Escape the modern-day commercial Christmas and enjoy a simpler, greener and craftier way of celebrating. Decorate the Christmas tree with homemade gingerbread men, craft a simple wreath from fallen leaves, make gift labels and cards from vintage fabrics, and fill hampers with locally sourced organic food.
Sheherazade Goldsmith and a team of crafters give you over 200 wonderful ideas and projects for a more creative and sustainable Christmas.
'This book contains lots of lovely ideas and gorgeous pictures to inspire you. Each project contains step by step guidance and pictures. The idea behind the book is a good one; we can all strive to be that bit more ecologically friendly. The book is worth buying for the gingerbread recipe alone as it was a hit with anyone who tasted it. Some of the projects
look simple but are time consuming and it would be advisible to start well in advance. A well written and beautifully illustrated book which would make a really good present as long as it is given a few months before Christmas.
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Customer Review:
Review by: Michelle Ragozzino, 26 November 2010
'What a delight to read! I just can''t stop gorging on its contents. The Christmas Book has something for everyone and will satisfy even the avid cook, crafter and florist/gardener. Children will also enjoy helping to create memories which families will cherish for many years to come. I cannot wait to share the Christmas Book with my friends and family. Thank you D.K. for publishing this book! '
Customer Review:
Review by: Judi Martin, 21 November 2010
'This wonderful book definitely has great appeal, although the coffee table style cover is perhaps misleadingly trendy for what turns out to be very traditional and nostalgic content between the striking red covers.
That may be intentional, as this beautifully put together book is perhaps aimed at those living life at today’s frantic pace who would truly prefer to turn the clock back to a simpler bygone era.
‘The Christmas Book’ is one you’d want to buy for yourself, or give as a cherished gift, but it would be wise to purchase it well in advance of Christmas – for yourself or anyone else - as it would be fair to say that many of the crafts, ideas and things to make would require quite a bit of preparation and time devoted to them. Give it this Christmas, thus allowing the recipient plenty of time to work on and achieve the crafts for the following Christmas.
Worth noting too - many of the ideas are not necessarily just for Christmas – whether it be crafts or recipes. They are suitable for producing throughout the winter, if not all year long in several cases. Older children would most definitely enjoy having a hand in many of the projects, and which grandparent, aunt or uncle would fail to be suitably impressed if they received a gift a child had taken the time to create especially for them? I only wish gingham material hadn’t been chosen for quite so many of the craft items. Would have been nice to see cloths with stripes, dots or even plain colours used – anything but so much gingham!
Editor-in-Chief Sheherazade Goldsmith has ensured her renowned stance on green, organic and environmental issues - which dovetails very nicely with the theme of the book - comes through loud and clear throughout.
As with all Dorling Kindersley books, ‘The Christmas Book’ is really well written, instructions are clear to understand and there are no end of delightfully appealing and extremely helpful photographs accompanying the writing.
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Customer Review:
Review by: andrea tinkler, 21 November 2010
'As a novice to crafts etc I found this book an excellent companion. There are over 300 pages of creative ideas for the festive season. Most of the ideas are very easy to make, with cheap resources and beautiful results. The illustrations are clear and very easy to understand. Well worth the money and a lovely gift.'
Customer Review:
Review by: Valerie JT, 21 November 2010
'This is an absolutely beautiful book and would make a lovely Christmas present, if you can bear to part with it.
I''m having difficulty reading the book because my daughter keeps "borrowing" it. Its full of all sorts of things to make, so far she has made a fabric notebook and the nougat sweets.
There is also a useful section in the back of the book on where you can source the materials you need to make the gifts.
I would really recommend this book to anyone who is a bit jaded by the commercialism of Christmas.'
Customer Review:
Review by: Charmaine, 01 December 2009
'It is a wonderful Christmas Book and it is the most beautiful Christmas Book that I have ever seen. It provides a lot of great ideas of making Christmas gifts. Furthermore,I am trying to make some of them for my friends and family. I think they will be very happy with what I have made.'
Customer Review:
Review by: Kim, 07 October 2008
'When I first got my hands on this wonderful book I flicked from page to page enjoying the imagery and seeing how well everything had been put together. The ease of negotiating the steps to compile each of the crafts is heartwarming. Some books of this kind make it seem so difficult to a novice but this has projects for all levels of experience and it''s not just for Christmas either, many of the idea''s can be re-worked and used all year round. My only problem with this book is in trying to decide which idea''s to use this year and which will have to wait for another time!
