Julie’s Cinderella Christmas

Julie’s Cinderella Christmas

Cinderella Christmas

A Dream is a Wish your Heart makes…….

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Welcome to Julie’s Cinderella Christmas

Merry Christmas!

It is so nice of you to join me.

I wanted to do something new and different for Christmas instead of the normal red and green color scheme that most everyone uses.  I also wanted to center my Christmas celebration around a favorite childhood memory.  A happy fantasy type Christmas that was big and over the top that only America knows how to do best.

Hence, Julie’s Cinderella Christmas

(It’s funny how just wearing a tiara transforms me into a different person.  All of a sudden my posture straightens  and I feel a bit more special.)

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The story of Cinderella has always intrigued me ever since I was a child. 

Cinderella and her Carriage

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Also see Julie’s Cinderella Sequel for More Cinderella

Click Here For:  Julie’s Cinderella Sequel

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Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother Christmas Tree

How about a fairy godmother Christmas tree?

A Beautiful Bird Accent

Gifts For a Princess Underneath the Fairy Godmother Tree

How Lovely!  What Little Girl Would Not Want This?

The beautiful accents of Cinderella, Prince Charming, the clock and the horse and carriage are vintage wall plaques that would hang on the wall of a nursery.

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We live in Florida outside of Orlando and visit the Disney parks quite frequently so all the fantasy of fairy tales are with us much more than the average. 

I love all the Disney princesses but Cinderella, and Snow White are my favorites.

I grew up with stories of Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel, Thumbelina….

All the Princess’s were Invited to our Christmas

This year I wanted to pay my homage to the ultimate heroin.  Oh, she had no magical powers or special talents, but what she did have was the personality to survive her circumstances and go on to thrive in the world and find her own happiness.

Cinderella was Sweet as Sugar

What she had was goodness and kindness.  She is a survivor.  She didn’t go on to become some successful CEO of a company but she found true love and happiness which actually does elude quite a few in life.  She was an animal lover, a humanitarian, she was charitable, and if I dare say, she probably went on to become a ‘goodwill ambassador’ representing her kingdom.  Perhaps the ‘Princess Diana’ of her time.

Cinderella

Cinderella remains very sweet and nice despite her circumstances.  She finds happiness around her and has learned to entertain herself.  She finds friendships with the animals in the house and outdoors.  She makes the best of her world.  Her cruel step-mother and step-sisters are very hard on Cinderella and sometimes they do reduce her to tears but they do not break her.  Her spirit thrives.

Cinderella with Prince Charming

at the Ball

Cinderella did not win the lottery, Cinderella made the lottery come to her.

My Cinderella Record Album

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The Story of Cinderella

Once Upon a Time…..

Actually, my book starts off,

“Near the fair city of Paris there once lived a gentleman whose wife had died, leaving him to care for their little daughter, Ella.”

My childhood book above, The Tasha Tudor Book of Fairy Tales, in this book is just one of many versions of Cinderella ever written.  This one is based on the original by Charles Perrault.  In this story the ball lasts two nights and the fairy godmother uses 6 lizards as the footmen.

No one really knows where the original version of Cinderella came from.  Every country seems to have their own.  In some of the stories Cinderella’s father has died, in others he is just absent and in others he is there but does not care about Cinderella, he is neglectful.  In my story above he is alive but is never mentioned other than to say that Cinderella dared not complain to her father about her mistreatment by her stepmother and stepsisters.

In some versions the ‘fairy godmother’ is the ghost of Cinderella’s dead mother who is looking out for her.

In my version Cinderella is French.

(I have written my childhood Cinderella version below if you would like to read it.)

(I think that the reason there are so many versions of this story worldwide is because how Cinderella was treated was probably pretty similar to how most young women were treated.)

My Christmas Fairy Godmother

The back story on my ‘fairy godmother’ is this is our ghost that Gordon and I made for Halloween out of chicken wire.  I had draped material all around her while Gordon rigged up an attachment so that our ‘ghost’ could hold a Halloween mask.  I thought it would be cool to change things a bit and add some lights inside of the ‘ghost’ making her more magical looking and then adding a magic wand to the attachment.

Bibbity Bobitty Boop!

