In November and December 2010, there was a bumper amount of snow that fell. As a result it suddenly felt Christmasy very early! In the hope of a white festive period, I thought I would update this blog post from November 2010. It’s perfectly possible to make frozen tree decorations even if it’s not freezing outside. You will just have to resort to a freezer!

My kitchytendencies are revealed in the photo below. I began by assembling my muffin pots – the brightly coloured ones are silicone (I’m delighted to tell you that 12 years later these are still going strong). Into these I poured water, food colouring and a selection of different objects. These were left out overnight. But a freezer compartment is fine and stops everything from getting lost in fresh snow.

Because the temperatures do not go much below freezing here in Scotland, I decided to use paper clips to attach my decorations to different places. I opened them up a bit and popped them half way into each decoration before freezing. This means they are quick and easy to hang up. String is a little more fumbly.

After experimenting on my washing line, I decided that my spindly rowan tree needed a little attention. It always looks a little neglected.

From a distance the decorations don’t stand out – other than the highly coloured ones. So here’s a closer look:

Can you work out what objects are in this ice decoration? It’s sea glass..

Here’s some leaves from a house plant – too much snow covering the plants outside

Look at the pale pink begonia flower – it freezes beautifully!

Oops! I went overboard with the food colouring. I filled up the bird feeder with coloured ice cubes (sorry little birdies – you’ll get your peanuts back)

Can you spot the star-shaped ice cube? Some decorations are subtle!

These are leaves from an evergreen ivy plant!

Children can have fun experimenting. Objects can be anything that can be covered in water and frozen. So little Lego people, mini dinosaurs and beads in addition to natural materials such as leaves, flowers and berries work well.

As I’m not sure how much snow we will get this winter, I thought I’d store up some supplies of snow, just in case! I’ve refilled the muffin cases with snow and popped them back into my freezer for a mini snowball fight on a warm summer’s day.