Catalogs, wishes, and Christmas dishes

When I was a little girl, nothing beat the excitement of getting that Sears Christmas catalog in the mail. Today's children will never know the joy of having that big honkin' catalog arrive in the mailbox each fall. I would inhale the scent of the paper (I've always loved the smell of paper and ink) and pore over the pages, trying to make the difficult decision of precisely which dolls and toys I wanted to ask Santa to bring me. Many of those old catalogs are online now, and I recently came across the Montgomery Ward catalog from 1961, which features more grown-up toys, some of the Lefton Christmas dishes that are still around today.

I have seen enough of these pieces in stores to have observed that some seem more crudely made than others, and after comparing some of my own such dishes, I've decided that the real Lefton pieces must be the ones with that darker, almost blue-green hue. You can't quite tell from my photo, but the plate at far left is actually a short pedestal plate. When I photographed it with the others, it became apparent that the color isn't the same as the real Lefton pieces. (But hey, I gave, like, two dollars for it, and I'd do that again. Pedestals are great for varying the heights in a display.)

The color is right on these small mugs, perfect for teatime, but the glaze looks kind of foggy in the photos but is actually just a very glossy, pearlescent kind of glaze. I intend to ask a ceramicist friend about this!

On some of these mugs, the paint on the red berries is starting to flake off and isn't as bright as on this one. Considering how much I paid for them at the thrift store (twenty cents), I can't really complain, but I would like to bring these back to life if that's possible. It was fun to see some of these old pieces in a vintage catalog. If only we could go back in time and shop at those prices!

A great deal on Candy Cane Lane tea

I know I'm not the only one in these parts who is a great fan of Candy Cane Lane green tea, a beloved holiday blend from Celestial Seasonings. A few years ago, some local tea-lover friends and I agreed to be on the lookout for it, notifying each other of any sightings. Yes, you could always order it on Amazon, usually at a higher-than-the-grocery-store price, but it was always fun to find it in the wild. I haven't seen it in the wild this year, but I checked one day last week and found that Amazon was selling six boxes of it for … $8.86? Could that possibly be right? "Must be for just one box," I thought, but nope, it was for six whole boxes. Add to cart, baby!

When my tea arrived two days later, I was thrilled. I haven't had Candy Cane Lane in about two years, and now I'm stocked for a while. Then I was checking my Amazon order history and noticed that I could reorder the Candy Cane Lane tea … for $28.48. What? I also saw something I'd not noticed before, that next to the new price was a link titled Price History. I clicked it, and sure enough, it showed that price trends for this tea had varied wildly in recent weeks!

I said all that to say this: I'm going to be watching the price of this tea in the coming weeks, and if it reaches such bargain levels again, I'll stock up. And as a bargain lover, I'll now be clicking Price History on other items as well. (And I'll be sipping lots of this delicious tea as I do so!)

A Santa mug shelfie

Longtime readers are used to seeing some of my Santa mugs every year, so I thought I'd share a new "shelfie" showing the ones that have made the cut (so far) this year.

And while this Lipper and Mann tea set isn't technically a mug, it seems to go well here. Although … it's starting to bother me that Santa looks so grumpy. He needs an attitude adjustment!

My favorite mini Santa mugs are these two Howard Holt pieces, a gift from a blog reader many years ago.

And this little guy remains my favorite Santa mug for actually enjoying tea. He's the perfect size for a single cup.

Finally, this ceramic sleigh holds more of the mini Santa mugs (although Santa and the knee-hugger elf both look a little crazed, don't they!).

A Christmas tea that's gluten-free!

Last year, at the invitation of my friend Paige, I joined a Group Group at my church, and I greatly enjoyed going through the three-book discipleship series with her and two other women, Beth and Kristi, that I didn’t know very well at the time. A year later, we know ALL about each other, pray for each other (and each other’s families), and still enjoy getting together monthly just to keep in touch! They came to tea on Wednesday, and I told them we should get a photo since we’d never taken one of the four of us together. So that’s myself and Kristi at front and Beth and Paige at back.

As some of you veteran tea-party-givers will appreciate, I ran out of time to photograph everything beforehand, but I did get a couple of photos of the table right before we started eating. Two things I wanted to note here: the cranberry-white chocolate scones at front are a gluten-free recipe I found since one of my friends eats gluten-free. And you can barely see them, but the candy cane cookies at back are also gluten-free. Both got great reviews, as did the pecan pie balls, for which I used the regular recipe but substituted Pamela’s brand of gluten-free graham crackers. We also had my Waldorf Chicken Salad and ambrosia.