(Incidentally, in my attempt to transform our ‘ghost’ into my ‘fairy godmother’ I had to crawl inside of it, she’s quite tall by the way, I had to crawl into the mass of chicken wire where I scratched myself so many times on my arms and legs.  I BLED for this project!  Once I got out alive and I plugged the lights into the socket only the lights at the bottom of my ‘fairy godmother’ were working.  Half the strand that is located at the top of her won’t light up.  At first I was a bit upset by it thinking that I would have to crawl back inside and remove them all and start over.  But then I noticed at how magical it looked that only the ones at the bottom were lit up.  It looked as if she were conjuring up a spell.  So this turned out to be a happy mistake.)

Bibbity Bobbity Boop for Beginners

Always a princess, never a queen.

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My Cinderella Table

It looks beautiful, doesn’t it?

Oh no!  It’s Midnight!

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs with Cinderella

I’m always on the lookout for vintage and antique beauties for my collections.

I grew up with these beautiful women and their stories, they are as familiar to me as my children are.

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Cinderella’s Color Scheme, Blue and White

My Christmas Cinderella Table

With my Magical ‘Fairy Godmother’

This was my inspiration.

My Cinderella Christmas Gifts Under the Tree

Cinderella with her fairy godmother.

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Our Magic Kingdom Christmas, To view post….

Click Here for:  Magic Kingdom Christmas

Cinderella’s Castle at Walt Disney World’s

Magic Kingdom

One reason that I wanted to go to the Magic Kingdom this past Thanksgiving was because I knew that I would be doing a Cinderella Christmas and I wanted to get into the spirit of things.  Look for a few special souvenirs that I can only find at Disney.  Take lots of photos.  Also to just experience the fairy tale in the happiest place on Earth.

The Grand Balcony

of Cinderella’s Castle

There is just something so special about seeing Cinderella’s Castle at Christmas.

So very beautiful! 

The castle is actually fashioned after an old castle in Germany.

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Vesele Vanoce!

(Merry Christmas in Czech)

My Niece Vivien From Ireland

She is part American and part Czech, and we ADORE Her!

Merry Christmas, Vivien

My niece Vivien, Princess in Training

Sweets for a Sweet

I also wanted to introduce my niece to Cinderella and Disney.

Is it really necessary to remove the cardboard from the tiara?  🙂  I don’t think so.

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Cinderella Gifts

What better gift of a Cinderella Christmas but the Cinderella movie?

How about the movie with a lovely fur (fake) stole, gloves and perhaps a glass slipper shaped cookie?

Cinderella Cupcakes and Cinderella Appetizers

Beautiful Carriage Cocktail Picks

(This is actually a vintage planter I found at an antique mall.)

Perfect Little Dainty Appetizers

To view our Cinderella Party Foods…..

Click Here For:  Cinderella Party Foods

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To view our Cinderella Bedtime Story…

Click Here for:  Cinderella Bedtime Story

My mother gave me this book when I was a child and then she re-gave it to me earlier this year when she was cleaning out some things in her house.  It’s amazing how the memories come flooding back to you.

My book even has my childhood doodles in it.

Rapunzel, and Sleeping Beauty

Look at the beautiful illustrations in this book!  Tasha Tudor was one of the world’s foremost illustrators of her day.  This book was published in 1961, the year I was born.

I will treasure it forever and pass it on to my daughter for her children to read and enjoy.  There is nothing like the classics to transform us back to that feeling of magic and wonder and there is nothing like Cinderella, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty to give us all hope that there is a light at the end of that tunnel for those girls that are in similar situations.

My wish for all of you is that you find your own happiness.

The End

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p.s.  Cookie anyone?

Belle and Cindy

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My Disney Princess Christmas Tree

I decorated with all my Disney Princess tree ornaments and even the snow globes that I made using vintage figurines.

I added a silvery grey skirt around the base of the urn.

Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora as Sleeping Beauty

Some of my Vintage Snow Globes

A Cinderella Tiara Around the Urn

Close up of the Tiara

All the Lovely Princesses

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Beautiful Cinderella’s Castle

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Cinderella’s Castle at Night

Just Magnificent

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There is nothing like Christmas at Disney

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Christmas Eve

Holiday Appetizers

(Served before midnight.)

(With Cinderella’s Castle in mind I created this Christmas Eve table for adults.)

Coffee Martinis

I originally wanted to make Espresso martinis but I realized that it would take me forever to brew that many espressos so I decided to just brew a big pot of Kona coffee, it was much easier and better tasting.

