A Very Merry Wesmas Mendl's Display
Holidays historically stress me out. The only tradition I have ever sustained surrounding the holidays consists of saying “let’s do something different this year” as if every year we don’t buck some illusive tradition that doesn’t exist and replace it with pizza.
Decorating for Christmas follows a similar script for me - always feeling a bit vacant, wasteful and exhausting.
But last year I started the first tradition that sparked enough joy to actually sustain for a repeat year and hopefully, several to come: Merry Wesmas. It started with a Grand Budapest Hotel Christmas Tree adorned with DIY ornaments.
The reason supplanting Christmas with Wesmas works for me in the same way holidays resonate with most people is that Wes Anderson occupies the same escapist magical space we all allow ourselves to occupy during Christmas, even as adults.
Instead of the Christmas standards, my toolkit also features; familiar, comforting movies (The Grand Budapest Hotel, the Royal Tenenbaums, really the whole Anderson collection), music (vibey french pop from the 60s, energetic rebellion from the Kinks and orchestral interludes of Desplat) and a reason to dress your house in a whimsical costume.
So I’ve committed myself to the magic of Merry Wesmas once again, and the first display of cathartic DIY lives in my kitchen window modeled after the Mendl’s bakery in the Grand Budapest Hotel.
Let’s take a sweet retreat to the Grand Budapest Hotel
The Grand Budapest Hotel tells the story of a one-of-a-kind luxury European hotel that has since aged out of relevance but holds the story of it’s most trusted attendants - M. Gustave and Zero, the lobby boy. Grand Budapest is the most Christmas leaning of all the films and is what sparked the original Merry Wesmas last year.
Window Grazing
Mendl’s is the bakery in The Grand Budapest Hotel - maker of the beloved Courtesan au Chocolat and serves as Agatha’s workplace playing a key role later in the film helping M. Gustave and Zero plan and execute a great escape. It is modeled off Pfunds Molkerei, a 19th Century creamery in Dresden, self-prescribed as “The most beautiful Milk Shop in the world.” I wouldn’t debate this claim. My window display is a humble homage to the bakery window in the film.
Custom cuts
I recently got a Cricut Maker 3. By far, one of my favorite features is how easy it is to create removable vinyl decals. I used Cricut red smart materials removable vinyl to create my Mendl’s window letters and simply applied them as a window decal.
Now serving: Mendl’s-inspired boxes
Last year, my tree was filled with my own DIY Mendl’s-inspired bakery box ornaments. This year, I polished my digital design for these boxes and ended up offering them on Etsy. I made a higher-resolution vector image version of the file, printed as-scaled at a little over 2 inches to create an ornament or small box and as seen in the window display, also able to be scaled up to create larger boxes for display or use.
Faux Dough
I created fake treats like these miniature whipped and fruit-topped cupcakes using Crayola air-dry model magic clay. To use less clay, I shaped the cakes around left-over styrofoam I had on hand. This was my first experiment in making display cakes - using acyrilc paint, seed beads as sprinkles and a mix of Elmer’s glue and modge podge to create a glossed iced effect.
Mom’s mark
To cement the tradition even further this year, my parents happened to be visiting when I was constructing the display. My crafty mom helped me with the display adding her own touches like the blue and white striped scalloped awning made from secondhand fabric we picked up at the Austin Creative Reuse.
Go to Mendl’s and get me a courtesan au chocolat
The unassuming star of the Grand Budapest Hotel might just be the Courtesan Au Chocolat. The real baker of the family is my husband, so he has agreed to attempt the real thing over his time off work this Christmas. Until then, I made my mock-version in three layers with styrofoam centers, modeling clay for the donut-like pastry, a mix of paint and modge podge icing for each layer, lilac-painted frosted whipped pearls and recreated what I thought was a Pecan - but could also be a chocolate-covered raisin or cocoa bean based on recipes I have seen.
Hungry for more?
Stay tuned for more Merry Wesmas, this year expanding beyond just The Grand Budapest Hotel with displays from The Royal Tenenbaums to celebrate it’s 20th year on December 14th, Moonrise Kingdom and Wes Anderson’s latest film - The French Dispatch.
In the mean time:
Learn to make my festive holiday cocktail - the M. Gustave featuring Spindrift Cran-Ras and sugared Cranberries
See how easy it is to make your own Mendl’s box and get your own printable instant download on Etsy
