Howcast

How to Turn Your House into a Winter Wonderland

Howcast — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 10:31:20 +0000

Instructions

Step 1: Set up a tree Spray a Christmas tree with fake snow, and string clear lights around it. Decorate the tree with white, glass, and silver ornaments, icicles, and snowflakes. Add garlands of white, silver, or pale blue ribbon.
Step 2: Bring the tree to life Bring the tree to life by putting decorative red berries, birds, and bird nests in the branches.
TIP: Add additional Christmas trees around your house to make an enchanted forest.
Step 3: Decorate the table Lay a white tablecloth across your table, and add small decorations like doves, silver bells, or pine cones. Add light with white or silver candles in candle holders, and spray the holders with crystal frost.
TIP: Invest in a nice centerpiece for the table that can be used year after year.
Step 4: Cover the walls Cover the walls of your house with a snowflake gossamer.
Step 5: Add greenery Use green garland as curtain tie-backs, draping it on the tops of windows and across the table.
Step 6: Wrap boxes Wrap empty boxes with white paper and coordinating color ribbons and place them around your house.
Step 7: Greet your guests Place a cutout snowman by the door of your house to greet your guests and welcome them into your winter wonderland.
FACT: With a selection of over 50,000 trims and gifts, Bronner’s in Frankenmuth, Michigan, is the world’s largest Christmas store.

You Will Need

Christmas tree
Cans of spray snow
Clear Christmas lights
White
glass
and silver ornaments
Various winter decorations
Silver bells
Pine cones
Silver or white candles
Candle holders
Crystal frost
Snowflake gossamer
Empty boxes
White wrapping paper
Ribbon

How to Turn Your Yard into a Winter Wonderland

Howcast — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 10:47:02 +0000

Instructions

Step 1: Create a snow family Create snowmen complete with hats, carrots and button eyes shaped in an attitude of welcome. Turn them into a choir clustered around one another with painted wooden cards meant to look like sheet music, as if singing to the neighbors.
Step 2: Trim the home in lights Trim the home in lights. Line the driveway and porch with brightly wrapped over-sized packages, candy canes, and wooden soldiers. Run bright, cheery, wide ribbon over the snow-covered shrubs.
Step 3: Decorate windows Decorate windows with spray frost effects or bright happy phrases, stickers, or faces. Place candles in each window that shimmer on the snow at night.
Step 4: Transform the yard Transform the yard into a winter wonderland by erecting an inflatable Santa and animated reindeer with lights. Dramatize the scene with floodlights.
Step 5: Festoon the trees Festoon the trees, bushes, and hedges with lights. Add berries or pine cones and evergreen wreaths with bright bows on the door or a fence.
TIP: During the spring, add garden plants such as dogwoods, holly, or hemlocks to start building a winter landscape look later that year.
Step 6: Save yard brush to decorate Save and use yard bushes, tree branches, and ornamental grasses, along with dried heather or cone flowers. They enhance the front of the house during the winter. Vary the colors, shapes, and textures to create interest.
Step 7: Flood the yard Flood the backyard and make a skating rink for family and friends to enjoy. Pipe in music and invite friends and family over to add to the festive spirit of the season.
FACT: The ancient Mesopotamians held a 12-day festival on the Winter Solstice to honor the god Marduk ‘s conquest of the monsters of chaos.

You Will Need

Snowmen
Painted wooden cards
Lights
Wrapped boxes
Ribbon
Candy canes
Wooden soldiers
Spray frost
Santa and reindeer
Pinecones
Homemade ice rink

How to Celebrate the Winter Solstice

Howcast — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 14:31:11 +0000

Instructions

Step 1: Have goat Serve goat meat. In classical Greece, the sacrificed goat represented the harvest god.
TIP: In even earlier times, a man was sacrificed on the winter solstice.
Step 2: Throw a party Throw a party. During the Roman Empire, the Saturnalian festival coincided with the winter solstice.
Step 3: Plant some trees Plant some elderberry and birch trees. The ancient Druids believed these trees grew at the entrance to the underworld, to which the sun god journeyed at the time of the solstice.
Step 4: Tell stories and eat pomegranates Tell stories and eat pomegranates. This is how the early Zoroastrians celebrated the solstice in Persia.
Step 5: Catch a rabbit Catch a rabbit. The Hopi Native American tribe celebrated the winter solstice with a 20-day ceremony that included rabbit hunts. Not into hunting? That’s OK — the solstice is a time for celebrating, so no matter what your tradition, don’t forget to have fun!
FACT: The Northern Hemisphere’s winter solstice occurs when the top half of the Earth tilts away from the Sun at the maximum angle of 23.5 degrees.

