Twelve whole days of Christmassy blog hops starts here TODAY!!!
“The 1st Day of Christmas -A Partridge in a Pear Tree!“
This post is part of a festive blog hop series for the ’12 Days of Christmas’ – a lovely collection of craft ideas hosted by Us here at Sillysparkles! We have some awesome ideas for you to try out this christmastime with your little ones! Enjoy!
Click on the image above to follow each of the 12 Days of Christmas craft ideas!
This blog post marks the most festive blog hop we’ve ever done here at Sillysparkles and we look forward to sharing our ideas with you all! There are two parts to this blog post firstly we’ll be showing how to make our Glittery White Clay Partridge Christmas Tree Ornaments and the second part will be our scrumptiously simple Puffy Pear Partridges with Easy Homemade Cararmel Dipping Sauce (and a few chocolately alternatives!!!). We had a ball creating this craft and recipe for you and hope that we can show you how easy it is for you to follow one with our tradition and create a very unique fun Partridge in a Pear Tree themed day! Enjoy!
To make these gorgeous glittery feathered friends it was so easy!
Firstly, I doubled the quantities from a recipe I’d seen on the website The Imagination Tree for their white clay and adapted the idea to fit out Partridge theme!
It was so easy in fact, that my three year old Sparklebug was in charge of the ingredients and loved being able to measure out the quantities herself!
We kept it simple and just dumped out the two pots of bicarbonate of soda into a saucepan. We then used the empty pots to measure the other amounts.
To the bicarbonate of soda we added the cornflour and give it a quick mix! Then we popped it on a medium heat and added the water bit by bit working quickly to stir it!!
It quickly becomes like mashed potatoes and once this is done scoop it out to cool down! CAUTION: it will be VERY HOT!!!!
I found it helpful to push the clay flat to cool it down faster. After about 15 minutes it was cool enough to handle. I moulded it into a ball as I would playdough and rolled it out ready to cut using my super cute bird cutter (actually a chick from an Easter cookie cutter set!!)
Then I used the blunt end of a wooden skewer to make a hole for the eye and another for to be able to hang the decoration once finished.
I also used the wooden skewer to indent a little shape of a wing on each partridge.
Next came the most fun bit!
Sparklebug adored this part and would definitely do this on a daily basis if I indulged her! First we collected our paints and glitters. We chose a metallic silver poster paint, a white glitter and a silver one.
Sparklebug carefully concentrating whilst painting her partridges!
Once painted she sprinkled them with glitter. She made different combinations of white and silver glitters with silver paint and pva glue. My personal favourites were the few she decorated with pva glue and the white glitter showing the colour of beautiful white clay underneath!
Lastly we added a blue sparkly pipe cleaner through the hole we’d made in each partridge when cutting them out. I helped twist the pipe cleaner back around itself to conceal the edges!
Both Sparklebug and I absolutely love how beautiful and simple this craft was to made. It’s so versatile too! You could vary the shapes of the decorations themselves, the paints, glitters, you could use ribbon in lieu of pipecleaners (although pipecleaners are easier for little ones to thread!) and even stick acrylic gems or dried pasta on your decorations!
I wouldn’t hesitate to do this activity again and I hope that you all give it a go too!
Don’t miss out on the fun to be had with this beautiful white clay!
I know technically there was only one partridge in a pear tree but since we need to include some pears into this post, I thought we’d try making up a quick and easy recipe centring around our deal ol’ partridge stuck up there on his own in that pear tree!!
Without further ‘a-do’, I am happy to introduce this simply divine recipe which is fun to make with the little ones and delicious to eat! In fact, I’ve already made another batch of these and I only made them yesterday!!!
As you can see from the graphic, we are keeping things here simple. As a family we haven’t done tons of cooking together so this was a fantastic opportunity for us to not only get into the christmas spirit but also to hone a few skills and reinforce safety in the kitchen. This delightful little partridges are so novel, they make a great after dinner treat for kids and adults alike!!!
