Christmas Home Decor, Cocktails and Appetizers Included!

Today we're throwing our doors open for a tour of our Christmas decor, cocktails and appetizers included! We're enjoying a bowl of Old Yule Wassail and an easy shrimp appetizer, so be sure to join us!

Holiday Vodka Punch Recipes & Cinnamon Syrup for Christmas Drinks

On last night's Facebook live video we made two punches from 1982's Smirnoff for the Holidays...

With a few adjustments, starting with the fact that we mixed with Bootlegger 21 vodka from Prohibition Distillery. Shhh! Don't tell Smirnoff! Here are the recipes, as promised, along with our improvements. Without further ado, let's start with Hawaiian Pleasure Punch:

Paul mixed this one (we only made 1/4 of each recipe, since there are only two of us and neither of us wants to die of alcohol poisoning). The only improvement we made to this one was to add 3 oz of gin (we stuck with Prohibition Distillery and used their Bootlegger 21 gin), so, if you were to make an entire bowl, you'd want to add 12 oz of gin. Sounds like a lot, but otherwise it tastes like pure ginger ale.

I made Bubbly Mint Punch:

"Crisp and refreshing as a winter breeze." Well, it was, anyway, after I doubled both the vodka and the mint! I used Wondermint from Death's Door Spirits instead of creme de menthe, which I think was a good move. I later added some dashes of Fee Brothers cranberry bitters, which further improved it, but also turned it red. Oh, well, it's still a good color for Christmas!

In other news, we're planning a combination Mocktail/Cocktail Monday episode for Christmas Day, which will involve cinnamon syrup. It's really easy to make, but here's the recipe ahead of time, since it takes some time to prepare. If you're planning ahead, also pick up a bottle of Italian lemon soda!

Cinnamon Syrup

Add 3 cinnamon sticks slightly broken up to 2 cups of water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Cover and allow to sit for several hours or overnight. Strain, add water to make sure you have two full cups, add two cups of sugar and heat just until sugar is melted (don't boil). 

Christmas Recipes for the Impatient

Connoisseurs of fruitcake know that many such cake recipes call for being started well in advance of Christmas - in some cases up to a year in advance! If you fall into that fruitcake loving group, yet didn't get your act together to begin macerating your fruit weeks or months ago, McCall's Book of Merry Eating (1965) has a recipe especially for you! You'll probably have trouble finding an applesauce-raisin cake mix, so go ahead and use a spice cake mix and throw in some raisins. Who's going to know?

We have a YouTube playlist of Christmas cocktails that are pretty darned easy to make (more on the way!), but if you mean business and want that drink NOW, this one is traditional and has only two ingredients (three if you want to fancy it up).

Cheers!

Oh, Spinning Tree!

Here's our "big" tree, the catch-all tree with everything from ornaments that my parents bought before I was born to reclaimed trash. If you can stick it in or hang it from the tree, we consider it fair game! Merry Christmas to all who celebrate! We're so grateful for your support of the "Velveteen Lounge Kitsch-en!" Click here to watch the tree spin!

Oh, Various Trees!

You didn't think I was done sharing our Christmas trees, did you? Here is the vintage aluminum tree we inherited from Paul's grandmother, by way of his sister, along with a few other trees with tropical and under-the-sea ornaments. Christmas in the tropics sounds great to me right now, stuck as I am in the freezing northwest!

I'm obsessed with Grumpy Cat

That portrait is Paul, painted by his mother many years ago.

Christmas in the Tropics

That peacock is a vintage package decoration I found among my aunt's things - I save everything Christmas!

Oh, Nautical and Horror Tree!

More of our Christmas trees, this time from the Blue Grotto, a.k.a. my office/sewing room/vanity/guest room (It's a very versatile room!). Here we have the nautical tree and the horror tree. The nautical tree is very sentimental, as many of the ornaments predate me or were picked up on our travels, and many more were made by friends, some of whom are no longer with us. Many of the ornaments on the horror tree were made by yours truly, since, go figure, it's just not that easy to find a Jan in the Pan ornament! I've got a laminator and I'm not afraid to use it!

Nautical Tree

Under the Nautical Tree

Tree of Horror

I'm a laminating fool at Christmastime!

More trees soon!