To me the Kona coffee is the best in the world, grown in Kailua-Kona on the Big Island of Hawaii.  These martinis are actually quite delicious.  Just brew a big pot of strong coffee, add some Kahlua and some Vodka in 3 equal parts.

Our Festive Blue Light Table

Turkey sausage balls, Asian chicken cocktail sausages, various nuts, crackers and cheeses…….

I thought the table was looking pretty plain and that is when I got the idea to add lights all over it.  Everyone liked it!

Everyone Helping Themselves

Drunken Devils on Horseback

It’s just not Christmas Eve anymore without Nigella’s Drunken Devils on Horseback.  Gordon and I have since expanded them to include dates and figs as well as pitted prunes.  The recipe calls for you to soak pitted prunes in Brandy overnight and then wrap them in bacon and place in the oven to cook for about 20 minutes until the bacon crisps up a bit.

SUPERB!!!!

Gordon came up with the idea to use dates and figs as well as the prunes.  Hey, I only eat bacon about twice a year and this is one of those days so I did treat myself.

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Don’t forget the cheese!

Excellent!

We tend to eat more white cheeses as opposed to the yellow ones as the white ones have less cholesterol.  You know that Cinderella would only be interested in healthy eating.  🙂

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Christmas Eve

Time for a Bedtime Story

Let’s see, how about……..

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Cinderella

Based on the original by Charles Perrault

Near the fair city of Paris there once lived a gentleman whose wife had died, leaving him to care for their little daughter, Ella.  I cannot bring up the child all by myself, he thought.  And so he married again.  But what a horrible stepmother to Ella this second wife turned out to be!  She was a proud, disagreeable woman, and her two daughters were as disagreeable as their mother.  Charlotte and Henriette, for those were their names, were lazy and rude, and Ella had to wait on them besides keeping house.  From dawn to dark she mopped the floors and scoured the pots and swept the ashes from the hearth.  At night she slept on a hard straw bed in the attic, while her two sisters lay on mattresses of swansdown in gilded bedrooms hung with mirrors and silken draperies.

     Ella did not dare to complain to her father, but often she would sit weeping in the chimney corner among the cinders.  And so she was called Cinderella.  But the ragged clothes and streaks of dirt could not hide her lovely face or her gentle manners.

     Several years passed, and then the King’s son sent word throughout the kingdom that he was giving a grand ball.  Among those invited were Cinderella’s two stepsisters.

     At once they began to strut before their mirrors, admiring themselves and planning what they should wear.  Bright velvet gowns and ruffled petticoats, and yards of the finest lace and ribbons were strewn around their rooms.  They kept Cinderella busy day and night running errands to the shops, starching and pressing their petticoats, and sewing the ribbons and lace on their overskirts.

     The night of the ball came at last.  Cinderella deftly arranged their hair and helped them into their beautiful dresses, but she sighed to think that she must stay at home.

Charlotte, the younger, heard her and said, “I’m sure you wish that you too could go the Prince’s ball, Cinderella.”

     Henriette laughed loudly.  “It would certainly make people laugh to see our dirty Cinderwench at the ball!”

     Cinderella said nothing.  She was as good as she was fair, and she waved and smiled bravely when her two stepsisters climbed into the coach that carried them to the ball.

     Cinderella waited until they had drove away, and then rushed to her chimney corner and wept and wept.  Suddenly she heard a faint sound.  She opened her eyes and there in a blaze of rosy light stood a sweet faced tiny old lady.

     “Don’t cry any more, Cinderella,” said the lady.  “I am your fairy godmother, and since you want to go to the ball so very much, you shall go in a manner fit for a Princess.  Dry your eyes now and run into the back garden.  You will find a pumpkin growing there.  Bring it to me, and hurry, for there is no time to be lost!”

     Cinderella ran into the dark garden and brought back the pumpkin.  Her fairy godmother scooped out the inside, leaving the rind.  Then she touched the pumpkin lightly with her wand and at once it turned into the most beautiful golden coach you have ever seen.

     “Now fetch me the mousetrap from the pantry,” said her godmother.  Cinderella did as she was told, and there in the trap sat six mice, which her fairy godmother tuned into a team of six prancing white houses.

