We chose shortbread dough as a base of our fir-tree. Ingredients: 300 grams of butter, 2 eggs, 4 cups of wheat flour, 1 cup of sugar, 1 small pack of natural vanilla sugar. Sift flour in a saucepan, cut chilled butter into cubes, add it to the flour. Add sugar and eggs.
Prepare decorations. Large marshmallows are the trunk of the tree. We'll also need berries of any kind, edible gel markers and fine green coconut flakes as spruce.
Let's get back to the dough. Knead it thoroughly, which is not that easy. Hard lumps of chilled butter need to be spread in the dough. To get the true crumby and lightweight shortbread, chill the dough in the fridge for 40-45 minutes prior to baking.
Roll out the dough on a baking sheet. You won't need any greasing, for the dough is greasy itself, so it won't stick to the sheet. Thickness of the dough sheet should not exceed 5 mm. Cut the dough into concentric circles – the largest, a smaller one and so on. Use plates and pans, if you don't have proper cookie cutters.
Bake the dough until it's golden brown for 30-40 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius. By the way, don't forget to cut a Christmas tree star – either with a cookie cutter or with an ordinary knife. Take the baked dough out and put the largest cookie on a plate.
Now let's decorate! You can cook the icing yourself, but we preferred a precooked option. Smear it in a ring shape onto each cookie. Leave the middle clean for the trunk! Continue the decoration process, until the icing cools down.
Dyed coconut flakes are the spruce. Sprinkle it onto the shortcakes. One small package is pretty much enough, but make sure that all parts of the tree are evenly covered with spruce.
Assemble the tree. Put marshmallows in a ringlet shape onto the largest shortcake and set a smaller one on top. You'll need less marshmallows for the rest of the trunk, and the top would sit on just one piece.
Continue the decoration. Color the star with red gel marker. Make garlands with blue and gold markers, set red currant or other berries as Christmas balls... Go for the ultimate creativity, we won't limit you at this point. And don't forget to ask kids to join you!
There you go! The tree is ready for the holiday season, hooray! We made a small table tree, but you can increase the number of layers and make it really huge. Shortbread could be stored for a week, but make sure there will be enough eaters at your house to get the tree disposed. Happy holidays and bon appetit!

Eat Me:
Eco-Friendly Christmas Tree

Our editorial holds a pretty certain position when it comes to season decorations, especially to Christmas trees. Both plastic and natural trees are pure evil for the environment. There are plenty of other eco-friendly options, which we are glad to present to you each year. This tree is deliciously disposable – either after the holidays or within them. And yes, it is edible! The recipe is available in the captions to the gallery above, and meanwhile we are to explain to all, why we don't like natural and plastic trees.

1. Natural spruce. True connoisseurs of Christmas spirit say that it's fresh spruce odor that makes a real holiday. The trees have already been cut and are now sold at Christmas markets, so what's the difference anyway? If not us, it'll be someone else who buys them, for as long as there's demand, there will be supply, right? Most trees that are sold in Moscow, Russia, are grown in other regions, like the Republic of Udmurtia and Perm Krai in the eastern part of East European Plain, by the Middle Ural Mountains. Only a small fraction of the market offer of fresh Christmas trees is grown in Moscow Region. Now, in order to provide the Muscovites with the true holiday spirit, the trees are carried in the trucks for thousands of miles, across the European part of the country. So add the fuel expenses (which are surely included in the price of the tree). How about the carbon footprint and loads of polluted air, is it really worth it? Resources like water and fertilizers are needed for growing the trees – the ones sold at Christmas markets are at least 7 or 8 years old. Now, if it's okay with you to spend a decade of nature's blood for a week of fine spruce odor in your apartment, then go for it without a single doubt!

Decorate a Christmas tree in the yard!

2. Chinese plastic miracle. Some believe that artificial Christmas trees made of plastic are a lot safer in terms of the environment. No spruce in carpets until June is also an advantage, they say. However, this traditional approach to season's jolly is neither safe nor eco-friendly, and here's why. Plastic trees are okay for three or four holiday seasons, which makes it about 6 weeks of use. Then you just throw it away and buy another one, created by Chinese economic miracle. Besides, there are two more issues. It takes about one hundred liters of water to produce one kilo of plastic. The average Christmas tree weighs about 4 or 5 kilos. Half a ton of water is a bit two much of use for six weeks, don't you find? Secondly, you'll carry the tree that has lost its looks to the nearest dump, from where it will be taken to the waste landfill, to rot there for centuries. Sounds persuasive, huh?

Plastic Christmas tree won't last forever. Or it will – at the local waste landfill