During the 12 days until Christmas break, the King Street Chronicle again presents staff favorites from the holiday season. This final edition will not include 12 drummers drumming, but beloved Christmas songs, memories, recipes, movies, and crafts.
Song: “Away in a Manger” performed by Ms. Carrie Underwood
Recipe: Brittle
Total Time: One hour and ten minutes
Quantity: 10 to 12 servings
Ingredients:
- Two tablespoons unsalted butter (at room temperature), plus more for the pan
- One cup granulated sugar
- One-half cup light corn syrup
- One-half cup water
- One-half cup roasted, lightly salted cashew halves
- One-half cup pecan halves (roughly chopped)
- One-third cup roasted, unsalted peanuts
- One-third cup slivered almonds
- Three-fourths teaspoon kosher salt
- One teaspoon baking soda
- One teaspoon vanilla extract
- Flaky sea salt
Directions:
- Grease a large baking sheet with butter and set aside.
- Combine the sugar, corn syrup, and water in a large saucepan. Cook, swirling the pan occasionally, until a candy thermometer registers 285 Fahrenheit, 16 to 18 minutes. Using a wooden spoon, stir in the cashews, pecans, peanuts, almonds, and kosher salt. Continue cooking, stirring constantly, until the mixture registers 300 Fahrenheit, three to five minutes. Remove from heat and remove the candy thermometer from the pan. Add butter, baking soda and vanilla, and stir until mixture is evenly foamy (the mixture will bubble up). Immediately pour onto the prepared baking sheet. Quickly spread into a thin sheet. Sprinkle lightly with flaky sea salt.
- Let cool completely, about 30 minutes. Break into pieces. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to one week.
Movie: An Elf’s Story: The Elf on the Shelf
“A young scout elf who helps Santa determine who’s naughty or nice takes on an assignment to help restore a 9-year-old boy’s belief in Christmas,” courtesy of rottentomatoes.com
Craft: Popsicle Stick Ornament
Materials:
- Four large wooden popsicle sticks
- White, brown and tan craft paint
- Four pieces of ribbon (about two inches each)
- Eight googly eyes
- Six small buttons (assorted colors)
- Two small jingle bells
- Two small red pom poms
- One piece of black paper
- Three pipe cleaners: one orange, two brown
- Foam brush/paint brush
- Twine
- Glue
Directions:
- Paint two large craft sticks brown and two sticks white. Let it dry. On the brown sticks, paint a dot of tan in the middle of the stick and a dot about a half inch from the top. Let it dry.
- Cut two little black snowman hats from the black paper and cut two pieces of the orange pipe cleaner about a half inch long each for the carrot noses.
- Snip the brown pipe cleaners into thirds. Bend two of them in a “u” shape and then bend the ends in a different direction to look like antlers. Take two more of them and make stick arms for the snowmen by twisting and bending each end into a “v” to look like stick hands.
- Now glue all the parts on each of the sticks. For each reindeer: Glue eyes, red pom nose, bell on the front, and glue antlers on the backside. For each Snowman: Glue eyes, a carrot nose, three buttons, two ribbons for the scarf, and a black hat.
- Let sit and dry for 20 minutes.
- Once dried, just take the Twine, and knot each piece so it forms a loop. Glue this onto the back of each craft stick to use as the ornaments hanger. Let it dry.
Memory: Olivia Franco ’27
“Every year on Christmas Eve, my family goes to my Nonna’s house. We have a huge feast with pasta, chicken cutlets, and fish. We spend the night talking and eating. At the end of the night, right before my little cousins go to bed, Santa Claus comes to visit them. For dessert, we always have a yule log cake and roasted chestnuts. One year, we had an ugly sweater contest. My aunt got really into it and won by a landslide.”
Featured Image by Eloise Liggitt ’26
