For Christmas last year my Mother-in-Law gave me the Book-To-Table Classics version of A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens. If you haven’t heard of Book-to-Table Classics, each book (I believe they have made A Christmas Carol and Pride and Prejudice so far) contains the full novel interspersed with recipes from celebrity chefs. Each page is also decorated with gorgeous food art. My six-year-old daughter was looking through it today (possibly for the first time) and declared that we had to go and do that, too, meaning we had to go and make food art. And off she went to the kitchen to start “cooking.” When I didn’t immediately follow she returned to the living room and told me that we were cooking now and that I needed to come. And, furthermore, “when I’m done you can write a blog post on it.”

Okay, then. Fast forward eight hours and she has completed her end of the bargain (making food art in the form of the Ghost of Christmas Present), and here am I, keeping up my end.

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As my daughter leafed through the pages of that beautiful Book-to-Table artwork she was so inspired to create herself. Every page she turned to, “or we could make that! …or that!…look at that clock!…how could we do his beard?…” I adore creativity and making things beautiful, so I loved to watch her puzzle out which options in our fridge would best fill in the gaps of her Ghost of Christmas present Food Art.

This is her first draft:

When she finished she looked at her Ghost of Christmas Present, then at the book. Then she looked at her Ghost…and to the plate… puzzling out why they didn’t quite look the same. She decided that she had forgotten the crown. Off she went to the fridge to find a substitute for…um…I actually don’t even know what they are…mint leaves and cranberries? Whoever comments with what those leaves and berries are first wins😏. But she went to find a substitute for those. And what did she decide on?

Lettuce and carrot medallions (also pictured below). Look at how she set up her little book at the end of the counter so she could look at it while she created! She’s just so cute!! We had been learning about France in geography in our homeschool earlier in the morning, and we made baguettes for dejeuner and were simultaneously creating Food Art and a French dejeuner…hence the added mess.

And now for his fur collar. Veggie dip, of course! Look how great a job she did of the crown! I’m so proud💖.

And now it’s time to eat it! Not only was it beautiful, but it was delicious, too!

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I love when kids take the initiative to do something special, and then work at it with all their heart. I also love how differently kids see things from the way adults see then. Remember how I said that she looked from her first draft to the original picture and tried to figure out what was missing? Well, when she was done, she looked at the original picture and was completely satisfied with her work. I think that when she looked at her artwork it was almost exactly the same as the picture. That just warms my heart so much.

I hope you (or your children😉) try out your own food art. If you don’t have a fancy book like us, just Google Food Art and you will be astounded by the amazing, adorable, beautiful, realistic food art that’s out there. People are so creative💕😊!