It’s giveaway time! It’s a massive one guys and I’m pretty excited! For the past week or so I’ve been featuring recipes using Staub, Shun, Cuttingboard.com, Finex, and Kitchen Aid and now’s the time to finally bundle everything up and give it all away. Well, not literally, because you’re actually going to win new items, so there’s no real bundling, just figurative bundling.
win this staub!
I hope you’ve been following along – so far I’ve made Slow Braised Japanese Chashu Pork, Mini Puff Pastry Roses, Caramel Corn and Rice Krispie Mix, and Mint Snowman Marshmallows, but with these giveaway items you can make pretty much anything, which is perfect for the holiday season.
win this shun knife and cuttingboard.com boo’s block!
I love food – as I’m sure you know – and one of my favorite Christmas memories is of me, my brother, and Christmas chocolates. As little kids, come the first of December, we would get chocolate advent calendars. I still see them around now: those thin cardboard drugstore boxes featuring a Christmas picture with tiny numbered windows and chocolates hiding behind them. My brother and I lived for that moment at the end of the day when we got to pry open the cardboard for our long awaited treat. Our eager fingers would melt the chocolate ever so slightly as we tried to eat our chocolates as slowly as possible.
win this finex cast iron pan!
One year, we got it in our heads that we didn’t want to wait. We snuck our calendars down to the basement – it was cold and dark down there and I didn’t like it but my brother convinced me it was the best place to hide – and ate every single chocolate. We ate the entire month of December. And the thing is, we did it in a gentle, artful way where we could close back the windows so that at a casual glance, you couldn’t tell that the calendar was ravaged.
win this kitchen aid!
Maybe it was the sugar-high making us crazy, but we totally thought we got away with it. That is, until it was time for our nightly ritual with our parents. Needless to say, there was no chocolate treat that night. Or the next night, or the next. But, it was okay, because come Christmas morning, there were still presents under the tree. Apparently, our chocolate binge didn’t leave us on Santa’s naughty list, which was a huge relief, because, presents.
These days I’m more into giving than receiving so I couldn’t resist putting together this giveaway for you! I wish I could send everyone a Christmas present but since I can’t, I thought I’d do the next best thing and giveaway some of my favorite things. So, let me know your favorite holiday memory and maybe you’ll be the lucky reader who wins! Good luck!
Giveaway: I’ve teamed up with some of my favorite brands to do a massive giveaway. One lucky reader will win:
Staub 4 Quart Round Cocotte
Shun 6-inch Dual Core Utility Knife
Cuttingboard.com Boos Block Walnut 20×15 Cutting Board
Finex 10-inch Cast Iron Pan
Kitchen Aid Artisan Design Series 5-Quart Stand Mixer w/Glass Bowl in Pearl Silver
To enter: Leave a comment on the blog with your favorite winter holiday memory. I want to hear ALL the details! I’ll randomly choose a winner and notify them through email. Open to US residents only. (Sorry international friends, only American companies agreed to this one!) If you’d like some extra entries use the widget below to follow me on Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest. Contest ends December 21st at 12pm PST. Good luck!
The giveaway is closed! I’ll be announcing the winner in the next week or so after reading through all of the comments. Thank you everyone who entered! There are some beautiful memories here!
Update: Congrats Chelsea, you won! Look for an email from me shortly!
My favorite holiday memory is making Christmas cookies every Christmas eve. They were always still hot when we left some out for Santa.
My favorite winter holiday memory is just being cosy at home with my family. My sister and I watch the old rudolf claymation movie (that we taped in 1992 ON VHS) and eat peppermint ice cream. We’re all bundled in wool sweaters and cosy socks, and drink lots of cocoa and tea, and read books under blankets. On Christmas Eve, my fam just eats appetizers for dinner! Meatballs, coconut shrimp, cracker and cheese. Lots of cheese. We also love to put our cats out in the snow and watch them PANIC. :)
One year, my family along with 12 others rented out a mansion for Christmas and celebrated together for a week! On Christmas, we all exchanged gifts and it was a blast!!
Although I grew up in Taiwan, my parents celebrated winter holidays every year until our move to the States. I would try to stay awake all night on Christmas Eve hoping to hear the sound of Santa’s sleigh landing on our rooftop, but would inevitably fall asleep before midnight. Even though I never caught a glimpse of Santa in person, my Christmas stocking would be full of presents on Christmas morning.
I have so many amazing winter holiday memories, but the best by far has to be the last Christmas I was able to spend in the Philippines. It’s expensive to travel there during the holidays – the airfare itself is pricey, and we are always expected to bring boxes upon boxes of gifts when we travel home for the holidays – but not your typical gifts (mostly every day items, like tooth paste, coffee, bars of soap, chocolates, etc). I’ve lived in the U.S. for almost all my life, but experiencing Christmas in a country like the Philippines has always made me appreciate the holidays so much more – it’s instilled a feeling of gratefulness for the opportunities I’ve had growing up compared to my less-fortunate relatives, and spending Christmas in a third-world country really puts things into perspective. There, there is less emphasis on gift giving and receiving, and more emphasis on the real reason we celebrate Christmas. Young people don’t go out and look for the best party to be at, they spend their holidays at home with their families. My favorite part about growing up in a Filipino household during the holidays is Noche Buena, which is a traditional dinner that family and friends partake in on the eve of Christmas. I remember when I was much younger I used to be get annoyed that my parents would encourage us to wait until it was close to midnight to eat dinner, but now I see the role that this tradition has played in shaping how my family spends Christmas. Growing up, I was never on my toes about gifts, and I as I grew older I began to look forward to the times we would spend as a family as midnight approached. Especially in the Philippines, you see how people place more value on family instead of gift-giving during Christmas, and the memories I’ve had spending the holidays there with family is something I truly treasure. Being in the house that my mom grew up in and eating the same food on Noche Buena that she and my siblings grew up with is amazing, and it was always like I was experiencing the holidays with a new appreciation for my family. It’s been years since I’ve been able to visit the Philippines over the holidays, but year after year I grow more nostalgic for it.
My absolute favorite holiday memory is going to the Christmas tree farm with my family every year to cut down a tree- Griswald-style!! :)
My favortie holiday memory involves making (and eating of course) a ton of appetizers while spending time with my extended family on Christmas Eve. It has evolved into a serious tradition now, with some sticking to their old favorite recipes, and a few more adventurous ones trying new recipes every year!
My favorite holiday “memory” is always putting up the tree with my Dad. His trees always look like something out of a magazine and it marks the beginning of the season for me.
My favorite holiday memory is my dog searching my his stocking (yes, he got his own stocking full of toys and treats) when we were kids. He knew he got one and my mom would always “hide” it for him to find. It was adorable! Then when he tired from all the excitement, he would lay between my sister and I while we decorated him in bows from our gifts. :)
It’s all about family to me. I loved going to my grandmothers, this song would go through my head as we drove out into the country to visit her” Over the river and through the woods, to grandmother’s house we go”.It still rings in my head every Christmas still.