Cheap Christmas Crafts

Nature’s Cheap Christmas Crafts

One of the cheapest ways to decorate your home for the holidays is to take a little help from Mother Nature. If you’ve got a pine tree (or really any evergreen tree) in your yard or near your home, you’ve got all the decoration you need. Or if you have a holly bush covered with red berries, you can decorate quickly and easily for no money at all.

Cuttings from evergreens and hollies can be used to make wreaths or swags—simply tie them to a wreath form or a piece of rope or twine with florist wire. Or go for a more organic look by just lying cuttings on the table around a candle for a simple, natural, and cheap holiday decoration.

Another fun way to use holly cuttings is to stick a bunch into a foam ball, making sure the whole ball is covered. Add a length of ribbon and loop your quick flower arrangement over a door handle. You could even put a few drops of essential oil on the foam so that it smells nice, too.

Cheap Christmas Crafts for the Tree

There are a ton of Christmas ornaments that are not very expensive to make, and there are some cheap Christmas crafts you can make from things that are already in your house.

A classic tree decoration that can be used anywhere in the house is a paper chain. Cut red and green construction paper into strips about two inches wide and have your kids (if you have kids) help you tape the rings together, alternating red and green loops.

Popcorn chains are another fun way to decorate the tree without a lot of expense, and this is fun for kids, too. Just make sure you make some extra popcorn so you can eat while you’re stringing! Buy popcorn kernels in a bag and cook them in a skillet with just enough oil to coat the bottom of the pan. Cook about half a cup of kernels at a time, over medium heat, with the lid on, shaking occasionally to prevent burning, until you hear a pause of three to five seconds between pops.

Of course you don’t need to season popcorn to decorate the tree, but you might want to try coating the kernels with food coloring. The easiest way to get food coloring to disperse so it covers all the kernels is mixing it into melted butter or corn syrup. If you want your colors really bold, it will probably make the popcorn too bitter to eat, so, again, make some for munching while you work.

Other cheap things you can string include cereal and colored pasta.

More Cheap Christmas Crafts

A big part of getting into the spirit of Christmas is the smells. Bake some cookies, make some soup, start a fire in the fireplace, or just make your own simmer-potpourri blend.

Start with a small saucepan filled about halfway with water. Add whatever whole spices remind you of the holidays. Cinnamon is a must, but other good options are bay leaves, peppercorns and cloves. Add the rind of an orange or lemon, and anything else you like: pine cone pieces, essential oil drops, hickory nuts, dried apples. Allow the mixture to simmer gently on the stove, adding more water when needed.

Don’t forget some cheap holiday crafts for your table. Make napkin rings out of card stock covered with a wide piece of ribbon. Cut your card stock a little smaller than the ribbon is wide, glue it into a ring and then glue the ribbon on top. You could also add beads, buttons, or some other holiday-related decoration if you like.

A simple way to make placemats is to cut a piece of clear shelf paper double the size you want your finished placemat to be. Collect old family Christmas photos, pictures from magazines, old holiday cards, wrapping paper or anything else you might like to use and plan out a simple design. Then just pull off the backing, stick your pictures to the shelf paper and fold to stick. You could also plan your layout on a piece of construction paper and secure the items to that so it is a lot easier to get everything in place before you try to stick it to the sheet.