You Will Need

Goat
Party
Elderberry and birch trees
Pomegranates
Rabbit

How to Ice Skate

Howcast — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 08:01:37 +0000

Instructions

: Skate only in areas that have been approved as ice-skating rinks.
Step 1: Practice falling Practice falling with your skates on. Tuck in your arms, land on your rear, get up on your hands and knees, and place your feet underneath you one at a time.
TIP: Practice falls onto the ground before entering the rink.
Step 2: Learn how to stop Practice stopping techniques while standing still. Drag one foot behind the other at a 45-degree angle, and shift your weight to the back skate to stop.
Step 3: Stand and relax Once you’re on the ice, stand with your feet six inches apart, toes straight ahead, knees slightly bent, arms out at your sides, eyes forward, and your weight evenly distributed between your skates.
Step 4: Glide Turn your right foot to the two o’clock position and your left foot to the ten o’clock position. Keep your weight evenly distributed and glide, keeping both skates on the ice.
Step 5: Shift your weight Shift your weight from one skate to the other once you feel more confident.
Step 6: Practice the one-foot glide Lift the skate opposite to the one your weight is on slightly off the ground. Keep practicing this technique and you will soon master the beginning steps of ice skating.
FACT: Did you know? Figure skating was officially a summer Olympic sport in 1908.

You Will Need

An ice rink
Padded pants
Ice skates
Patience

How to Make Snow Angels

Howcast — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 12:46:51 +0000

Instructions

Step 1: Pick a spot Pick a clear spot in the snow as tall as your body and as wide as your outstretched arms.
TIP: Fresh powder works best—make a snow angel right after a storm, when the snow is untouched.
Step 2: Fall backward Carefully fall backward onto the snow with your arms outstretched.
Step 3: Move your arms and legs Move your arms and legs back and forth, like you’re doing jumping jacks.
Step 4: Press your head Press your head back enough to make a clear indentation.
Step 5: Get up Get up carefully so you don’t wreck your masterpiece. For best results, have a friend help you up.
FACT: In 2002, 1,791 people in Bismarck, North Dakota, made snow angels on the state capitol grounds.

You Will Need

Snow
Waterproof clothes
A hat
And gloves or mittens
A friend

How to Have a Snowball Fight

Howcast — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 18:15:40 +0000

Instructions

: Snowballs can be hard or full of ice and in many cases very damaging upon impact. Avoid getting hit in the face.
Step 1: Find good snow Find some snow that can be made into good, sturdy snowballs. Wet snow is best.
Step 2: Form a snowball Form a snowball by grabbing a bunch of snow in your two hands and squeezing it together to form a ball. Round the edges off to form a good 3-inch diameter sphere.
TIP: A little heat will help melt the snow into a firm ball, so breathe into your hands as you form them.
Step 3: Make several snowballs Make a bunch of snowballs. Stockpile them near you or in a fort.
TIP: Snowballs made with ice, rocks, and other hard objects are considered very unsportsmanlike and can be incredibly dangerous.
Step 4: Find your target Find your target. Throw a snowball at them when they least expect it. The element of surprise is crucial, especially if they’re bigger or can throw harder.
Step 5: Continue attacking Keep throwing to disorient your opponent and to make a counter-strike difficult to execute.
TIP: Don’t completely deplete your arsenal before making new snowballs, or else you will be vulnerable to attack.
Step 6: Don’t stop until they give up Continue until your opponent lies broken before you, or at least mildly irritated.
FACT: 3,745 students of Michigan Technological University set the world record for the largest snowball fight on February 10, 2006.

You Will Need

Winter clothing
Ample packable snow
At least one other person
Snow fort
or something to hide behind like a statue or garbage can

How to Make a Snowman

Howcast — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 10:45:54 +0000

Instructions

Step 1: Let snow settle Wait for the snow to settle. It should be packing snow, not fresh powder.
TIP: If you can make a decent snowball that stays intact in flight, the snow is ready.
Step 2: Form snow into ball Using gloved hands, gather snow and form it into a ball. Continue adding snow to the ball until it is too large to hold.
Step 3: Roll snowball Slowly roll the snowball away from you, letting snow accumulate on the outside of the ball. Continue packing the new snow onto the ball with your hands.
Step 4: Position base When the ball reaches the size that you want for the base, move the ball to wherever you want your snowman to stand.
Step 5: Make smaller ball Make another ball of snow and build it up like you did the first. This ball should end up slightly smaller than the first one.
Step 6: Place 2nd ball on 1st Place the second ball on top of the first.
TIP: If the second ball won’t stay on top, pack snow between the two balls—or push a long stick into the first snowball and slide the second one onto the stick.
Step 7: Create 3rd ball Create a third ball and place it on top of the first two. Now you have your basic snowman.
Step 8: Give snowman arms Give your snowman arms with sticks or branches.
Step 9: Make a face Make a face using a carrot for a nose and buttons or charcoal for the eyes and mouth.
Step 10: Customize Customize with whatever you choose to give your snowman personality.
FACT: According to the song, Frosty the Snowman had a ‘button nose,’ but many depictions of him show a carrot.

You Will Need

Snow
Warm winter clothes
Sticks and branches
A carrot
Buttons or charcoal
A little imagination