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Customer Review:
Review by: Tracey, 02 October 2008
'From the front cover onwards, this is an attractive and eye catching book, with very good use of coloured lettering for the title.
The Contents page and index are well laid out and make it easy to find everything. The print size makes this easy to read and to follow the instructions in all the exercises. Although there does not appear be a key to the ''star'' difficulty ratings it is very easy to rate the difficulty levels for the easy to follow instructions.
The instructions are all very clear and easy to follow with some excellent green tips. There are a number of double page sections with more ''green'' information, help, information and advice, with the Directory at the back of the book giving further excellent information
The pictures in the book are colourful and very good clear quality pictures. They are also helpful in the exercises and add an extra quality to the book as a whole.
This book is for anybody who loves Christmas and anyone who loves crafts. It doesn''t matter if you are a beginner or more experienced, there is something in this book for everyone at every level, including the children.
I have no hesitation in recommending this book to anyone and I think it would also make a lovely present for Christmas or at anytime of the year.
All in all a very attractive, easy to use and very well presented book.
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Customer Review:
Review by: James Fenlon, 28 September 2008
'This is a wonderful book for the upcoming holiday season and would make a fantastic gift for any parent or child who enjoys crafting their own presents or cooking their own Christmas treats. With step by step guides and fully illustrated, I have (with the enthusiastic help of my children)already made some fabric Christmas cards and a tin full of sweets and treats! Highly recommended'
Customer Review:
Review by: Clair, 25 September 2008
'This beautifully set out book contains a wide range of festive ideas to make your Christmas stylish yet sustainable. Tree and table decorations and gift ideas through to traditional recipes fill the pages, with most indicating the level of difficulty. Many of the projects would be suitable for encouraging young children to join in too.
The essence of the book is to minimise the environmental impact of the usual seasonal excesses, which it encourages via many useful tips throughout the book. It is also achieved, in part, by encouraging the use of natural and recycled materials, with the end results looking far from ´home-made´.
My only criticism of this philosophy is that many of the objects that I wanted to make required me to buy materials rather than being able to find something suitable to re-use from around the house!'
Customer Review:
Review by: Leigh Wharton, 22 September 2008
'As many of you reading this will know the quality of a DK ( Dorling Kindersley). From start to finish this book does not disappoint you. The Christmas book is jam packed full of ideas from edible tree decorations to making your very own pot pourri.
The book is spilt up into five different sections Welcome, Christmas Tree, Giving, Table and Food.
WELCOME
In this section there are simple decorations that you can make to make your home more festive and welcoming to guests and yourself. This section helps you to set the mood and tone at this festive time of year. Some of the nice suggestions are to make a dried leaf wreath and how to plant a winter garden.
CHRISTMAS TREE
As the chapter title suggests this section of the book is about the Christmas tree. Ideas that they give you are how to buy and recycle a real Christmas tree, and the different decorations that go on the Christmas tree both material and edible decorations. The iced biscuit decorations are a must! They can be made with children, pupils e.t.c with a minimal effort. (Adult supervision is a must especially if making with particularly young children).
GIVING
In this section are ideas of presents and gifts that you can give to family and friends alike. There are some excellent ideas like fruit jam and glossy lip balm! There is a nice double page spread on eco gifts.At the back of the book there are many templates that you can use to make the activities more easy and achievable. In the eco gift section it gives you nice ideas on what to buy than to make, and how you can help the plant too!
TABLE
This section gives you ideas on how to decorate your table at Christmas.
FOOD
This chapter of the book has to be my favourite! This chapter gives you a wide range of foods to make, from mulled drinks to making your very own home made stuffing. My favourite would have to be Vanilla cookies! They look divine on the page and i will definitely will be giving them a go this coming festive season.
Throughout the whole of this book on the top left hand corner there is a star symbol rating of each category indicating the level of difficulty. Three stars being difficult and one star being easy. This gives you a clear and concise knowledge on how to tackle the activities. Many of the activities in this book are child friendly. Both good for crafters and cooks alike!
I have to comment on the quality of photographs in this book. They are to put it bluntly outstanding. There are many close up´s and double page spreads.
At the end of the book there is a section on the different templates that you can use to make your activity easy and trouble free.
Throughout this book is a recurring theme of how to make the above things naturally, and in your own locality, and how to recycle things that you might have in your house! This book attempts to reclaim Christmas from the commercial side to the more family oriented side of life.
I would definitely recommend this book to you. I intend to make many of the items in this book in the school that i work in.
I would give this book 10/10'
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