5 fun things we did for our Christmas Eve celebrations!

Christmas Family Photo 2015

Christmas is just around the corner! The kids have been asking me about our annual turkey since our Melaka trip so I decided to celebrate Christmas early this year. Here’s what we did for the festive season:

1. Christmas shopping

Glenfiddich Mince Pies

Yup, this is one of the highlights of my year. I went out with my better half to look at what we’ll be getting for our Christmas celebrations. I saw this really cool Glenfiddich mince pies. It’s made with their 12 year old expression of single malt Scotch whiskey.

Glenfiddich Whisky Cake

They even have a Glenfiddich Whisky Cake!

2. Christmas turkey

Christmas Halal Turkey

This is a mainstay of our Christmas celebrations each year. The kids like to eat it and I like to roast it. It’s fun and it’s one of the things we look forward to.

Halal Turkey

Excuse the Islamic script, the turkey I bought is not haram this year. It’s called Midamar Turkey and despite coming from Iowa in the United States, it’s certified halal.

Brining Turkey

The turkey costs RM 348 and weighs 5.8 kg.

Roast Chestnut Cranberry Apple Stuffing

I used a roast chestnut, cranberry and apple stuffing for the turkey.

Jellied Cranberry Sauce

I stuffed our Christmas turkey and popped it into the oven…

Roasted Turkey

…and we all ate it with slices of bread and jellied cranberry sauce.

Turkey Christmas

Delicious!

3. Pistachio panettone

Flamigni Gran Pistacchio

My dear chose our annual panettone. It was a choice between panettone filled with mascarpone cream, chocolate covered and filled, a pandoro, or a pistachio crumb covered panettone with pistachio cream filling. She chose the last one, it’s RM 132.50 for a 1 kg cake.

Pistachio Panettone

This is made by the good people at Flamigni, the individual panettone is actually made by hand in Italy before being filled with pistachio cream and topped with crushed pistachios. It’s described as “Panettone con Crema al Pistacchio ricoperto di Chocolato Bianco e Granella di Pistacchi” which translates to panettone with pistachio cream covered with white chocolate and chopped pistachios.

Panettone with Pistachio Cream

The kids loved it! The white chocolate topping holding the crushed nuts was sweet and the cream even more so. I was very happy with our panettone this year, it’s absolutely fabulous! I can eat it all year!

4. Christmas crackers

Kids Christmas Crackers

This is another one of our Christmas traditions. I’ll go with my dear and buy some crackers for the kids. If you’re not familiar with Christmas crackers, they’re meant to be pulled by two people after Christmas dinner and (traditionally) the person with the largest half gets to keep the party favor or gift inside. It makes a snap / bang when you pull it.

Playing Christmas Crackers

The kids really liked them when I first got it for Christmas so I thought I’ll get them every year. We always give the kids two crackers each and we’ll each have one.

Happy-Clapper

I got a Happy Clapper from my cracker. Haha.

5. Family Christmas photo

Christmas Dinner

This is something we’ll do each year, take a photo together after we’ve eaten our turkey dinner and opened our Christmas crackers.

Christmas Crackers

The novelty paper hats are actually from the crackers. My better half printed the selfie props. This idea came from the stuff that came in last year’s Christmas crackers and we thought it’ll be fun to incorporate it into our annual festive photo. This year’s family Christmas picture has a “White Christmas” theme (coz we’re all wearing white).

Christmas Family Photo 2015

We make it a point to celebrate Christmas with the kids every year. It has become “our” tradition with a turkey, Christmas crackers, panettone and a group photo. This is our 2015 family Christmas photo. Merry Christmas everyone! πŸ™‚

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26 thoughts on “5 fun things we did for our Christmas Eve celebrations!”

  1. I love this post, not because of the huge delicious turkey but the way you went great miles to make everyone happy! Merry Christmas HB and all. May the New Year 2016 bring you sweet success and robust health so that you could continue to entertain us with your blogs.

    Cheers! Ho Ho Ho Ho..!!

    Reply
    • Yeah, I do the Christmas dinner and turkey every year! πŸ™‚

      The kids like it and they’ve been looking forward to it. It’s a tradition that we do.

      The CNY tradition is pretty cool too, we’ll have poon choy together. Cheers and all the best to you and your family too.

      Reply
  2. Good grief!!! That turkey must be huge, over RM300. Seen some here at the supermarkets, only a hundred something and yes, they do not look very big. Would be a good size for a family.

    The kids obviously had a great time. A Blessed Christmas and a Happy New Year, 2016, to you and all your loved ones. Cheers!!!

    Reply
    • Yeah, it was quite large! πŸ™‚

      I think we ate it over a few days, took quite a long time to finish as usual. The ones in Sibu are the 3 kg ones, we seldom see those sizes in KL anymore, for whatever reason. There was a time when the ministry said turkey would be price controlled (think it was last year) but it has never been so. Maybe not enough people eating and asking for it to be price controlled.

      Reply
  3. Gosh, I never knew that panettone could cost so much in KL! =O

    Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you, Ling and the kids! Hope the festive season brings nothing but more happiness and joy! ^^

    Reply
    • There are cheaper ones too! πŸ™‚

      This one was more expensive coz it was filled with pistachio cream and topped with white chocolate and crushed pistachios. The regular ones (with just fruit( would probably cost around RM 60-80 for a 1 kg one. Pandoro is about the same price, except for the premium brands, where it’ll be RM 300 for 1 kg too.

      Reply
  4. A lovely celebration with the girls.

    Christmas crackers? Dont think I see any in Kuching. Would love to buy that.

    Not much of a Christmas eve dinner this year. No turkey. Just a simple homecooked dinner. πŸ˜‰

    Merry Christmas to you and family.

    Reply
    • Thanks Rose! πŸ™‚

      Yeah, they have quite a lot of Christmas crackers here. I think there’s a bigger demand in KL. I seldom see them in Sarawak too.

      Cheers!

      Reply
    • Yup, it’s become an annual tradition! πŸ™‚

      I roast a turkey every single year at Christmas. Likewise, Merry Christmas to you and yours.

      Reply
  5. Merry Christmas to you, your equal half and the lovely girls! What a great idea to make it a tradition to spend Christmas every year making memorable experience and taking a family photo.

    Reply
    • Thanks Mun! πŸ™‚

      Yeah, it’s fun to do it. My better half came up with the Christmas cutout this year coz last year the selfie props came from the Christmas crackers.

      Reply
  6. I hope it’s not too late to wish you and your family Merry Christmas.
    Honestly to say, I have yet to try turkey but seeing the way you’re preparing it seems pretty interesting to me. Love to try it someday

    Reply
    • Nope, it’s never too late! πŸ™‚

      It’s my second favorite holiday. My favorite would be Chinese New Year, which is coming up.

      Yeah, the turkey is just something fun I do every year. The kids like it and it’s a good tradition to have.

      Reply
  7. i’m sure u have the turkey for a few days…dinner, then for lunch the following day and leftovers for sandwiches…
    most of my Christmas feast always have lotsa leftovers that was ‘re-cycled’ for the following days’ meal…

    Reply
    • Haha! Yeah, it’s always a challenge to finish the turkey. πŸ™‚

      We’ll have to eat it with everything, including rice, after Christmas. It’s still fun to do though, after all, it’s only once a year.

      Reply

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