Woodland Critter Christmas: Roll With It

Not sure what to make for breakfast on the next family holiday? Team Struckmeyer's got you covered.

Start with a package of refrigerated biscuits in a tube. Get the butter flavored ones if you must. Relish the feeling of opening the tube. Shape each biscuit into a basic small animal form. Think rounded blob with smaller rounded blob sticking out.


Sterilize the scissors on your mini Swiss Army knife and snip the dough to create spikes. The more spikes, the better. Just keep snipping.

Bake according to the instructions on the package; serve warm with honey.

Woodland Critter Christmas Meringue Contest

A lot of time on Christmas Eve was spent creating woodland critters out of meringue. Our favorite Christmas cookie magazine features a recipe for meringue angels, so we used that for our starting point. We mixed up a few batches of meringue in my mom's Kitchen-Aid, put it into decorating bags fitted with large tips, and away we went! Each of us had a workstation covered with parchment paper, which made transferring the critters to baking sheets really easy.

Elsworth did a lot of research before starting his critters.


Hanna, piping away:


Karl... so serious! He probably didn't want to get any meringue on the new sweater his wife made for him for Christmas.


A few favorites! The m&ms dots on the mushroom didn't quite turn out as we had hoped...

A squirrel angel:

Happy Woodland Critter Chistmas!

Woodland Critter Christmas Accessories

My mom lives out in the woods, so we didn't have to decorate much in order to get in the woodland critter spirit! Here are some highlights of our woodland decorations:

We hung die-cut moose from the candelabra, just above the centerpiece (which was actually a collection of pieces, in the center of the table). The moose are a red and white Scandinavian print (thank you, Ikea).

Here are the centerpiece items up close. Nut cup, anyone? I found the little papers for the nut cups at a specialty baking store. They're shaped like little flowers, with petals. They're really meant for mini cupcakes, but they worked just fine for our woodland treats!

This was in the middle of the kitchen island, where all of the baking activity took place. The squirrel box is full of candy.

Can you believe I got the two owls at the bottom of this photo at a yard sale, in the free box? We were all really glad that the gnome with the broom was there to sweep up after us.

My sister's dog, Nilla, was the only actual woodland critter in attendance. I think she liked the attention!

Woodland Critter Christmas Cookies

I have so much to report from Woodland Critter Christmas! Let's start with the most important item: the cookies. Every year, I make two favorite recipes-- Chocolate Almond Parsons' Hats and Raspberry Candy Canes. They're both from the oldest Christmas cookie magazine in the history of America, which my mom still owns. We got it in the checkout aisle of the grocery store one million years ago and we haven't looked back. You might come from a family in which a lot of items are purchased in the checkout aisle, but I do not. This magazine was a magor thrill, which is probably why I still adore paging through it every single Christmas. One year I followed a recipe in the magazine and made an entire sleigh out of gingerbread, featuring little stained glass panels in the back made of crushed hard candy which melted in the oven. But that was when I had a lot more time on my hands.

This year, for our Woodland Critter Christmas theme, I used the cookies I was already making and created some thematic treats out of the same dough. The parsons' hat dough, plus some slivered almonds, became hedgehog cookies.

Before baking:


After baking, alongside some of the original recipe parsons' hats:

Some of the candy cane dough became a bird and a little bear's head. The bear was meant to be peeking out from behind a log, but I think he was eaten long before that could happen. Here are the bird and bear with a whole herd of hedgehogs:

First Christmas Present!

Guess what? I got my first Christmas present of the year! My sweet friend Laura left it on our doorknob yesterday, and it was waiting when I got home from work. All wrapped up in woodland Christmas paper and everything! She's so thoughtful. And the card was signed "XOXOXO, Gossip Girl." My friends are the best.

Last week, my mom gave us an Avent calendar that is also perfectly woodland critter-themed. Plus it has glitter on it. What more could you ask for, really? It's precious. I can't wait to start opening the doors to see what's inside! Here's our little Hedgie, showing off the gift from Laura and the Advent calendar from my mom:

Thirty Days of Thankfulness: Day 29

This morning before work, we hung up our Advent calendar. I still need to fill it up, but it made me so happy to get those 24 little stockings up on our fireplace.

Last night I got home from work after a looooong work day (ending at 9:00) and I found the sweetest surprise! My mom had dropped off a copy of this book, which I've been secretly wishing for. I'm thankful for my mom and her thoughtful treats. Can't wait to try some of the projects in the book-- there's even a squirrel ornament, which of course will be perfect for Woodland Critter Christmas!

