Friday, December 21, 2012

Mulling Spices and Pomanders


Photo from LivingInWilliamsburg photo blog

A favorite Christmas tradition in my family (though perhaps not for my younger brother) was a trip to Colonial Williamsburg. They have beautiful natural decorations there and sell cider and have bonfires in the square. It's about as cozy as it gets, and everything smells wonderful. I think it's where the Demeter fragrance team must go to bottle up their Fireplace perfume.

This year, some friends and I decided to make our own old-fashioned Christmas decorations. We strung cranberries and popcorn and made orange pomanders. Secrets to pomanders: use a rubber band to establish lines and buy your cloves at a Latino or Asian supermarket (or even the Latino aisle in your own market) where they're about 1/6 the cost.


We also made cider sachets—mulling spices wrapped in cheesecloth. I got the recipe from Real Simple, which also had cute printable labels. A bonus activity was getting to pretend you're a WWII nurse assembling bandages while cutting all that cheesecloth.

 

Last two photos by Elena Rue

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