nestling Christmas poem

'Twas the week before Christmas

and all through the store

nestling was offering

30% off, or more.

With loads of great brands

and designers for you

plus free gift wrapping

to make it easier too.

There are dresses for girls,

shorts and tops for boys,

lots of baby blankets,

jewellery and toys.

A range of beautiful fabrics

in gorgeous styles,

we have fabulous clothing

that goes on for miles.

Spend more than $100

and we'll send your order for free.

There's something for every little nestling

under our tree.

Merry Christmas from the team at nestling.

The things we love about Christmas

23 things to love about Christmas

1. The rising excitement level of our children (and all children)

2. Sunny days = summer clothes

3. Shop decorations

4. Sending and receiving Christmas cards

5. Santa photos

6. Putting up the tree

7. Decorating the tree  

8. Christmas carols

9. Christmas cooking

10. Choosing/making and giving presents to the teacher

11. End of year school concerts

12. Carols by candlelight

13. Choosing something for the Giving Tree

14. School holidays

15. Deciphering the Christmas list

16. Driving around to see the Christmas lights

17. Wrapping presents (usually on Christmas Eve)

18. Putting out cookies, carrots & milk for Santa and his reindeer

19. Sneaking in to place the gifts from Santa on the end of the bed on Christmas Eve

20. Christmas morning

21. Gift giving

22. Christmas dinner

23. Relaxing on Boxing Day  

The team at nestling.

10 naughty but nice Christmas treats for kids (and mums & dads!)

I know it's a cliche but it is beginning to look a lot like Christmas. With a month to go it is almost unavoidable. Most shops have been ramping up the Christmas displays, toy sales and general hype for weeks now. The Christmas parade has come and gone, there are not many days of school left and Santa is getting a real workout dashing from one shopping centre to the next!

So, it is time to embrace the festive season and what better way to do that than by sharing some fabulous Christmas recipes? These creations have been gathered from a variety of sources and I have not tried them all so cannot personally vouch for them, but they look absolutely magnificent. This list celebrates the decadence and fun of this time of year and is definitely not recommended for everyday cooking.

1. Christmas cake pops

My definition of Christmas on a stick. Children will love this one.

2. Cheerios Christmas trees

An interesting choice for Christmas breakfast - fun and even slightly healthy.

3. Wholewheat sugar cookies

There, I managed to include something slightly healthy but completely yummy.

Photo: Yunhee Kim

4. Chocolate raspberry pavlova

Very patriotic as pavlova is the Australian dessert and what could be better than adding chocolate and raspberries?

5. Christmas chocolate coconut balls

The kids can definitely help to make these and they can be packaged up as home-made Christmas gifts.

Photo: Dani Venn

6. Chocolate, cranberry and nut bread

Not too sweet but still a great Christmassy taste, and it will keep well - if there's any left!

7. Strawberry shortcake

Yum! Just explain to your little girls that they are not actually eating the Strawberry Shortcake...

8. Cheese stars

Children will love to help with making these, especially when it comes to using the cookie cutter.

9. Reindeer marshmallow pops

I love these - and they look so easy. Child's play!

10. Mini gingerbread house

This looks absolutely fantastic, so hopefully one of my friends will make one so I can try it. After my last gingerbread house effort I think I'll pass on this complex recipe, but good luck to you if you give it a go. I'd love to see a photo.

Happy cooking (and eating) with your family and friends and remember it is only once a year.

The team at nestling.

Hip hip hooray!!

This week we are celebrating nestling's first birthday!! We can't believe that it has been a year since we opened our virtual doors. It has been so busy that the last twelve months are a bit of a blur.

As we are in a party mood we decided to highlight some of our favourite nestling party outfits - with Christmas just around the corner we hope they will come in very handy. 

For the girls we have beautiful dresses from a range of popular and exclusive brands. There are stylish party dresses from Megan Park Girl, One Red Fly, Tahlia byMinihaha, and Willow & Finn; and fabulously fun designs from Paper Wings and Hootkid. 

Megan Park Girl

One Red Fly

Willow & Finn

Hootkid

There are some gorgeous choices for baby girls from Bebe by Minihaha, Little Wings and Purebaby.

Little Wings

Purebaby

Bebe by Minihaha

Boys are well catered for by Andy & Evan, Bebe by Minihaha, Fox & Finch, Purebaby and Sierra Julian. With some more casual styles available from Broken Tricycle, Hootkid, Milky, Paper Wings and Rhubarb.

Broken Tricycle

Andy & Evan

Purebaby

Hootkid

We have also recently received our latest range of Huckleberry Lane sleepwear for girls and boys, as well as our Acorn sunhats, both of which make fabulous Christmas presents.

Huckleberry Lane

Huckleberry Lane

Acorn

Come and celebrate our birthday with us! Look out for our special birthday offers later this week.

We look forward to bringing you a lot more beautiful clothes over the coming year.

The team at nestling.

The ghost of Christmas creative disasters past...

A couple of years ago gingerbread houses seemed to be all the rage. Some of the other mothers at my child's school were buying beautiful ones from the local delicatessen, either for their own tables or as gifts, and for some inexplicable reason I decided I would have a go at making one. I have never been an "arty" or particularly creative person and I really admire people who are, so I thought I would take the easy way out and get a gingerbread house kit. How hard could that be?

I couldn't believe my eyes when I opened the kit and saw how many pieces were involved. Then came the fiddly part of actually sticking it all together with icing that seemed to be rapidly drying. I splashed icing on each piece as fast as I could and squished them together, while grabbing another bit and lathering that in icing so that I would have something to hold the first two pieces together. So, it went on until I had the basic shape of a house (and I do mean "basic").

From there it just needed decorating. Simple, right? Wrong! Not only did all of the little baubles, candy canes and wreaths need to be glued on with icing, but I also had to drizzle the roof with icing to make it look like snow.

Finally, stressed to the max and in a state of exhaustion, it was finished. I felt a wonderful sense of achievement and savoured the moment ..... for about 30 seconds until I noticed everything was starting to slide! The carefully drawn windows on each side were just weird looking smudges of icing, the walls were starting to splay, the roof was coming apart and the wreath was slipping!

I quickly fixed what I could and whisked the whole thing downstairs to the laundry (the coolest room in the house) where it sat in shame, waiting for Christmas Day. Over the next 24 hours (when I wasn't shopping or wrapping presents), each time I went downstairs for something I had to "redecorate" my gingerbread house.

Of course it went down a treat on Christmas Day and my family, who realised what an achievement this creation (despite its flaws) was for me, were very supportive. However the ghost of Christmas gingerbread houses past still haunts me and I can't see us having a homemade gingerbread house again in our house for a very long time!

I have seen a great meringue and strawberry Santa cake around this year - hmmm, maybe..... how hard could it be??

The team at nestling.