Planning ahead can make for a less-costly Christmas

By Staff
Michelle Blaylock, Mom’s Corner
I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Ours was busy but great. We had a big meal on Thanksgiving Day, and then leftovers for the next couple of days. Now it’s time for my favorite time of year – Christmas. I love celebrating the birth of my Lord and Savior, Jesus.
I love to decorate for Christmas. There’s just so much you can do! I remember when I was growing up there wasn’t as much variety in the Christmas decorating department, now just about anything goes!
I was amazed to find a “Noah’s Ark” decoration for Christmas. I think there are about a million different angels.
There are great big over-sized decorations and little bitty teeny tiny decorations. The variety of lights are phenomenal! There’s tiny lights, big lights, flashing lights, constant on lights, single colored lights, multi-colored lights, curtain lights, net lights, angel lights, bulb lights, twinkle lights, rope lights, lights, lights, and more lights! There’s also inflatable figures, animated figures, and so much more!
The other thing I noticed about decorations is that they are expensive! So I thought this week I would share some of the things I do to help cut the cost of decorating for Christmas.
First of all, I plan a year in advance. Well, sort of anyway. What I do is wait until after Christmas to buy new decorations for the next year. I admit it is hard to wait to buy them and then pack it all up! However, I remind myself that after Christmas I can usually get twice the amount of things for my money, than if I bought them now. I have to be patient. For example, I’ve wanted a new tree topper for several years, but after the holidays they didn’t have what I wanted. Well, it took me three or four years to find what I wanted on sale after Christmas, but I ended up getting an angel I love for 50 percent off! If there are things that you need for this year, try checking out the craft section of your discount store first. Most of the time I find things like ribbon and beads are much less expensive in the craft section than in the holiday section of the stores! Do you want several bows of the same type. Buy one bow, look at it carefully, then buy some of the ribbon on the spool and make your own bows!
Secondly, I try to “re-dress” what I already have. I saw a wreath in a store that I thought was perfect, but couldn’t afford. I looked it over very carefully, and wrote down a few notes. I went to a discount craft store and picked up some ribbon and decorations that were very close to what was on the store’s wreath. I also splurged a bit and bought some battery operated lights. When I got home, I took off the decorations on our wreath of about ten years, then I “re-dressed” it in the new decorations. My husband came home from work and frowned at the “new” wreath hanging on the door and proceeded to remind me that our budget was very tight and he didn’t think a new wreath was an appropriate expenditure — especially one that nice!
He was very apologetic when I told him how we came by a “new” wreath!
I’ve also re-glittered ornaments, replaced ribbons that have frayed, and hot glued many Christmas decorations. (I think I could practically hot glue a house together!)
Remember I said one time that desperation is the mother of creativity? Well, it stands true for Christmas decorating, too. I wanted to put up an extra tree, but buying ornaments for it was a problem. I began to think about the “themed” trees I’ve seen in the last few years. You know the ones that are all one color, all nativity scenes or whatever. My thoughts became, “What do I have enough of to ‘theme’ a Christmas tree?”
I decided to do a “memory” tree. To begin with, I put a couple strings of white lights on the tree . Next, I took all my kids baby booties, like the kind they wore for say 2-3 months. I stuffed them with batting, tied their ribbons and strings into a knot and used them to decorate an entire four foot tree! I also added the baby bonnets I had leftover for decorations, as well. I even used the shoes my 15 year old wore her first Christmas and her first winter mittens. I put a large bow on the top with long ribbon streamers going down the sides to finish it off.
I’m also going to do a tree with just the things the kids have made and will make for me. What a special way to show how much their things mean to you — they have their very own tree! That’s assuming my kids and hubby will let me put up three trees this year. Several years ago, I got into the decorating mood and we had four Christmas trees; one my mother had given me, one we had bought several years ago, and two that I had gotten for practically nothing at a yard sale. I also had out all my other bows, ribbons, trinkets and everything else I had accumulated over the last 20 years.
Well, my then 16-year-old daughter came home after work late that night and yelled, “AHHHH, our house threw up Christmas! Since then my hubby and children get very fussy if I go, um, overboard. Oh, well, too bad for them.
There are many things that can be used for Christmas decorations. For example, the year we lived with my grandmother I discovered she had saved a couple handfuls of Christmas cards from over the years. I asked what she wanted to do with them and she said just throw them out. I hated to do that, many of the cards were very pretty.
Well, I decided I just couldn’t trash them. I sat down and made out a pattern to make blocks. I then lined the pattern up so the prettiest parts of the cards would show, I traced my pattern, cut it, folded and glued the blocks, then added ribbon for hanging them. Many of my aunts, uncles, and cousins recognized their past Christmas cards hanging on the tree! It brought up some old memories and great stories of past Christmases!
Another year, our church in Kentucky asked that each person in the church bring a handmade decoration for our fellowship hall tree. All my children were fairly young so I figured I would have to do most of the “making” of the ornaments, but I wanted them to help as much as possible. I ended up making flower angels.
I bought some very inexpensive flowers and cut them off their stems. I turned the flowers upside down and glued a small wooden balls on the very short stems for the heads of the angels.
Next, I used paint pens and painted cute faces on the heads. I glued a little bit of doll hair on the balls as well. The final step was the wings and halo. I used short pieces of ribbon to make a small bow for the back of the angel and secured it with craft wire. I left enough craft wire to hold up a halo, which was an inexpensive gold craft ring. I glued the wings with halo onto my angel along with a small loop of gold string to hang them by. I let my kids pick out their flower, hair color, and ribbon color for their angels. The flower angels were a big hit.
I hope you have a joyous (and creative) time decorating for the holidays. If you have a holiday tip to share please e-mail it to: moms-corner@juno.com