Last Minute DIY Holiday Tips

If you're like some of us in the Cleis/ Viva Editions office and the holidays seemed to have arrived far too quickly, you're probably scrambling right now to add some instant holiday cheer to your place before the friends and family show up. Here are some tips, adapted from Billee Sharp's Fix It, Make It, Grow It, Bake It: The D.I.Y. Guide to the Good Life:

• Still haven't planned out what you'll serve or bring to the Hanukkah festivities? Try Sharp's simple recipe for this Festival of Lights classic:

  Latke s (Potato Pancake s)
  6 large potatoes (unpeeled)
  1 onion
  3 eggs
  1/3 cup flour
  ¾ cup vegetable oil
  salt and pepper, to taste. Grate potatoes and onion in a colander and press out excess water. In a bowl,
  combine potato and onion with eggs, flour, salt, and pepper.
  Heat ½ cup of vegetable oil in a skillet over medium heat. When the oil is
  hot, add tablespoon-size dollops of the pancake mixture. Cook on one side for
  5 minutes, or until golden, then flip and fry the other side. Remove the latkes from the skillet and drain them on brown paper bags or kitchen towels. Add more oil to the pan as you need it to fry all your pancakes.
  Serve with applesauce and sour cream.

• Has the idea of dragging out all the Christmas decorations delayed your purchase of a tree this year? Both an inexpensive way to adorn a Christmas tree and a great project to keep little ones occupied while clean or cook, give homemade tree ornaments-- like the delicious idea below-- a try

  To fill in the gaps we make chains by stringing popped corn and fresh cranberries together. Use a large sewing needle with a strong thread and alternate between popcorn and berries.
  Making tiny parcels to hang on the tree can look really nice, too. Just find a
  little box and wrap it in scrap wrapping paper or tissue paper, add a little ribbon or glitter, and suspend it on a loop of string. I wrap up candies in little boxes so that the kids can unwrap them and eat the contents. These are cheaper and more exciting to unwrap than shop-bought, foil-wrapped chocolates. I also
  make gingerbread men, baked with a small hole punched out of the forehead so
  that they can be hung on the tree. Decorated with a little icing, these decorations look great, and they generally get eaten before they go stale.

• And, of course, if you're hosting a party this year, it's nice to have something for your guests to do other than eat all of your decorations. Why not have play a game? The "Pass the Parcel" Game is kid-friendly, and described here as for a child's birthday party, but if you are hosting a a game for grown-ups or if there are no young children, you can certainly make the questions harder, challenges cheekier, and the prizes within more--ahem!-- "adult". To make it even more festive, play a master mix of your favorite holiday music for the passing part.
  

  Pass the Parcel—My kids love this game. Prepare by wrapping
  up a small prize to start the parcel with, then wrap it
  with additional layers of paper. Write a series of questions or
  instructions and include one in each layer that you wrap. I try to make sure that the questions are engaging but not harrowing, and always age appropriate: try “Can you name five fruits?” or “Sing ‘Humpty-Dumpty.’ ” Playing the game: Have the children sit in a circle and pass the parcel around while the music
  is playing. When the music stops, the child holding the parcel gets to unwrap a layer and answer the question.