Christmas Ornaments on a Budget

[BudgetHowTo]

My wife and I celebrated our first Christmas last year. Being a younger couple, we are still establishing ourselves financially. We had about five of our own ornaments for the christmas tree and two strands of lights. We needed more decoration without spending a lot of money.

Back in fifth grade, I did an art project where I made many origami objects, some of which were christmas ornaments. I used plain paper back then. Being older and a little more careful with my creases, I bought a pack of origami paper. One side of the paper was white and the other side had shiny gold and silver backing.

We made origami stars of different varieties and a few bells. There was an angel that we folded out of silver and gave it a golden halo to serve as our tiny topper for the tree.

Last we used some simple red lace to hang the ornaments that we had made. It was a simple tree, but by far the most beautiful and most meaningful.

Decorating our tree was cheap and enjoyable. We have no plans of purchasing new ornaments from a store when we can make them ourselves. I hope this advice will help your Christmas be a frugal one. Happy holidays!

[buildmybudget]

This is great. Just one of the many ways you can make it through the holiday season without putting more money on the card. Thanks!

[shibabigk]

Similar situation here. Our first christmas was pretty much bare, but I went ornament shopping a wek after christmas, everything on sale, most 90% off. Now I have the kind of stuff I want (If I were artsy I might try the homemade things) and spent only a fraction. Same thing works for all the other holidays as well.

[irmanator]

I know this is lame but my first Christmas out of moms house I used a cardboard cut out of a tree that was from the store I worked. It was an advertising display thing. Under the tree were boxes of beer and for decoration the tree had beer bottles. ( this was pre-printed- not my design)

I think my second year I took a green 2 ltr soda bottle and put star stickers on it.

besides both being free, they were put back into the recycling i took them out of.

After I had my daughter I just told people who asked that i wanted ornaments as a gift.

[Frankiee]

I think my second year I took a green 2 ltr soda bottle and put star stickers on it.

X-mas innovation when at its best! Wonderful story. Think perhaps I will do that this year, buy some gold paper and glue it to a old red wine bottle (and perhaps spruce fragrance to put in the bottle). Thanks for the tip!