     Cinderella clapped her hands for joy.  “Perhaps there is a rat in the rattrap,” she said, “and we can make a coachman of him.”

     Sure enough, when Cinderella brought the rattrap, there sat a huge rat with fine whiskers.  The fairy released him and touched him with her wand and he at once turned into a fat coachman with a fine moustache.

Then the godmother said, “You will need footmen.  Go into the garden and you will find six lizards near the well.  Bring them to me.”

     Cinderella brought the lizards, and in a wink the magic wand had turned them into six footmen in green and gold livery, who climbed nimbly up to their places on the coach.

     Cinderella gazed happily at the coach and horses but then her face fell.  “What is the matter?  Aren’t you pleased with the fine coach which will take you to the Prince’s ball?”  asked the fairy godmother.

     “Yes, it’s beautiful!  But how can I go in these rags?”  asked Cinderella.

     “We will soon change all that,” said the fairy godmother.  She touched Cinderella with her wand and Cinderella turned into a real Princess, from the tips of the snowy ostrich plumes in her powdered hair, to her glass slippers that sparkled like diamonds.  Her gown was made of the finest satin and embroidered with jewels and lace.

     “Now go and be happy as you deserve,” said the godmother.  “But I warn you that you must leave the ball before midnight.  If you are even one moment late you will find yourself again in rags, and you will have to walk home, for your coach will again be a pumpkin, your horses mice, your coachman a rat, and your footmen lizards.”

     Cinderella kissed her godmother and promised to remember her warning.  When she arrived at the ball, so beautiful did she appear to the Prince that he could not take his eyes from her, and all the ladies and gentlemen of the court praised her beauty and grace, and admired her beautiful gown.

At the Ball

     The King himself whispered to the Queen that he had never seen such a lovely maiden.  “She has such grace and manners!  I’m sure she is a royal Princess,” the Queen whispered back.

     The Prince danced every dance with Cinderella, and during the feast which followed he never left her side, so enchanted was he by her beauty.

The Royal Feast

     Cinderella, in her joy, shared with her sisters, who were sitting near her, the choicest cakes and fruits on her plate.

Of course they did not recognize the lovely stranger.

     When she heard the clock strike a quarter to twelve, Cinderella said good night to all the company and hurried away.  She reached home safely, and looked for her godmother to thank her, but she had vanished.  Soon her stepsisters came in.  Cinderella pretended she had been asleep, and greeted them with a yawn.  “How late you have stayed!”  she said.

Don’t forget Cinderella.  Midnight!

     “Ah, if you had been at the ball,” answered Charlotte, “you too would have stayed late.  What music!  What delicious food!  What a handsome Prince!  But that is not all.  There came to the ball the most enchanting creature we have ever seen.  She is a royal Princess.  There can be no doubt of that.  How beautiful she was!  And her dress!  It was made of the finest satin and sparkled with diamonds.  To both of us she showed the most marked attention.  Everyone noticed it, even the Prince.”

     “What was the name of this lovely Princess?”  Asked Cinderella.

     “We do not know.  Nor does anybody, not even the Prince himself.  But they say he would give half his kingdom to see her again.”

     At this, Cinderella’s heart leaped for joy, for she had fallen in love with the handsome Prince.  “She must have been beautiful,” she said to her sisters.  “How fortunate you both were to see her!  Perhaps I could borrow your old yellow gown, Henriette, and go to see her for myself.”

     Her stepsister laughed scornfully.  “What?  Do you really think that a Cinderwench like you would be admitted to the Prince’s ball?  A pretty picture you would be!

Besides, I would never lend you my yellow gown, or any other clothes, until I have quite worn them out.”

     Cinderella smiled to herself.  She had been jesting, for she certainly did not want to appear at the ball in Henriette’s old yellow gown.

     The following night the two stepsisters again went to the ball, and again Cinderella helped them dress and watched them drive away, wondering if she would be able to follow them to the ball later on.

     No sooner than the coach departed than the fairy godmother appeared.  As on the evening before she changed the pumpkin to a gilded coach, the mice to horses, the rat to a handsome coachman, the lizards to footmen, and Cinderella’s rags to a gown even more magnificent than the one she had worn before.  And again she warned her about the midnight hour.  Cinderella promised not to forget.

