I love decorating for the holidays.
No, I mean I really love it.
Last year we had 3 trees, and an entire room dedicated to a train set and christmas village*.
I. Love. It.
But, as you all know, I am a frugal soul (and if you don’t, welcome to my blog, you must be new ). So how to I reconcile Christmas decorating with saving money? It can be done!
First, you may need to adjust your mindset a bit. To me, holiday decorations should be looked at as long term purchases-items that you slowly acquire and intend on using and re-using for years and years. Yankee Bill and I have acquired our massive collection of Christmas stuff over the span of both our adult lives. Many of the items were gifts, hand me downs, or bought on sale.
If you find that you are spending lots of money, every single year on decorations you really need to stop and think. Why are you spending so much?
Have the items from last year fallen apart? Well then, maybe you need to spend slightly more money initially on items of a higher quality that will last for many years. Constantly replacing cheap junk for a few years can quickly become more expensive than just “buying up”.
Do you just have to have the latest and greatest decorations? Well-I can see the tempation. Really-I can just drool over the gorgeous theme trees at the Mall or in the catalogs that flood the house this time of year. But buying new decor every single year is not only needlessly expensive, but also wasteful. Where do all the old decorations go? Probably into the landfill-and that’s a sustainable living FAIL.
Hopefully I’ve convinced you that you should buy decent quality items that will be reused and reused. How do you go about it?
#1-You need to stop and think, really think, about what you want your decorations to be. Take a look around your house and make a list (mental if you are so inclined-mine have to be on paper or I forget) of what decorations you really want. Buying things you don’t need and can’t use is never a savings, no matter what the price. Do this BEFORE you even go near a store-everything looks good in the store, but how often have you bought something, brought it home, and then realized you really didn’t have a good spot for it?
#2-Consider using a color scheme. If most of your decorations are in a cohesive color scheme (we do the traditional green & bright red for the most part) then you can mix and match them in different ways each year for a different look. It also makes purchasing new items easier (don’t bother if it won’t go). I highly recommend that you go with a more traditional color scheme. Purple and Pink might be all the rage this year, but will you really want to be looking at it next year when it’s passe?
#6-Are you really, really stuck? Have next to no cash and need to fill up a tree? You could try what I did my first Christmas on my own. I decorated the entire tree with curling ribbon, bows made out of 2 spools of wired ribbon, and a single box of regular red & silver ornaments. I think I spent $10 total and reused the stuff for 2 or 3 years. It may not have been the most pretty tree in the world, but it was festive and put me in the holiday mood that first year on my own when I was far, far from home.
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Jenn I think the tips were great for decorating. I am allergic to evergreen and I use an artificial tree that I bought 8 years ago. Most people do not know it is fake, and are usually surprised when I tell them. I get the opportunity to set up and enjoy my decorations right after Thanksgiving and I have saved money reusing the same tree. It was a wise investment for our family:)
my Christmas tree ornaments are expensive…priceless really.
they are my great-grandmother’s antique ornaments. And since this is my first married Christmas I had to explan to the husband how very important it is to take care when near the tree.
we’ll need new ornaments before we have kids and i’ll probably get them at an after Christmas sale
One of our prettiest trees was decorated with cheap red bows and candy canes. That was frugal! (I’m posting here, because I already hit my limit on ideas on the holiday series I believe)
Jenn! I did the bow thing too our first year in Germany! Great minds think alike
Hi Jenn,
A Great Post! I Love a simple old fashion Christmas. I Love Vintage decs. and have several passed down, yard sale or junk store finds.
Merry CHristmas!
Blessins’,Lib
Homemade cookies , a simple set of lights and a homemade star .
Origami patterns can be found online or at the library.
Be creative , turn those chip bags inside out and make tinsel or” paper” chains from them.
The most admired nativity sets at our churches global mission sale , were made from cut up soda cans.
However you decorate , do it from your heart and it will be beautiful.
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