Holiday Memories: My Holiday Party at the Farm, Part One
For the holidays, we're sharing a few of my favorite memories from years past. This festive party was originally posted on Dec. 19, 2017 - enjoy this encore blog!
I love this time of year when everyone gathers together to celebrate the holidays.
This weekend, I hosted my annual holiday party at my Bedford, New York farm. Nearly 200-guests wandered in and out of three buildings, each with a different and festive theme. My Winter House was where my friend, Chef Pierre Schaedelin, and his talented team from PS Tailored Events, prepared and served a variety of delicious and savory dishes. Champagne was served in my Summer House, and for those looking to satisfy their sweet cravings, the little Tenant House offered an array of beautiful holiday cookies and candies. Friends, family and neighbors also enjoyed hayrides, caroling and photos with Santa! It was a cold late autumn day, but everyone had a most wonderful time!
Enjoy these photos.
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- Here is my Tenant House, where my daughter, Alexis, and her children stay during visits to the farm.
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- During the party, it was filled with lots of “Candies & Cookies for Young & Old”. Each of the houses was labeled, so visitors knew what to find inside.
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- After opening the door, visitors saw decorations on every table and wreaths in every window.
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- These mini natural mint pillow candies and all our hard candies came from Hammond’s. http://www.hammondscandies.com/
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- The long table is filled with homemade cookies surrounded by whimsical woodland animals and miniature figurines. Our test chefs, Jason Schreiber and Molly Wenk baked more than 1000-cookies for the event. Many of the recipes are from my books and my web site at MarthaStewart.com.
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- As many of you know, my longtime housekeeper, Laura, has an exceptional talent for decorating. Every year, she creates the most stunning displays. This is a little snowy gnomes’ village set on the table.
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- It is complete with tiny figures, such as these playful gnome carolers.
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- There are cookies everywhere – the children were all amazed at the vast selection of cookies. Here is a display of delicious gingerbread, sugar cookies, and zaleti.
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- Zaleti is the traditional name for the northern Italian cornmeal cookies, usually made with lemon rind and grappa-soaked raisins.
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- Here’s a big favorite – iced sugar cookies. I love using natural elements in my decorating. We used very flat slices of wood to display our cookies.
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- These are called sables – French salted butter cookies.
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- And of course, we added a bowl of caramel corn with nuts. Watch my recent Facebook LIVE and see how we wrapped these to give away as a gift. https://www.facebook.com/pg/marthastewart/videos/
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- We made this candle holder from a log – it’s perfect for holding our LED votive candles.
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- More sugar cookies shaped like stars, deer and crescent moons – we used a large variety of cookie-cutter shapes.
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- These are glazed lemon poppy shortbread cookies.
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- Laura displayed a row of iced sugar cookie Christmas trees and snowflakes along one side of the table on faux bois napkins.
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- Here are traditional gingerbread men and a big sugar cookie snowflake.
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- These are churros stacked neatly on another wooden board.
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- Look at this display of Christmas trees – I love how each colored tree is decorated differently. On each side are brown butter cardamom shortbread cookies from our Martha & Marley Spoon Holiday Cookie Box.
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- Behind the long table are planter pedestals topped with woodland stuffed animals and bottle brush trees.
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- Because my grandchildren stay here when they visit, I love decorating the space for them with lots of colors and stuffed toys.
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- This tree is adorned with simple yet decorative pinecone garlands.
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- We also used Hammond’s candy cane Christmas trees as ornaments.
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- And Hammond’s candy canes
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- The mantle in the Tenant House is decorated with a Christmas village scene.
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- And on the table, more cookies, candies and safe LED pillar candles. I love the gnome cookie display surrounded by Hammond’s ribbon candies – it would be great for a magazine cover.
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- On another Christmas tree, Laura placed lots of bird ornaments, like this red one.
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- I think these acorn ornaments are so pretty.
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- In the kitchen, there are more plates filled with tasty cookies, including Alexis’ chocolate chunk cookies, zaleti, and brown butter cardamom shortbread from our Martha & Marley Spoon Holiday Cookie Box.
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- Laura brought out these wonderful toadstools – I made these on “The Martha Stewart Show” – everyone loved these stools.
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- Alexis’ Chocolate Chunk Cookies went so fast. We used her chocolate chip recipe, only with chocolate chunks instead – so delicious.
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- Here’s a winking sugar cookie gnome and buccellati. Buccellati cookies are Sicily’s best-known Christmas cookie – a thin pastry wrapped around a filling of dried figs and nuts.
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- Here are more buccellati cookies, sugar cookies and in the back, red-brown butter cardamom shortbread cookies.
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- As cookies were eaten they were quickly replaced by more – we had lots of cookies to go around!
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- Here are more gingerbread men, Alexis’ chocolate chunk cookies and Buccellati.
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- These are called Casadinhos. These are Brazilian cookies with guava. It is made of two little sugar cookies filled with guava paste.
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- Here are gingerbread men standing around our Noel Nut Balls from our Martha & Marley Spoon Holiday Cookie Box.
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- Here’s a stack of peppermint brownies from our Martha & Marley Spoon Holiday Cookie Box – they were all gone by the end of the party.
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- On the staircase, Laura used these beautiful bears to greet guests as they turned the corner from the kitchen – so cute.
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- The living room was also decorated for children – with the coffee table complete with a decorating project for our smallest guests.
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- On the large stuffed bears and mini Christmas trees – yoga Santas.
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- Here is another yoga Santa – everyone loved these ornaments.
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- Polar bears sat nearby.
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- And as guests left the Tenant House, they saw this lovely display of deer amidst trees, and silver and gold snowballs. Everything is so pretty – thank you, Laura! Tomorrow, I will share photos from my Summer House – you’re going to love it!
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