     This time the Prince danced every dance with her.  He told her over and over again how beautiful she was and begged her to tell him her name.  She refused to do this.  But she was enjoying herself so much that she did not remember her godmother’s warning until she heard the palace clock begin to strike twelve.

     In alarm she hastily left the astonished prince, and ran through the long halls of the palace and out into the night.  As she ran down the steps, one of her glass slippers came off and was left behind.  The Prince, in trying to overtake her, came upon the little glass slipper and picked it up most carefully.  He asked the guards whether they had seen a lovely Princess leaving the palace, but they only shook their heads.  No one had passed, they said, but a young girl dressed in rags.

     Cinderella, very tired and out of breath, reached home with the other glass slipper hidden in her pocket.  When the two stepsisters returned from the ball, she asked them if the Princess had been there.

“Yes, they replied, she had been there and the Prince had danced only with her.  But as the clock struck twelve she had left suddenly, and in such haste that one of her dainty glass slippers had fallen off onto the marble steps.  The Prince, they said, had found the slipper and had spent some time looking for its owner and questioning the guards and gatekeeper, but the lovely stranger had vanished.

     Cinderella wished that she might see the Prince again, but she knew that was impossible without her fairy godmother, who was probably angry with her for not heeding her warning.

     A few days later it was proclaimed that the Prince would marry the girl upon whose foot the glass slipper fitted perfectly.  What a stir there was in the land!  First the Princesses, then the Duchesses and ladies of the Court, and then the ladies of wealth and position each tried to force her foot into the dainty slipper.  But it was too tiny for all of them.

     Finally, the messengers knocked at the door of Cinderella’s house.  The two stepsisters both tried to squeeze their feet into the tiny slipper, but it was far too small for them.  Cinderella, who was standing beside them said, “May I try?  Perhaps it would fit me.”

     The sisters shouted with laughter.  But the royal messenger had noticed Cinderella’s beauty, and courteously asked her to sit down while he tried the slipper on her foot.  It fitted her as though made of wax!  The sisters were too astonished to speak, but even more surprised were they when Cinderella took from her picket the matching slipper and slipped it easily on her other tiny foot.

     Suddenly the fairy godmother stood in their midst.  She waved her wand and immediately Cinderella became the enchanting Princess who had been at the ball, dressed even more beautifully than before.  And now the two stepsisters fell on their knees, begging her forgiveness for their meanness and cruelty to her.

Cinderella bade them rise and embraced them both, saying she forgave them gladly, and begging them to love her always.

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( I, Julie, have a real problem with that paragraph above.  Although I believe in forgiveness and moving on with your life.  I don’t think we need to include those people in our lives who have done such damage to us.  My motto is to forgive, then wish them well and say goodbye.)

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    In Conclusion…….

When the Prince saw her he fell more in love with her than ever.

So they were married and lived happily ever after.

La Fin

(The End)

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 “No matter how your heart is beating, may you keep on believing, a dream that you wish, will come true.”

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Cinderella New Year’s Eve

I call this my Cinderella New Year’s Eve because I wanted to continue my Cinderella Christmas theme into my New Year’s celebration.

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Pretty Wine Bottle Craft

As I said I wanted to carry over my Cinderella theme into my New Year’s so I came up with this idea.

I wanted something pretty and blingy for this.  I had this rhinestone looking craft ribbon and decided to just hot glue it all around an old empty wine bottle that I had in the garage.  I left the pink foil around the top of one of my bottles.

Add some pretty bottle stoppers and you have a lovely bottle to fill with whatever you would like, or to give as a nice gift.

Happy New Year

2015

Here’s wishing all of us a fairy tale year of hope and happiness. 

You know, we can create our own happiness and luck without waiting around for some magical being to do it for us. 

“A dream that you wish, will come true.”

Fountains do Make Dreams Come True

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Have a Very Merry Christmas

and a

Wonderful New Year,

Julie

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Here is a list of our other Cinderella posts:

Click Here For:  Julie’s Cinderella Sequel

AND,

Click Here For:  Magic Kingdom Christmas

AND,

Click Here For:  Cinderella Bedtime Story

AND,

Click Here For:  Cinderella Party Foods

AND,

Click Here For:  Julie’s Cinderella Birthday

AND,

Click Here For:  Diana, Kate, Meghan, and Me!

I’m sending you the Royal Wave of Farewell,

Julie