The Farm Chicks Christmas: Merry Ideas for the Holidays

by Serena Thompson

For €œFarm Chick€ Serena Thompson, Christmas means a house overflowing with ornaments, lights, and cherished treasures, and the aroma of baking cookies to welcome family and friends. Here, she shows us how to spread the magic of the season, with ideas for entertaining, decorating, tree trimming, charming crafts, and 17 recipes for yummy holiday sweets-plus tips for wrapping food and gifts.As in The Farm Chicks in the Kitchen, Serena weaves delightful stories of her family and friends throughout the book, calling forth nostalgic smiles that remind us of the importance of tradition at this special time of year.

Genres: Christmas, Cookbooks, Nonfiction, Crafts, Holiday, Design, Cooking

128 pages, Hardcover

First published September 7, 2010

Reviews

[Dawn · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are some good recipes in here; but her decorating style is very vintage, rustic, farm-chic which is really not my style. I picked up one or two small, cute decorating tips that I can suit to my style but overall this wasn't the Christmas decorating book for me.

[Michele · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay, I've just been paging through this book, mostly looking at the pictures. At one point the author says on Christmas morning her three youngest sons wake early and go get the oldest, Cody, up. That's three boys named Micah, Lucas and BONGO. Tell me this is a typo, that no one actually named a child Bongo. But if it's a nickname and everyone else has a normal one, wouldn't you work that into the text somehow "His real name is James, but his brothers started calling him Bongo when he was first born. . .". This boggled my mind, although it seems like a lovely book in general with lots of good ideas.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a cute Christmas book and I appreciated the vintage items that are displayed. However, much of the decorating looked very cluttered. That's their style, but I would prefer less "stuff" around!

[Jackson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not too practical, some, but not too hard, either.
A nice Christmas looking book with ideas to spring from.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a lot of crafting ideas but overall ok for designing purposes

[Abbie Butcher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lots of fun ideas! I think she goes a little overboard on the interior decorations, but the recipes look yummy and well worth the try.

[Dawn Foster · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this 10 year-old book every year 🙂 I love the holiday decorating ideas that never go out of farm/countrt style!!

[Alyssa Miller · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fa la la la laaa!

[Trish · Rating 4 out of 5]

A cute Christmas idea book.

[Lynn Iglodi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this book ,such cute ideas .I am all for vintage items over new ...

[Diana S · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐⭐⭐

[Bundt · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The Farm Chicks Christmas" by Serena Thompson is the follow-up to 2009's The Farm Chicks in the Kitchen: Live Well, Laugh Often, Cook Much. The first Farm Chicks book was a countrified cookbook peppered liberally with stories and reminiscences by Serena and Teri, antiques-inspired craft ideas (a reusable stencil was included in the front), and comfort food: easy recipes for breakfast treats, appetizers, soups and salads, and decadent desserts, over fifty in all.

"Farm Chicks Christmas," on the other hand, is written only by Serena, a contributing editor for Country Living magazine and antiques show hostess (her best friend Teri has retired from their business). The book still includes numerous country-inspired craft ideas; you'll find decorative, retro-inspired self-adhesive gift tags and notecards at the back, along with various decorating ideas for "the most wonderful time of the year." However, the ratio of crafts to recipes is reversed from the first book; there are only 17 recipes included at the back with gift-giving suggestions on how to package them.

"Farm Chicks Christmas" captures the magic of childhood Christmases, from family visits to the tree farm (complete with recipe ideas for hot drinks to tote along), holiday decorating ideas (holiday scalloped bunting, vintage-inspired snowball pompom ornaments, cone trees and vintage funnel trees, banners and more), and photos of Serena's friends' and family's homes decorated for Christmas.

Much of the book is more like a scrapbooked photo essay, with crafts sprinkled in every few pages. Also, the decorating tips (and included photos) are vintage country in the Farm Chicks fashion: displaying old farm toys standing in coconut snow, for example, or stacking metal funnels to make "trees." If you're not a fan of all things country, this probably isn't the holiday book for you.

The included holiday recipes are few, and aimed mostly at gift-giving, like the sweet and salty nuts, mini orange bundt cakes, and various types of cookies (butter cutouts, chocolate-covered peanut butter balls, snowballs, Spritz cookies). As with the previous book, a handy list of metric equivalent charts is provided at the back. I tried the sweet and salty nuts recipe first, and though tasty, I didn't think that the "sweet" flavor predominated; it was more of a subtle afterthought (there's only 1.5 tablespoons of brown sugar and 2 teaspoons of honey for 3 cups of nuts).

Overall, "Farm Chicks Christmas" is a nostalgic walk down a snowy memory lane, but it has narrower mass appeal than "Farm Chicks in the Kitchen" due to the reversal of the recipe-to-crafts ratio and the genre-specific decorating style (I enjoyed the many beautiful photographs, but won't find myself making yarn-ball wreaths or filling jars with spare Christmas lightbulbs anytime soon).

(Review copy courtesy of Sterling Publishing)

[Angel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I agree with the reviewer that said the crafts were a little too simple, but that doesn't matter. It's best feature is the beautiful pictures and recipes and it gave me some great ideas for next year (too late for this year). I am about the same age as the author so I have many of the same memories of Christmas. The décor in this book is exactly the way I like to decorate for Christmas, basically retro with 1950's/60's heirlooms from my Grandma. If you like that style and you want to get in the Christmas spirit, you would like this book.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I know, I know...Michelle, what are you doing reading a book about Christmas crafts? Well, to be honest, I don't know, but I saw it on the book shelf at the library and I couldn't pass it up. I love the Farm Chicks blog and couldn't help myself. While the "Make it" sections were a little too easy I really liked the pictures of all the kitchy decor, it made me want to get more of my own. Lots of good decor ideas!

[Tina Redmond · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book. I'm not into "Country" decorating but I'm always looking into new Christmas ideas. This book had some good craft and recipe ideas. Some good decorating ideas, too but I don't want to get rid of any of my current decorations and I don't have room to add to them!

[Mel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love reading about how people decorate for the holidays and hearing their Christmas memories so this book was a great read.

[Kristy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a cute book and oh so lovely to the eyes. It almost makes me want to move to the country, almost.

[Lyndsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent ideas with lots of holiday inspiration!

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is such a happy book, full of Christmas eye candy! I just would have added more crafty ideas in place of some of the recipes.

[Kasey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really liked it. Lots of ideas for Christmas 2011. Read it in one sitting on Christmas Eve(ning).

[Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

fun!

[Kel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much more the way I actually decorate.

[Amanda Kay · Rating 5 out of 5]

loooove this!!!! love the homey feeling i got from this. great gift ideas and love the recipes in the back.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice photos, but nothing is really reproduce-able. It all guesses that you'd have large collections of really neat vintage stuff, which is not particularly feasible when you don't!

[Audrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book had many great ideas for celebrating the holidays. I can hardly wait to try some of them out.