Waiting for Christmas

For most of us, Frank Sinatra was right on the money: the holiday season really is the "most wonderful time of the year." Decorating is a great way to get into the holiday spirit and a fun activity for the whole family. Orange Elephant's line of products can help you trim your tree, deck your halls and more - all at a low price!

One of our most popular holiday decorations is the Orange Elephant gingerbread Christmas tree clay “cookie.” Here's what you need:
* Black, white, red, yellow and green shades of A-Clay
* A tube of green window paint
* Scissors

Now you’ve become an adult, busy and serious, and Father Frost now comes to your children. And they are the children who’re waiting for the bushy beard made of cotton and the sound of the magic stick. They are writing letters to the Father Frost, they are counting days till the celebration, believe in magic, in a wonderful fairy-tale under the name New Year.

And now, while Father Frost is packing the bags with presents, checking if the rig with dears is all right and if the bells ring musically, we’re going to bake festive cakes. We are to bake New Year’s traditional ginger bread, but not using paste, we’re to cook from magic modeling clay “Orange Elephant”

So, we’ll need:

- Modeling Clay “Orange Elephant” of black, white, red, yellow and green colors;
- A tube of Window Paints of green color;
- Scissors, stacks.

We’re to mold paste. Mixing black, yellow and red modeling clay till it becomes of a chocolate color.

First, you want to mix together all your shades of A-Clay with your hands, until you have a lump of chocolate-colored clay. Flatten out the clay to a medium-sized thickness (you can use a rolling pin to do this if you want).

Set that aside for now. On a piece of paper, sketch out a fir tree and cut it out with scissors. Don’t worry about making it perfect; just do the best you can.

Place your paper pattern on top of your brown clay and cut the tree form out of the clay with your scissors.

Now that we’ve made our gingerbread, its time to make the icing! Mix together a large chunk off white A-Clay with a small chunk of green A-Clay; the green piece should about a third of the size of the white piece. That will give you a nice pastel color. Flatten out the green clay and roll it out nice and thin, then place

Put your paper tree pattern on top of the green clay and again cut out the pattern. Stick the green tree on top of the brown tree and trim the edged of the top green layer with white clay.

Cover the surface of your gingerbread “cookie” with green window paint.

To add even more festivity to your creation, let some red and yellow clay dry up and cut it into little piece. Stick the pieces on your “cookie” to make tree ornaments.
Allow your “cookie” to dry and it’s ready to be displayed.

If all this modeling and talk about gingerbread is making you hungry, you’re in luck! Here’s a recipe for real, edible gingerbread cookies. You’ll need:
* 1 & 1/2 cup of flour
* 1/3 cup of brown (or white) sugar
* 1/2 cup of purified oil
* 1/2 cup of liquid honey
* 2 eggs
* 1 teaspoon of a ground cinnamon
* 1 tablespoon of dried ginger powder
1/2 teaspoon of ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of salt

Your oven should be preheated to 350 degrees. Beat the eggs sugar, oil and honey together in a bowl. Add ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, baking soda and salt; mix together. Knead the dough with your hands in the bowl a bit before placing it on a cutting board covered in flower. Use a rolling pin to roll the dough 1/8 inch thick; for softer cookies, roll out thicker. Cut out circles from the dough or use holiday-themed cookie cutters to create your cookies. Place them on a baking sheet coated with butter and cook for 10-12 minutes. Let cookies cool and decorate with icing and sugar.

WE WISH YOU HAPPY NEW YEAR!