Frugal Christmas Tree decorations?

[peanut]

Any ideas anyone? Seems we can spend as much to decorate for Christmas as we do for gifts! What do you do, or have you done that is frugal?

Some ideas from me...

~ Make royal icing snowflakes or stars for the tree...totally edible.
~ Make Danish hearts (the woven paper/fabric ones) and fill with cookies or marzipan.
~ Make cornucopia from fancy papers (leftover wrapping paper for us!) and fill with candy/cookies.
~ Paper chains.
~ Popcorn and cranberries strung on a garland

What about you? What have you tried with success?

Jean

[frugal is fun]

I just posted what I did on another thread this morning.

I was totally feeling lost about what to do about my christmas tree. I'm recently divorced so this is my first year on my own with my 4 yr old son.

We made a paper chain yesterday out of his construction paper and then we colored pictures in his coloring books cut them out and hung them on the tree.

its the nicest tree I've ever had and will probably keep these ornaments forever to remind me that you don't need money to be happy.

[leezza]

*Cut out paper snowflakes, (white paper = thrifty) (can use plain or decorate with glitter)
*Strung popcorn, or cranberries
*little dolls or stuffed animals
*jewelry, (crosses, tiny favorites)
*pretty cards going to family members
*very small childrens toys

leezza

[kmonokwe]

My parents tried popcorn strands for the first time this year, and we loved it! (Of course the dogs loved it also...we had to be extra careful!) We used stove-top popcorn, rather than the microwaveable bags, and it was awesome! We also draped the tree with red ribbon, left over from the wedding in October. It was so festive!

[danni]

One year we used egg cartons to make bells. We just cut out each individual egg slot and attached a piece of pipe cleaner for hanging then decorated with paint and glitter. The kidds had a blast.

[Lady_V]

I wrap hanging pictures in last years paper to look like presents on the wall.

DD draws pictures

We color pictures of mistletoe and holly

I knitted the tree skirt and ornaments

[YankeeMom]

We like to make paper snowflakes using white coffee filters. We also made mini pinatas using styrofoam egg cartons (just the little egg cup part) and pipe cleaners.

Clothes pins & pipe cleaners can be made into a reindeer. A candy cane and pipe cleaners another reindeer. My mom even made little sleds out of popsicle sticks, painted them red, put Christmas stickers, and wrote the kids' names on them on year. They are cute.

[HandyMom]

I like making cinnamon & applesauce dough and cutting out gingerbread people and decorating them with puffy fabric paint. They smell nice and if you make them thicker, they last a real long time without curling.I still have some from over 5 years ago because I store them in a tightly sealed plastic container.

[Sara Noel]

We made reindeer jingle bells, pom pom snowmen, pipe cleaner trees and candy canes, bead ornaments with our names, star mint candy garland and foam crafts this year. I'll post pics when I publish my column.

[mombottoo]

I haven't bought Christmas decorations in so long for myself that I can't remember what the last thing I bought even cost me. I reuse tinsel from year to year, even though some claim it's cheap enough to re-buy every year. Can't see any sense in throwing away perfectly good tinsel.

Our first Christmas together our tree came out of the local woods literally complete with pine cones. It was so crooked we had to tie it to the walls ! We didn't have any Christmas decorations at all...so we made paper chains, strung popcorn, cut out snowflakes from paper and created a star for the top of the tree from cardboard. I still remember that Christmas vividly and while we had a Charlie Brown tree, it was my first Christmas with the man I love more than anything in the world and I will cherish those memories until the day I die.

[ri*smom]

We made origami birds one year (technically I think it is the crane pattern) because I like a tree with birds on it; I also re-use colorful tissue paper loosely scrunched in any of the larger gaps in the tree.

[geckoace]

we made foam/glue stained glass ornaments this year and we made them a couple of years ago too.
paper snowflakes
i use ribbon (this year i got some for free from my aunt) and make it garland or mardi gras type beads we get throughout the year at events
cut the picture off of old christmas cards and glue ribbon to it
aluminum foil balls are nice
baby/ kid mittens and socks are cute

[RetiredVeryEarly]

Hello, I have several times in my life decorated a tree without buying anything. The first was for a friend when we were both about 20, we cut out a lot of paper snowflakes. Later that month I actually bought some crayons and glitter and glue and colored paper and made nicer ornaments, all handmade, with a lot of friends. I kept and still use those, it is from almost 30 years ago!

When we lived in England we bought a small tree. Our red garland was a large red plastic bag I found in a dust bin (British for trash) cut in such a way as to make a very long ribbon. Cut pictures out of magazines, made the criss-crossed paper accordion things, etc. It was lovely.

Another year when living on a sailboat we made our own ornaments. Cut holes in seashells with a Dremel tool for some ornaments. Got a lot of nice ornaments by cutting up a Heineken case. :-) It has red stars and green and that gave me some good material for making little ornaments. I cherished all those funny little trees! I like those ornaments more than the kind you buy.

[IntlMom]

Our tree is decorated from ornaments we have had forever - I mean literally!! I have my ornaments from when I was litte (pink boot from 1970, and other decorations from my childhood) when my brother and I got married, we got our childhood ornaments. We use these, plus stuff the kids make, plus the grandparents give our kids ornamnets most years.......so our tree is decorated with our life.....and it costs us nothing!!
And it is just the way I like it!

[peanut]

Another thing we did once was to string mini heart shaped pretzels on plaid ribbon for a garland.

And we cut out red construction paper hearts to hang inside bigger hearts...attached with a gold thread.

And we acrylic painted gnome ladies on muslin, cut them out and sewed them together and stuffed them.

Oh, and the year we took watercolour (!!) paints to some muslin and inked in designs on hearts, trumpets, etc.

Jean