This is such a simple and effective treat to make! Here’s how we made it:
1) We preheated the oven to gas mark 5 (190 c) ready for our treats.
2) We floured the surface we were using and rolled out the ready made (and fully defrosted) pastry to approximately 1.5cm thick, cutting out the partridges using my handy little cookie cutter.
3) Then we cracked the egg into a bowl and whisked it. With a pastry brush we ‘painted’ the partridges with the egg wash.
4) Next we drained the tinned pears and cut each one into quarters to make the partridges wings! Placing them gently on the birds.
5) We popped them in the oven for approximately 20 minutes till golden.
6) We waited till they’d cooled and then we dusted them with a light sprinkling of icing sugar!
For the delicious dipping sauces, we just couldn’t decide between the three of them! So we made them all! Of course you could do just one dipping sauce and if it had to be only one, I would recommend the beautiful silky caramel dipping sauce as it complements the pears so scrumptiously!!!
As you can see, we made two dipping sauces – a caramel and a chocolate one and a rich chocolate ganache.
I had major reservations about making a caramel dipping sauce as I’d never made anything toffee/ caramel or butterscotch flavoured but I knew that it could be done with very few ingredients so it was worth a try!
for the Chocolate dipping sauce:
break up the chocolate and heat in tiny 2 second increments in the microwave till smooth – Ta Da!!!
for the Caramel dipping sauce:
See the graphic below.
for the Chocolate ganache:
Follow the same steps as the chocolate dipping sauce and pour the cream in. Stir till well mixed.
The Caramel dipping sauce is simple too! It only has a few steps but as this is so quick to make I wanted to include some photos of the changes in the sauce what to aim for. This sauce is so delicious i wouldn’t miss out on it but hot sugar is VERY HOT and depending on the age and ability of your little ones, this may be a job for mum to do whilst the partridges are baking.
1) Pop the butter and brown sugar into a saucepan and heat till the butter has dissolved, stirring all the way to make sure it doesn’t catch.
2) As it bubbles away, keep stirring constantly till the sauce thickens.
3) When it’s reached the desired consistency pour in the cream.
4) Stir until disolved – mine went much darker at first and then became golden again.
5) Dip those gorgeouos little partridges in the sauces!
So there you have it! Two amazing activities to share with yout little ones for Christmas! Its such a joy to join together and make time for a little bit of fun through the hectic Christmas Season!
Enjoy and as always, please feel free to comment, post, share and follow us! We love hearing from you all!
Many thanks Sillysparkles!
********keep scrolling to receive your FREE PRINTABLES at the bottom of this post!!********
But the fun doesn’t stop there!!! Each day for the next twelve days we will be bringing you a brand spanking new post from each of our wonderfully talented blogger mums all continuing on our them of the 12 Days of Christmas! Please check back everyday to see more fantastically festive posts and don’t forget to use the links below to check out this awesome blog hop!
MERRY ‘SILLYSPARKLY’ CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!!!
Taking part in this blog hop are:
Sillysparkles – A Partridge in a Pear Tree
Because Babies Grow Up – 2 Turtle Doves
Building Blocks and Acorns – 3 French Hens
Messy Little Monster – 4 Calling Birds
Multicrafting Mummy – 5 Golden Rings
Swords and Snoodles – 6 Geese a Laying
Craft Ideas for Kids – 7 Swans a Swimming
Three Foot Cooks – 8 Maids a Milking
Making Memories in the Chaos – 9 Ladies Dancing
Adventures of Adam – 10 Lords a Leaping
Play Explore Learn – 11 Pipers Piping
Learning and Exploring Through Play – 12 Drummers Drumming
FREE PRINTABLES FOR THE PARTRIDGE IN A PEAR TREE POST!!
As a big thank you to our supporters out there, please click on the image below receive your free recipe printables!!
Sillysparkles Sensory Play 
