Great ‘Decorate your house for under £20’ Hunt

sunshineandsparkle

:xmastree: Make a fantastic (and free) wreath for your door!

Collect ivy - usually found wrapped around trees / sheds etc. Make sure it's clear of bugs and using cotton, form it into a circle and bind the bits into a wreath shape. Make sure it is even all the way around. You can add a red ribbon to the bottom loop of the wreath. You can also add berries or old (small) baubles for effect. Attach with old string:T .

WestonDave

Old family tradition - rather than buy loads of Christmas tree decorations, get a load of Quality Street (if you can get them loose in pick and mix its sometimes cheaper than buying a box or tin), and a reel of cotton. Ideal activity for the kids - sit and tie a thread on each sweet before putting them on the tree. The colours on the sweets make excellent decorations and once Christmas Day arrives you can spend the next few days picking a sweet off and eating it. That way when it comes to putting the tree away you've less work to do.

If you buy them loose - avoid the green triangles as there is nothing on them to tie a thread to. If you buy a box, use those as workers treats so the others don't get eaten before they reach the tree.

You'll get loads of cards (well I hope so!) so why not use them as decoration - again this can be done cheap. Get hold of some silver or gold card (can often be recycled) and a star shaped pastry cutter. Draw round the star and cut out card stars. Get some nice thread (worth spending a few quid as these will last for years) and with a large needle thread the stars onto the thread. Two small holes close together, in line, at the centre of the star works best. You'll need to work out where to put them and make strings the right length and put a knot at the bottom and a hanging loop at the top. Each string should have enough stars so that when spaced out there is room for cards between the stars.

To hang the cards you need to put the cards in so that the string goes behind the card, and the stars overlap the front of the card so they are held in place. Start at the bottom with a star against the knot, then tuck a card in behind the top of the star, with the string running behind the card. (you may find a dab of bluetak on the bottom star stops it falling forwards - its only this one where it occurs). Then slide the next star down so the bottom part comes over the front of the card, holding the card between the two stars and the string. Put the next card in above and repeat. (For those keen on getting the look right, if you have two strings next to each other, it looks better if you sort cards and match the sizes as you go up). Once Christmas is over, take the cards out and store the strings (complete with stars) for next year. My parents have ones which have been in use for years, and which we made as kids! Star shapes work well because its not critical to get them the right way up, but you could use other shapes if you want.

(Oops this got a bit long - its easier to do than explain!)

MrsTinks

I make stars out of ribbon You can't use fabic ribbon but if yo uwant huge stars then you could use florists ribbon (£1-2 on Ebay) and you will get stars as big as 6inches (and they're 3D) depending on the size of your ribbon. Perfect for hanging on trees, or in windows or make different sizes and suspend from the ceiling

Bought decorations I tend to get in the sales... or if there is the odd one I REALLY like then I might just buy it. I have a little box of special decorations that I have gathered through the years that have special meaning or I think are extra pretty.

If you can then get empty plastic baubles that you can open and place 2 photos of kids/grandkids/pets etc back to back in it and close after trimming to size for a special treat for relatives

As I have both a dog and 2 cats I have to avoid chocolate and tinsel or anything else dangerous to my pets so glass baubles either have to be avoided or placed well out of reach. pop-corn on string would be seer temptation and I doubt the dog would stop to remove the string... Potential vets bill me thinks

Salt dough I might give a go this year

I also make dried orange slizes to hang up and to use as decoration of pressies and for variation I use limes and lemons too Slice to just about 1/2 a cm thick and then place on a rack and put in a low oven - you could ait dry but I don't have the room too

Don't forget god old pomanders Orange, cloves (inserted) and 1 tsp of orris-root powder in a paper bag hang up in the errand cupboard to dry and then put pretty ribbon on and hang up and give as pretty air freshner gifts

Debbie_S

I love the white paper snow flakes. You can buy cheap photocopy paper and it will make loads. We were inspired by the film 'Elf'.

Just paper and selotape. The snowflakes are hung with white cotton thread as mentioned earlier. It feels very magical.
Plus after Christmas you can take of the selotape and it's all recyclable.

samanthaknd

ok well i have just moved into this new house and partner threw all decorartions in the bin when we moved (thought it was junk was in the xmas tree box) WITH THE TREE!!. SO i have to buy a new tree decorations the lot hopefully i can get the house xmassy by 12th dec.

bacardi176

What I have done with my children this weekend, is to print out pictures on the computer of stockings, presents, father christmas, christmas puddings etc. And I got them to colour some in, or we stuck things on like last years napkins, christmas doylies, bows, anything to make them look pretty, and we used lots of glitter, my floor shone like a lit christmas tree by the time we finished. I then laminated them and we are going to stick them on the walls as homemade decorations. Best of all its all there work, something they can be proud of.
Very cheap idea, especially if you are anything like me, and keep an arty box, with anything in it from, glitter to any odd bits of fabric and paper. I must admit it is very handy when you have 2 children, you can create almost anything.

gb57

I agree with Hello - chop stuff from the garden (yours or a neighbours - but ask first!), or from the woods.

Holly - find someone who has one in their garden and ask to cut some. If there are no berries, you can drape it with curly red ribbon (only small bits, then the same reel lasts years - anyway I keep them small bits and reuse each year).

Ivy - find that almost anywhere, again can be decorated with bits of red ribbon.

Evergreen from conifers - almost everyone has one in their garden - trim neatly - you can pile this anywhere, use the red ribbon trick, or looks nice with pine cones (big ones if you can find them, I collect these all year round). Pine cones can be natural, or spray with gold or silver paint. Again, keep them for use next year (and all the years after that..)

I have kept Christmas tree decorations for years, use all of the above, and have had the same (very good) artificial tree for over 20 years. I never spend a penny on Christmas decorations (just call me Mrs Scrooge):rotfl: My friends (well, they are GOOD friends) say that my house always looks nicely decorated.

russimp

It seems obvious, but the best ways to keep costs down is to repeat the mantra :- LESS IS MORE, LESS IS MORE.

This should not only help to keep costs down, but also help your home avoid looking like a huge festival of TAT!!

jodyapple

I got creative with Wallnuts the other day.

I bought a bag full and as near as possible cracked them in half and removed the nut. With some bronze and gold paint, I painted the inside bronze and outside gold or vice versa - they look like a minni grotto. When dry, I put them all in a plain square glass vase with a couple of cinnamon sricks from the super market and it looks ace as a table centre piece - but cost about £2 to make as I already had the vase.

gillywilly_2

Keep checking and re-checking charity shops in the days and weeks before Christmas - as people bring down last year's decs from the loft they often throw half of them out: last weekend I bought a whole load of great tree decorations at 5p each. Christmas fayres are also a great source: I've bought bagfuls of decs for around 30p each (!) and have found some really amazing, and now very collectable, 1960s originals.

Candles: these look particularly good at Christmas (even with little ones around you can have them - just light up after bedtime) and are usually pretty cheap in Bastins. Top tip: keep them in the freezer (if you can squeeze them in between the brussels sprouts and the vegetarian turkey) and they'll last twice as long once lit.