News From The Nest, December 1

New on the Blog

This needle-felted wreath offers an excellent introduction to needle felting that’s more approachable than it looks. Once you get the rhythm of jabbing wool with felting needles, transforming wisps into structured berries and leaves becomes oddly satisfying. At about three hours from start to finish, you can complete this charming project in an afternoon while catching up on your favorite show.

From the Knit + Crochet Studio

These tiny knit sweaters may just be one of the most adorable projects you’ll ever make. Each miniature sweater knits up in about a day using worsted-weight yarn and double-pointed needles, making them perfect for Christmas tree ornaments, garland embellishments, or place settings at your holiday breakfast. You can personalize them with cross-stitched initials or embroidered snowflakes, and at just 20 yards of yarn per sweater, they’re an excellent way to use up your stash.

When you’ve put your heart into knitting beautiful gifts, these Christmas knit gift tags provide the perfect finishing touch. Simply print them on cardstock, cut them out with scissors or a tag punch, and attach them to your handmade hats, blankets, washcloths, or stockings. Four festive designs ensure you’ll have the right tag for any knit gift, and they pair beautifully with baker’s twine or ribbon.

Create shimmering holiday decorations with these crochet stars that catch the light beautifully. Using metallic yarn and basic stitches with some textured post stitches, each 3.5-inch star takes about 30 minutes to complete. Use them as ornaments, gift toppers, or string them together for festive garland—just remember to block them with spray starch or fabric stiffener so they hold their shape year after year.

From the Kitchen

Set out this brunch charcuterie board for Christmas morning or any gathering where mingling is encouraged. This grazing board offers something for everyone—sweet options like mini pancakes layered with Nutella and banana, yogurt parfaits, and French toast sticks, alongside savory choices like avocado toast, bacon, mini quiches, and everything bagel dip. Most items can be purchased ready-made or prepped in advance, making it perfect for busy hosts who want to offer an impressive spread without spending the entire morning in the kitchen.

If your first reaction to peanut butter soup is skepticism, you’re not alone—but give it a try for the sake of your taste buds. This West African-inspired soup transforms peanut butter with onions, ginger, garlic, and tomato paste into a comforting, hearty dish with a unique fusion of flavors. Chris wrote that she’s already made it twice and her very unsure husband really liked it, while Astrid declared it her favorite soup now. The soup comes together in about 30 minutes and works beautifully as a vegetarian option or with added chicken.

Present a festive Christmas tree charcuterie board that’s as beautiful as it is delicious. This arrangement blends cured meats, cheeses, crackers, fruits, and seasonal garnishes into a tree shape that becomes the centerpiece of your holiday gathering. The article walks you through suggested meats and cheeses, plus sweet and salty ideas to round out your board and create a show-stopping presentation.

Warm up your holiday gatherings with winter sangria that combines bold Rioja wine with apple cider, limoncello, and brandy. Fresh apples, oranges, lemons, and cinnamon sticks infuse the mixture, which gets topped with bubbly Prosecco just before serving. The optional cinnamon-sugar rim adds an extra special touch, enhancing the warm spice notes in every sip. This sangria benefits from at least six hours of refrigeration to let the flavors meld, making it perfect for advanced preparation. Sydney wrote in, “My go-to holiday party drink! All my guests ask for the recipe.”

Take traditional shortbread to new heights with these brown butter rosemary cookies. The nutty, caramel flavor of browned butter combines with fresh rosemary and a hint of orange zest to create sophisticated shortbread rounds that are slightly crisp on the edges. While the flavor combination might surprise you—rosemary in cookies?—the sweetness from sugar is beautifully complemented by the caramel notes and pine-like freshness, creating a distinctive addition to your Christmas cookie lineup.

These gingerbread button cookies are just darling with their punched holes and soft, spiced centers. The combination of molasses and dark brown sugar creates cookies that are slightly crisp on the edges but still soft in the middle—not gingersnappy-crisp, just perfectly textured. Use round cookie cutters in two sizes to create the button shape, then poke holes with a straw before baking. Thread them together with baker’s twine for an adorable presentation at cookie swaps or as gifts. It’s fair to say I have a cookie-crush on these guys! 😍

Transform simple sugar cookies into something extraordinary with sugar cookies painted with edible metallic lustre dust. After baking and cooling your sugar cookies, mix the metallic powder with a bit of vodka or lemon extract to create paint, then brush on gold, silver, and copper designs. The painted cookies make gorgeous and unique additions to your holiday cookie tray, and the tutorial includes recipes for both the sugar cookies and royal icing to help you create professional-looking results.

From the Arts + Crafts Studio

Transform cash gifts into something special with these DIY Christmas money gift envelopes. Download five free designs, print them on cardstock, cut them out, add a bit of glue, and you’ll have charming envelopes in no time. What started as a quick project to mail a package turned into a six-hour design session—but the good news is that those six hours are saved for you, with all five designs ready to download and use.

Need a quick hostess gift for a Christmas gathering? These wine bottle tags turn any bottle of wine into a thoughtful present. Print the free tags featuring pairings like “pairs well with filling stockings,” “pairs well with trimming the tree,” and “pairs well with wrapping presents,” then slip them over the neck of your favorite bottle. It’s a simple way to make your wine gift just a bit more festive and personal.

This sweet holiday wreath decorated with cinnamon-applesauce dough gingerbread men and houses alongside Sculpey clay candy has been hanging in our kitchen for more than seven years—and it still looks as cute as it did on day one. The cinnamon dough ornaments make the room smell wonderful even a week after baking them, and everything has held up beautifully through summers in the attic. It’s a charming, fragrant addition to your holiday decor that’s surprisingly durable.

Gift Ideas

Shopping for the men in your life? This guide to mostly useful gifts for men focuses on practical items they’ll actually use rather than things that will collect dust in a drawer. From stocking stuffers to bigger presents, the emphasis is on functionality and everyday usefulness—the kinds of gifts that solve minor problems or make daily life just a bit easier.

Help the travelers in your life with great travel gifts that combine practicality with thoughtfulness. Whether they’re frequent fliers or weekend road-trippers, the right accessories can make their journeys more comfortable and organized. This collection focuses on items that experienced travelers actually reach for trip after trip.

Self-Care

The holidays are wonderful but exhausting, which is why these seven mindfulness exercises are essential for managing holiday stress. From simple breathing techniques that take just 30 seconds to body scan meditations you can do whenever you have a few minutes, these practices help you stop, refocus, and regain clarity. The four-count breathing exercise is particularly easy to remember and can be done anywhere—just breathe in for four counts, hold for two, exhale for four, and hold again for two.

After a long day of holiday hustle, this herbal bath salts recipe offers a blissful way to soothe both mind and body. Combining Epsom salt, Dead Sea salt, or Himalayan pink salt with dried lavender, chamomile, and rosebuds creates a therapeutic soak that calms tired muscles and reduces stress. The recipe is easily made in bulk—simply chop the herbs and dried flowers in a food processor, mix everything, and store in airtight containers. If you’re worried about herb residue in your tub, tuck the salts into a drawstring muslin bag that acts like a giant tea bag. These also make thoughtful homemade gifts when packaged in mason jars with wooden lids or vintage test tubes.