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If you are new to decorating your own tree and don't have a lot of decorations, here are some thrifty ways to decorate your tree.
Add your thrifty tree decoration ideas here!
Make shiny bells to hang on Christmas trees, easily, recycling household stuffs like scraps of paper, newspaper, and used gift-wrappings.
Approximate Time: less than an hour
And...it's done! Similarly, by using different dimensions for the ball and varying the colors of wrappings, whole arrays of colorful bells can be made :)
By Gunja from West Bengal, India
Christmas tree using cute vintage, quaint decorations: old childrens books, sheet music, old newspaper ads, paper dolls, old family photos and various items around the house!
These little angels make cute Christmas tree decorations and also make great gifts without spending a lot of money.
I like my tree to look different every year and we switch between real and artificial trees.
Make shiny gift boxes to hang on Christmas trees, easily, using simple household items like blank papers and used gift-wraps.
Here's a fun and cute way to use those gift cards given from retail stores. We all receive them in so many themes and characters that are so pretty.
In so many homes Christmas decorating is taken entirely away from the children. Here are some ideas if you and your children would like to make some decorations (and memories) for your tree.
Here are the questions asked by community members. Read on to see the answers provided by the ThriftyFun community.
I am making popcorn and cranberry garlands for my tree. Does anyone have more good ideas for easy homemade decorations?
By Jilly
You could cut a heart shape out of poster board and glue a ribbon at the dip to use for a hanger, then glue buttons on it. I have seen pictures of these and they are kind of cool. One year I made bell shapes and stocking shapes out of calico fabric and trimmed them with rick-rack, etc.
Pinecones painted white on the edges look real nice on trees and gives it a realistic look. You could even put a thin coat of glue and sprinkle glitter on the pinecones.
Colorful ribbon to make bows and attach to branches would be pretty or use cotton remnant fabric and cut in strips the size needed for making homemade bows.
Acorns would also be something you could use to decorate the tree with. Glue several together on a bare twig and insert in the branches.
Candy canes can also be hung on the tree and there are so many different colors available at Christmas time.
If you use a lot of eggs, you could begin saving the unbroken shells and paint them with Christmas colors and use instead of glass ornaments. Put a hole in both ends of the raw egg a little larger than pin size and blow hard into a bowl. The egg will come out of the shell. My sister painted a dozen egg shells with her acrylic paints and glazed over them to protect and make them shine more. She put hangers on mine with hot glue and store bought fixtures from a craft shop. The egg shells are over 25 years old and still look like they did when I first received them. I just store them carefully in an egg carton when not in use.
You could hot glue a strip of ribbon on top of the pinecones and tie them to branches and form a bow.
I always loaded up the trees with candy canes! We used them for eating, or stirring in hot coffee or hot chocolate! At first everyone thought I was nuts, as they weren't "really" decorations, and then everyone started doing this even on the trees at work! They can "stir" a cup of tea and make it transform. Not sure if you can actually "make" candy canes but let me tell you, with all the beautiful colors they have them in, it can make a tree shine!
When making popcorn strings it is best to let the popcorn get a little stale first(less breakable) use waxed dental floss and a fine long needle to string. I also had better success with packing peanuts instead of popcorn and red beads in place of cranberries. One year I did popcorn and red beads which lasted longer than cranberries.An interesting garland is thread spools wrapped with either wide ribbon or strips of colorful paper(think magazines)then strung on string, yarn or ribbon to make a garland. If you string large colorful buttons on ribbon or yarn so that they lay on one edge, this looks nice either with the spools or on its own. Knot between the buttons to hold them in place
My grandchildren made me foil chains for my outside trees. And years later they made new ones for me that we decorated inside of the house. Now almost 2 years ago our great granddaughter started us a chain, just enough to make me smile. GG Vi
Putting little bows on the branches of red are so pretty! Just tie them on the branches yourself the same way you would put on other decorations. I have seen trees just done in this alone and it is adorable!
Any ideas on how to make tinsel for the Xmas tree; since it isn't sold anymore?
Thin strips of foil.
I have found it online:
www.midlandhardware.com/
I like stuffing glass ornaments with it...looks really pretty!
You can also make something similar with old Mylar balloons:
www.midlandhardware.com/
The old Mylar balloons also make neat covers for plants (tie a pretty ribbon around your holiday poinsettia for example).
Please keep all of this away from dogs and cats as it can cause blockages which can kill them. SAFETY FIRST with pets (and small children too, of course).
I did not see it available on mentioned web sites but the "new" icicles are available from several stores and for sure from Amazon. These are the very thin (no lead content) icicles. Not as pretty but work pretty well.
Not available from Dollar Tree (and many other stores) unless a store has last years stock. Walmart and Target did have these also.
www.amazon.com/
If you want the original tinsel (contains lead) you will have to go to someplace like eBay and they are very expensive.
