During the 12 days until Christmas break, the King Street Chronicle will again present staff favorites from the holiday season.  This eleventh edition will not include 11 pipers piping, but beloved Christmas songs, memories, recipes, movies, and crafts.

Song: “Wonderful Christmastime” performed by Mr. Paul McCartney.

Recipe: Peppermint Ice Cream

Total time: Ten minutes of preparation and eight hours of freezing

Quantity: Four cups 

Ingredients:

• Two cups of heavy cream
• One cup of whole milk
• Three-fourths cups of granulated sugar
• One-fourth cup of salt
• Six large egg yolks
• One teaspoon of peppermint extract
• Red food coloring (optional)
• One-fourth cup of crushed peppermints in addition to more for sprinkling

Steps:

• At medium heat, in a saucepan, add cream, milk, granulated sugar, and salt.  Stir the mixture.
• Remove heat when the edges start to simmer (after five to seven minutes).
• Whisk egg yolks in a medium bowl until the mixture is smooth. 
• While whisking the eggs, pour in one cup of hot milk. 
• In the saucepan, pour the egg mixture.  Reduce the heat to medium-low. 
• Stir the mixture constantly until it is thick (for about three to four minutes).
• In a large bowl, pour the egg mixture through a fine mesh sieve. 
• Stir in the peppermint extract and add a drop of food coloring (or more) and whisk until combined.
• Refrigerate for a minimum of three hours or a maximum of 12 hours.
• Churn the custard into ice cream via an ice cream machine.
• Once the custard is thick, like ice cream, add in the crushed peppermint as the ice cream machine is running. 
• Either serve the ice cream immediately or scrape the ice cream into a bread loaf and freeze it for a minimum of four hours and a maximum of one week.

Movie: National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation

“As the holidays approach, Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) wants to have a perfect family Christmas, so he pesters his wife, Ellen (Beverly D’Angelo), and children, as he tries to make sure everything is in line, including the tree and house decorations.  However, things go awry quickly.  His hick cousin, Eddie (Randy Quaid), and his family show up unplanned and start living in their camper on the Griswold property.  Even worse, Clark’s employers renege on the holiday bonus he needs,” courtesy of rottentomatoes.com.

Craft: Felt Christmas Tree Ornament

Supplies:

• Green felt
• Brown felt
• Star bead
• 30-inch embroidery floss
• One thick sharp needle

Instructions:

• With the green felt, cut out five one and one-half inch squares, five one and one-fourth inch squares, five one inch squares, five three-fourth inch squares, five one-half inch squares, and five one-fourth inch squares.
• With the brown felt, cut out five circles with a diameter of one-half inch. 
• Thread the floss into the needle and bring the ends of the floss together to tie a pretzel knot.
• Poke the needle through the center of each brown felt circle and thread the circles on the floss. 
• Poke the needle through the center of the largest squares (the one and one-half inch squares) and thread each circle onto the floss.  Then, thread each square on the floss from the largest size to the smallest size.
• Thread the star bead. 
• Cut the needle off of the string and tie the two loose floss strands together into a pretzel knot.

Memory: Madame Marie Hubert

“We have this tradition in France which consists of putting one of your shoes under the tree after Christmas Eve dinner just before heading to bed.  It is the French equivalent of American people hanging stockings on their mantels.  The goal is the same: make sure Santa (who we call “Father Christmas/Père Noël” in French) knows where to put the presents.  On the morning of the twenty-fifth, each shoe can be found on top of a pile of presents, and, typically, the smaller the shoe is, the bigger the pile will be.  This essentially follows a rule that is true wherever Christmas is celebrated: the older one becomes, the smaller one’s gifts are (yes, the Barbie doll Mansion is way bigger than Grand-Pa’s pair of gloves).”

Featured Image by Emily Shull ’25