Thirty Days of Thankfulness: Day 26

We had a lovely Thanksgiving with lots of family time with Karl's family and my mom. We had amazing food, celebrated our nephew's second birthday, and got some plans nailed down for Woodland Critter Christmas. The newest addition is the meringue contest. I'm imagining meringue mushrooms and possibly squirrel tails. I'd better start practicing!

I'm thankful for our family and friends, and for what promises to be a delightful Christmas!

Time to Start Crafting

As you may know, we're planning a Woodland Critter Christmas at our house. I'm hoping to make at least one gift for each person in our family-- a minimum of eight woodland-inspired gifts. I just did a little counting on the calendar and realized that we have eighteen weeks until Christmas. That's only eighteen weeks to knit little woodland critters (after the two baby sweaters I'm working on!), felt woodland critter-inspired cozies (egg? coffee? beer? fruit?), and sew snack bags with woodland critter-themed prints (don't hold your breath, family members. I've never actually sewn a snack bag before). Not to mention collect recipes for woodland-inspired dishes and screen print gift tags featuring furry friends. Geesh, I'm already getting stressed out just thinking about it. I better go make a list.

Owl, anyone?

Christmas Breakfast Just Got Sweeter

Many thanks to Erin, who emailed me this oh-so-woodland-critter-y photo:


What could be more perfect for Woodland Critter Christmas breakfast? Instructions on how to make your very own hedgehog donuts are here.

Woodland Critter Christmas Etsy Finds

As you probably know, we're planning a Woodland Critter Christmas at our house this year. Of coure, I've been loving collecting ideas and little items involving squirrels, acorns, hedgehogs, mice, deer, and the like. Today I was searching on etsy, just for some inspiration. It's almost August, after all, and Christmas is right around the corner! Can't let the spirit die now!


A friend who is getting married this fall (with a woodland theme! A woodland theme, people! Why didn't anyone tell me that was an option when we got married?!) told me about some cute, rustic cupcake stands she had found on etsy. I wonder if these are the same ones? I think they're perfect for our WCC, but definitely not worth $39.99. Karl could make one of these in about four seconds. And then we could use it as firewood so we wouldn't have to store it. What do you say, honey?

I kept on searching around on etsy and found these bookends. Kind of cute, but a little too cartoony for me. Oh, and there's the $160 price tag...

And then I happened upon a real treasure. One that makes you think, "Surely this is a joke." But it isn't. Check out this acorn family tree wall sticker here. It even includes four squirrels! At just $89.99, every family needs at least one.

Woodland Critter Christmas: More Edibles

One of my siblings is gluten-free, one is allergic to dairy, and one is vegan, so it can sometimes be hard to find foods that everyone can eat (veggie curry with coconut milk is our fallback). But it won't be hard during Woodland Critter Christmas, thanks to trail mix! I'm thinking maybe a make-your-own-trail-mix bar.




I've always I (and I mean always... I've got the toddler birthday party photos to prove it) had a thing for nut cups. How could you not? They're so adorable and versatile. I can't think of a more perfect way to serve trail mix. Note to self: start scoping out the cutest nut cups you can find.



This is not trail mix or nut cup related, but it's a little piece of Woodland inspiration as the season tiptoes closer and closer. Can't you see it tied around white candles, or wrapped around packages?

Woodland Critter Christmas Edibles

Kate asks what we're going to eat for Woodland Critter Christmas. It's up in the air right now, but we're not planning to eat forest friends... we're going to eat foods inspired by them! Although we might have rabbit stew, now that I think of it.

We usually make a Yule log (a cake in the shape of a log, decorated with little meringue mushrooms), but this year we'll be having... wait for it... a Yule HOG, as in Hedgehog! Like this one:

Looks good enough to eat, doesn't it?

Christmas Prep... a little early

Karl and I were at my mom's house recently, and my little sister was paging through a British home and garden magazine (Mom, don't throw that magazine away!). She spotted an adorable wool mouse paperweight. It was something like these:

Cute, huh? We had to fight our initial impulse to create one on-the-spot because we were short on time, but the little mouse paperweight in that magazine has become the inspiration for what is sure to be the best holiday season ever. Last year, we celebrated with "Holiday Thai-dings: Christmas in the Peanut Gallery" which of course was delicious. Two years ago, our theme was "Feliz Navidad: A Mexican Christmas." Nothing like three kinds of enchiladas to get you in the holiday spirit! But this year, we've got the theme to end all themes and I cannot wait to start working on it:

Woodland Critter Christmas

Can you even imagine all the fun we're going to have crafting woodland critter ornaments, gifts, and food? I've already gone through my knitting books and marked the patterns for squirrels, mice, foxes, and bears, and I may have ordered one teensy little thing today... well, okay, two things...

Pewter buttons from my favorite online knitting shop. Don't they just scream Woodland Critter? Perfect.