And of course I made my usual cucumber sandwiches. I made the spread with my standard go-to recipe (a block of cream cheese mixed with two tablespoons of mayo and a dash each of garlic salt and dill). I spread the mixture thinly on the bread then added thin strips of cucumber sliced with a vegetable peeler. I used regular white bread for three of us and made a smaller plate of sandwiches with gluten-free bread. Honestly, it was not hard to make this entire meal gluten-free, and my friend was so touched that I did. So if you’re eating gluten-free or entertaining gluten-free, you may wish to check out these recipes!

Scones: https://justasgoodglutenfree.com/gluten-free-cranberry-scones/

Candy cane cookies: https://www.goglutenfreely.com/gluten-free-candy-cane-cookies/

Pecan pie balls: https://www.enzorecipes.com/pioneer-woman-pecan-pie-balls/

A teapot with some intriguing history

Up for a little teapot theology? When I was in Anniston, Alabama, over the weekend to visit family, I popped in an antique store, and I came across one of these vintage Wedgwood teapots I’ve wanted for years, one with a quote on it. This particular design is a reproduction of one of John Wesley’s teapots. (The quote is by John Cennick, another Methodist minister, not John Wesley, BTW.)

The teapot and matching sugar and creamer were just $50 for the set, which I knew was a great price, but I thought, “Hmm. It’s Christmas. I better not.” Then as I was about to leave the booth, I glanced at the “50 percent off” signs all around me and quickly changed my mind. Twenty-five dollars for all? Yes, please.

In a bit of serendipity, earlier that week, I had been reading about John’s brother Charles, who wrote the words to “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing.” While going down a rabbit hole online this week, I learned that the song was originally written by German composer Felix Mendelssohn to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the Gutenberg printing press. (So as we sing this hymn, which was later given a holier purpose, maybe we should also give thanks to the Lord for the printing press, without which we wouldn't have our copies of the Bible or, I presume, the printed words that became back stamps on teapots.)

I’ve still got more research to do, but apparently, John Wesley had a gallon-sized teapot made for him by Wedgwood, and one source said Wesley drank tea for energy. I also read online that the teapot’s design was inspired by one of Mrs. Wesley’s gowns. But the most fascinating thing of all to me is that Wesley himself appears to have had some great concerns about the perils of excessive tea drinking! (You can google “Letter to a Friend, Concerning Tea” if you’re interested.)

A hot chocolate and tea station

I think I might have mentioned that my beloved old tea trolley bit the dust last year. One wheel was so perilously close to collapsing that I got the vapors just thinking about how tragic it would have been had my Royal Winton Welbeck collection been suddenly dumped to the ground. Whew. But I do miss said tea trolley, as it gave me a little extra decorating space for tea wares, and I'm missing it. But I've been poking around at the few leftover pieces of furniture in Alex's old office, and lo and behold, he had found this little table somewhere and spray painted it off-white. "Hmm…" I thought. And so now I have a hot chocolate and tea station for my little neighbors to enjoy when they visit!

Frankly, I just needed this Martha Stewart Jadeite cake stand out of the way to make room for some Christmas decorations, and this was as good a spot as any. It also gave me an excuse to use that little pink teacup tree I found at T. J. Maxx the other day.

While there, I also got this tin box shaped like a patisserie, but it's a "hot chocolate kit" that contains the mix and some marshmallows. 

For sipping, we're using the reindeer mugs I found at Big Lots a few years ago.

I'm also displaying a Moon Pie tin simply because a beloved local artist, Martin Pate, provided the Santa artwork on this version of the tin. (These are coveted items here in Newnan, so I was thrilled to find one this year.)

Finally, we can't have a hot chocolate station without a Santa mug, can we? (Forks are for eating whatever treats I may have on hand.) So there you go! It's not a tea trolley, exactly, but as a temporary substitute, this'll do the trick.

Just one more Christmas tree …

Just one more little Christmas tree couldn't hurt anything, could it?

I was literally in line at T. J. Maxx this week when I spotted this pearlescent teacup with a little pink tree inside. The tree was smushed to pieces, but I had time to kill in line and decided I would fluff my way to the register. If the tree recovered, it would get a new home.

And I guess you know the rest of the story. Besides, this piece was just $12.99, and I knew I would find something to do with it. In fact, I have a plan, so stay tuned!

Getting reacquainted with an old teatime friend!

