If you had a real, cut Christmas tree, or you’ve been pruning a fir tree (but NOT leylandii or yew!!), then this is a lovely project to do for adults or supervised children.
You need to cut the top whorl of the tree, which will give you the final ‘spike’ plus five or six small branches.
Next, remove the needles and bark. If the tree isn’t too dried out, you can probably peel everything off using just your fingers, or with the help of a table knife. More likely the bark is tricky to remove, as the tree will have dried out whilst it was in your house. If that’s the case, you need to put your tree-top into hot water, which softens it and makes the bark and needles easier to remove.
When you’ve taken mas much of the outside as you can, position and trim the twigs to form a whisk-shape. You’ll need to secure them by wrapping string around the bundle. It’s a bit fiddly, and it’s worth spending some time getting it how you want it!
Finally, soak the whole thing in hot water- this makes the twigs really pliable, so that they relax into the shape you’ve tied them into. When you take them out of the water and cool the whisk, the twigs will set into shape. You can then take off the string binding and it will all stay put. Or you can add a decorative binding, which will add to the look.
If there are any stray bits of bark, you can tidy it all up with some fine sand paper, then you’re all ready to whisk up your hot chocolate!
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