Now I can't claim that the experience I am about to relate was really anything at all to do with my own creativity, but I was so impressed with it that I think it is worth sharing.
I have these friends, Ronan and Lillian, who are extremely 'green', even to the point that they will not buy a real Christmas tree unless they can console themselves by planting a new tree in it's place. Hence, the bottom of their sizable country garden is a veritable forest of young pine trees. Next year they won't have to buy one at all, as the earliest one planted has just about reached the right size to adorn the living room. Anyway, I digress.

Lillian's hatred of brussel sprouts was really the inspiration for her creativity as far as tree decorations was concerned.
"Every damn Christmas the kitchen was full of the nasty little dwarf cabbages," she laughed, "And I even hated the smell of them. I don't know what made me think of the idea. Maybe it was my desire to make sure that they didn't end up on my dinner plate."
What she did was to take a dozen brussel sprouts and coated them with silver poster paint. Then using a need, she pierced the stalk and made a thread hoop. Voila! A mini-Christmas bauble. She was so impressed with her that she immediately hung them on the tree, and they weren't even noticed by her mother. Proof of their effectiveness.
"That was just the start of it." she gloated. "I began coating them with glitter to make them even more sparkly and unrecognizable. Then I thought, well if it's effective with brussel-sprouts, why not experiment with other vegetables."
Hence the invention of the 'French Bean Icicles'! They looked even better than the sprouts.
Even the carrots didn't escape her artistic transformation process. She would paint them white, sprinkle them with glitter, then stick a little picture of Santa or an Angel on them, and thread them at the tapered end, so that they hung like tear drops!
I was amazed by it all. The highlight of their decorations this year, however, was created by Ronan. He was just about to peel a potato in preparation for dinner when it struck him that it's unusual shape resembled a tubby body with a little round head on top!
"Santa Claus" he exclaimed, carrying the potato into the living room where Lillian was decorating the tree. She looked confused.
"What on earth are you talking about?"
Ronan smiled. "Oh never mind!" and he disappeared back into the kitchen. Half an hour later, he approached her again. "Santa Claus" he repeated, "Made from a single potato!"
He had hand painted it with a little red suit and a black belt around it's tummy, then added the details of a chubby smiling face. The beard was a little bit of cotton wool, and he has made a little red Santa hat from the end of a pea pod. It looked amazing.
Lillian laughed, and teased him about going into competition with her mini-craft-industry.

It occurred to me that it wouldn't take long for their living room to start to smell a bit like a garbage can, but I was wrong about that too.
"It's the paint, you see." Lillian explained. "It kind of seals the pores of the vegetables and locks all the smells inside. They do start to shrivel up a bit, but not so significantly that they won't make it through to the end of the holiday."

If you walked into their living room, you would be amazed by the beautifully decorated tree, but unless someone drew your attention to the unique decorations, you wouldn't have a clue that you were looking at a veritable vegetable market stall!

Learn more about this author, Peter Kennedy.
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