After I got a nice nap on Thanksgiving afternoon, I sat down with my laptop and started weeding through all the Black Friday promotions in my in-box. I didn't see anything I couldn't live without, so I started shopping for some new Christmas teas, and it dawned on me that I hadn't ordered from Upton Tea Imports in a while. Can you guess what kind of tea I got?

The package arrived on Monday, so by lunchtime, I was tearing into the box!

I used to enjoy reading the Upton Tea Quarterly, and the new one is in color! And has recipes! Boy, have I been missing out.

The tin of tea I got was this Figgy Pudding & Pear Holiday Black Tea, and oh my, is it divine! As soon as I sniffed it and saw all those lovely bits of fig and pear and spices, I knew this would be a winner, and it was. This is very much a dessert tea, and I am probably going to polish it off very quickly. Also, $13 for a whole tin of tea strikes me as a very good value these days. You can check it out here if you're interested (no affiliation; just a happy customer).

And I'm glad I used the oversized teacup in this Spode tea-for-one set, because this tea is that good!

(And if you happen to be on Instagram, I'm featuring a Teacup of the Day every day this month. You can find me there at @authorangelamcrae.)

Stash's Cranberry Pomegranate Herbal Tea

On my craft retreat last weekend, my friend Heather brought along this box of Cranberry Pomegranate tea from Stash Tea, a duplicate box of tea she received in an order by mistake, and when I liked it, she generously told me to take the whole box home with me, and I did!

I love cranberry treats in November and December, and sometime this month, I will hit up a Starbucks for one of their famous Cranberry Bliss Bars. (I can take or leave the Starbucks drinks, but I do love their Cranberry Bliss Bars.) And this Stash blend has such a great combo of the cranberry and pomegranate flavors—not too tart at all. Once I steeped my tea, I added the spent teabag to my Stanley water bottle and enjoyed flavored water for the rest of the day.

This festive teacup is a Gracie China piece I found at Marshalls fifteen years ago, the first of many Christmas teacups I plan to use in the days ahead. Are you sipping from a Christmas teacup yet?

Thanksgiving 2025

Thanksgiving 2025 is in the books, and it was a great one! I enjoyed having my dad and my sister's family here for the day, and even though it turned cold (fifty is cold here in Georgia!), it was a beautiful day!

I'd meant to get a picture of the table settings, which I had carefully laid out the night before, but did I take a single photo of them? No, I did not. Oh well! I used the turkey plates I started collecting years ago.

This amber glass sugar and creamer was a set I got while thrifting in Wisconsin one time.

And this turkey butter/cheese spreader came from a gift shop in Atlanta years ago and is by Mudpie, if I recall.

One of the Thanksgiving traditions I always enjoy is giving a Christmas ornament to the kids on both sides of my family. This year, great-nephew Hoyt got a push-toy ornament but was mainly interested in tasting the box!

Great-nephew Ezra is into monster trucks, so his monster truck ornie made him very happy.

My high-school-senior nephew, Matthew, still likes Spider-Man.

And to celebrate niece Amelia's first year of marriage to Korbin, I got the ornament featuring two mice and a set of mixing bowls, as Amelia has become quite the domestic diva and even brought a homemade pumpkin pie to the celebration. I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving as well!

Wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Fall craft retreat at Lake Hartwell

Last night, I returned from my twice-a-year craft retreat at Lake Hartwell, and it was so nice to get away for a few days before the busy holiday season arrives! Most of the gals are from the Savannah area, and one flew in from Dallas and one was in town from California. It was a fun mix, including two daughters of one of the gals. I was so impressed with them and happy to have made two more young friends!

The weather was sunny and unseasonably warm for Georgia at this time of year, and as one of the younger ladies liked to say, "And we weren't mad about it!"

We always manage to squeeze in some shopping, and we were all charmed with the downtown Christmas decorations, including this sleigh.

We agreed that it felt a bit like we were in a Hallmark Christmas movie and were just waiting for the guy in the plaid flannel jacket to show up!

The crafts this time included knitting, embroidery, decoupage, and wreath making. I loved this wreath made by cutting bandannas in half and attaching them to a wire frame.

I made a hodgepodge of different cards this time.

And of course I always have to make a teatime card or two. It has occurred to me that one day, I would like to have my own Etsy shop and sell my handmade cards, so I'd better get on the ball.

It was a great weekend with some dear friends, and as Thanksgiving approaches, I am very grateful for the gift of friendship!