This is a favorite on a cold winter evening curled up in front of a fireplace or a fantastic holiday treat for parties and guests. For the more adventurous, add a little apple brandy to spice things up. 1 gal. unfiltered apple cider 1 cup brown sugar 6 oz. frozen lemonade 6 oz. frozen orange juice 1 tbsp. whole cloves 1 tbsp. whole allspice 1 tsp. ground nutmeg 5-6 whole cinnamon sticks Combine unfiltered apple [...]

First, the crust (via Julie) 1 1/4 C flour 1/2 C sugar 1/2 C butter (small, soft chunks) 3 TBS whipping cream Mix flour and sugar. Add whipping cream. Then add butter. Knead by hand, or pulse into food processor.  Put it in the freezer for about 15 minutes once you spread it out into your pie pan, then cook it for 10 minutes at 325 F, or until the edges are becoming very slightly [...]

How cool is this? A secret Santa has handed over £9million-worth of Christmas toys to children in UK hospitals. Several truckloads have arrived at Birmingham Children’s Hospital and more will be delivered nationwide over the next few days, reports The Sun. The mystery Father Christmas arranged for the goodies to be dropped at a Midlands airbase ready for distribution. He has let it be known he wants to guarantee poorly kids in hospital a good [...]

With the mantra that You Can Make A Difference with Only $50 or 2 hours of your time GreatGuide.org Is a place to find, review, and talk about great — and perhaps not so great — nonprofits. If you have direct experience with a nonprofit, share your knowledge and help other people discover trustworthy nonprofits that are making a difference. With the time you’re saving this year by doing a Secret Santa exchange with your [...]

This is first in a series of guest posts by Scott Ringo, homemade gift maker extraordinaire, and passionate Elfster elf!   This year just like every year for the last 12 years our family is in the middle of making our Christmas gifts that we will give to our family and friends for Christmas. It is a special time of the year for us, one for us that celebrates the birth of Jesus, and also [...]

Greet your holidays guests with a beautiful door wreath! And if you plan to make your own, you’ll get inspired by these original creations: Butterscotch candy wreath: fully edible!   An origami twist on a simple wreath.   A lovely and modern wreath made of buttons.  

Barb S. a super elf from St. Paul, Minnesota, has an interesting take on how her family approaches the Christmas gift exchange.  Among other neat things her family does, the adults separate out the guys from the girls.  Here she explains: The guys give to the guys and the girls give to the girls (adults only)…Is there a way for the girls to see the guys’ wishlists so they can use it to purchase items [...]

Mood Beams are a fun collection of battery-operated characters which change light colors and intensity according to their “mood”. They react to sounds so putting them next to your stereo speaker or barking dog will create mood lighting unique to the chaos or cool sounds of your room.  Pictured here is the ”Surprised” mood beam.  Others in the collection include Curious, Peppy, Gloomy and more. Highly recommended for your friends that still like lava lamps! Mood Beams Series – Suprised Glowing [...]

Wondering what to give to those people who have everything… What about a Gift of Hope? Heifer International bases its philosophy on the proverb “Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime.” Its mission is to help people obtain a sustainable source of food and income and ultimately achieve self-reliance through the gift of livestock and training. So choose [...]

This is a part of our recurring Monday morning series, “Ask Elfster?”  Today we have a special edition related to answering the questions a lot of people have about what’s all this new coolness on the site? This weekend the elves were working hard to make Elfster even easier and more fun to stay connected and give and receive great gifts.  Here are some of the highlights. There is an all new shopping and gift [...]