetable oil helps to make the dough easier to knead and to model with, and the lemon juice makes the finished model much stronger.

To make the salt dough simple add the flour and salt into a bowl and then add a little of the water, mixing it in before adding a little more until all of the water has been added. Transfer the dough ball to a work surface and knead the dough for around ten minutes before leaving it to settle for twenty minutes.

You’ll then need to roll the dough out flat, to around a thickness of between 0.5cm and 1cm. Then using cookie cutters, or even scissors if you like, cut out your dough model. Feel free to add textures. You can use a cocktail stick to create a stipple pattern, and even etch lines in the dough. Don’t forget to create a hole for the string or ribbon to pass through if you intend to hang the decoration up!

Cover a baking tray with greaseproof paper, then place your decoration on the tray and pop in the oven for around 4 hours at 200F (Gas Mark ¼). Although it’s possible to air dry the salt dough, this is likely to take around 2 days. Children’s attention spans and interest doesn’t usually last this long, and although even four hours is pushing it, it’s certainly a good deal better, and lets them get on with the next part of actually painting or decorating their finished creations the same day, or the next morning.

Once the four hour cooking time is up, DO NOT remove the tray from the oven. Simply switch the oven off and open the door a couple of inches. By allowing the salt dough to cool more slowly than whipping them straight out of the oven there’s much less chance of cracking, and the resulting decorations will be much stronger.

Once cooled the decorations will be ready to paint. Over the next few days I’ll post a few recommended ways of doing this, and other decoration tips. I hope to upload a few photographs of my own creations too.

If you have any tips of your own, or any questions or suggestions do please send them to me using the comment box below.

This is the type which includes a picture of what presumably the artist thought a reindeer would look like if stuffed down a few million chimneys. The final straw is when you find that by pressing said caribou’s crimson hooter a wailing sound vaguely reminiscent of Joe Pasquale on helium playing the kazoo begins. Of course, there is no off button, and the nose is precisely positioned so that when wearing the tie it is activated every time you lean forward and brush the desk.

But Christmas is very much the time of year for novelties and for letting your hair down a little. It’s one of the only times when you can get away with wearing things which normally would see you sectioned. From antler horns to mittens in the shape of Christmas puddings, and from novelty ties which even snowmen melt in order to escape to flashing red Rudolph noses, it’s an interesting thought to consider what other occasions haven’t been overtaken by such corny novelties.

Anniversaries, for instance. Imagine if a Golden Anniversary was a traditional time when young women turn up dressed only in gold paint (a la Bond), men wore shiny gold suits, women wore gold coin earrings and men wore novelty ties with buttons which when pressed initiate a rendition of Spandeau Ballet’s ‘Gold’. Of course, the traditional meal would be golden (chicken) nuggets with Gold Bars for dessert.

Then of course there is the joyous occasion of the birth of a new baby. This could be a great opportunity for all of the family to come dressed in novelty plastic nappies, with men wearing novelty ties which look uncannily like a morphine drip, and which when pressed whine a rendition of ‘Baby Love’ by the Supremes (or ‘Baby One More Time’ if it’s twins.) The traditional plastic badge in the shape of a happy little sperm crossing the finishing line would of course be hugely popular, and for the food it would be anything from lumps of coal to cherry tree leaves (or whatever craving is currently in vogue).

From the once in a lifetime (usually) vasectomy to the funeral, there are so many occasions in life as yet untouched by the same hand which took the birth of Christ and the manifestation of God on Earth and decided that such a religious sacred and significant occasion is best represented by an obese bloke, a malformed reindeer and a load of baubles. Not forgetting the novelty ties.

Perhaps the powers that be are missing a trick. Perhaps you can think of occasions which are still sadly lacking when it comes to tackiness. Do feel free to share your suggestions, and of course, feel free to offload your personal resentments by revealing the tackiest things you’ve been given for Christmas, all in the name of a little Yule tide fun. Go on – it’s terribly therapeutic to get it off your chest!

By the way – on a brighter note this Thursday is Brownie Day (http://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/brownie-day/) – I intend to stock up well in advance!

Interestingly, did you know that it was on this day, the 5th December 1697 that the very first Sunday service was held in the new St Paul’s Cathedral. Particularly interesting considering the recent disruptions to the services there – who would have thought? Still, it’s not for us to judge, and we’re certainly not going to ‘do a Clarkson’. It says something about you when your name becomes a noun, doesn’t it?

With all of the Christmas planning at the moment it’s easy to overlook a few basic things, such as glasses and paper plates. So much of the time over the festive season you have plates of sausage rolls, bowls of nuts, bowls of crisps and plates of nibbly things for people, from lunches and buffets to simple snacks left lying around for people to find and help themselves to.

But that’s a lot of washing up.

Why not save yourself some washing up by using paper plates instead of your normal china ones? There is a wide range to choose from, and in fact using bright red paper plates and paper bowls the seasonal fair can look very festive indeed. Paper plates can sometimes look a bit cheap, but we don’t stock that kind. You’ll find our party plates and bowls are very strong and sturdy, and look fantastic with their bright colours. The best thing is that when you’re done you can simply toss them in the bin (the recycling bin if you have one) and the job is done. Consider it a gift to yourself, of time!