Have Yourself A Frugal Little Christmas
Your June wedding and honeymoon are behind you. You and your new spouse have set budgets for how much you will spend for the Christmas season on each other and on friends and relatives. You even wisely started setting aside time and money to get those gifts before the crowds started invading the shopping malls and discount stores.
Suddenly, you realize that although you listed Christmas decorations on your original wedding registry, you only received two “Our first Christmas” ornaments. They are beautiful, but two ornaments won’t go very far in decorating.
You have been good about not using credit cards too much, something you agreed about even before the wedding. You are like minded in regards to credit. You don’t want to use it except for large purchases, ones that you both agree as necessary. Christmas decorations don’t really fall into the rules and guidelines you placed upon your finances.
What to do? Well, perhaps it is time to think about two things: being frugal and creative and establishing new traditions.
Having little money to decorate should not deter you from decorating, nor from doing so together. Perhaps getting creative together, while keeping the budget guidelines in place, will help you create a few new traditions. Can you make decorations?
Hidden in your closet are six large picture frames that you are not using. Wrapping them in Christmas paper and attaching fancy bows will make some thrifty décor. Those wrapped “packages” will look festive when they’re hanging on your apartment walls.
You were able to find a rather cheap (almost tacky) four-foot tall Christmas tree. Rather than being discouraged by how it looks while empty, both of you start thinking about how you can make that tree come to life with homemade decorations.
Need some suggestions?
How about…
1) Popped corn strung on a string for garlands. (They used to do that in your grandparents or great-grandparents time.)
2) You have some potpourri and netting left over from your wedding favors. Make those same favors, but instead of the white bows, attach either red or green ones and hang those on the tree.
3) Make sugar cookies and decorate with red and green sugar or with icing and other candy pieces. Wrap in cellophane and hang on the tree.
4) Two strands of lights should be enough for that puny tree. Just make sure you go to the dollar store to purchase them. While you’re there, you might find a few unique ornaments to place among the homemade ones.
5) Don’t forget to buy some candy canes. They’re pretty cheap Christmas tree decorations.
6) You wondered why you kept all those cute stuffed animals? Why not put some on the tree?
7) Remember those paper snowflakes you made as kids? Bring out the paper and scissors and get busy.
Other garlands can be cheaply made from cranberries or even from some hard candies tied together.
9) The dollar store or craft store will have some cheap jingle bells you can make into ornaments.
10) How about printing some pictures of your loved ones on your computer, cutting the pictures into circles and making those into ornaments?
You get the idea. If you do some brainstorming, you’ll discover all kinds of inexpensive decorations you can make for your tree. And the doing will be just as much (or more) fun than seeing the finished product. A new tradition has been established, and it is one you can continue once there are little ones available to help.
Marilyn Mackenzie has been writing about home, family, faith and nature for over 40 years.
This article has been submitted in affiliation with http://www.Prye.Com/ which is a site for Wedding Invitations
Tags: cheap, christmas, Christmas tree, decorations, frugal, ornaments, thrifty
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