When you're looking at free and frugal ways to decorate for Christmas, reuse and recreate! Use old decorations or household items in new ways, or recreate natural finds into simple Christmas decorations.
Reuse Christmas Decorations
Hold a decoration swap with your friends. If those giant Nutcracker ornaments or oversized reindeer aren’t your thing, perhaps someone else will snap them up. Ask friends and relatives who are downsizing for castoffs. When all else fails, thrift stores and groups like Freecycle and Craigslist have an abundance of free decorations. As always, be on the lookout for broken parts or potentially hazardous substances, like lead in candle wicks.
Use Household Items
If you turn a creative eye on what your home already holds, you’ll likely find that your list of Christmas decorating ideas expands and your shopping list contracts. You don’t need to buy pretend snow for a winter feel. Stuffing from an old pillow can do the job just as well. Old Christmas bags can become tree ornaments or garlands. Create a vintage-look garland using circles from old Christmas cards, placed into the middle of white paper snowflakes and strung on a piece of ribbon.
Decorate with Natural Materials
Nature is the most beautiful, most lush, and most minimalist of decorators, all at the same time. Branches can adorn staircases, be gathered into a hanging decoration, become a homemade wreath, line a basket, or simply become a beautiful, seasonal bouquet. Dip cones in melted wax and gather them in a basket for a simple fireside basket of coloured fire starters. Children love decorating cones with glitter to hang on the tree. Cones also make wonderful bird feeders.
Create edible decorations
Save time and money by making decorations that you can eat! Popcorn garlands are an old standby, but they continue to be fun and edible. Cinnamon sticks can be bundled together and tied with a ribbon to become simple decorations. Later, they are good for stirring mulled cider. Gingerbread is a lovely centerpiece, gift, or even a tree ornament if you make it with enough flour.
Go for Elegant Simplicity or Shabby Chic
Choose a theme and get creative. You might decide to go minimalist, with plain candles, glitter, and a bed of fluffy snow. A bowl, some water, and floating white candles on a bed of found branches makes a stunning and simple centerpiece. For more a shabby chic look, collect thrift store baubles in a decorated bowl or a basket and cluster them in a corner, perhaps on a weathered chair.
Collect Christmas Castoffs
After the season is over, people don’t necessarily want to put away their old decorations. Stores frantically try to dispose of extra merchandise. Now is the time to offer to remove decorations that people don’t want. Add them to your collection for next year, and come Christmas time you’ll have a surprise when you open your decorations.
Christmas is a time to enjoy home and family. Getting frugal and finding and creating simple Christmas decorations is a way to adorn your home without breaking your budget.
Sources
- Daily Danny: Hints from Green Living Expert Danny Seo
- Martha Stewart Living: Light Up a Table with Floating Candles
 |
