Life

Creating Christmas Decor Without Spending A Dime

 

shopping at target

(photo credit: djLicious)

Creating Christmas Decor Without Spending A Dime. So, my challenge this Christmas was to spend nothing on decor.

This is the cruelest thing one could ask of me, since decorating for the holidays is such a joy-it’s just that shopping for presents thing afterward that I really hate. (Editor’s note: which was why I was at Super Target on Christmas Eve frantically shopping for our twins. Yes. Just me and 3,000 guys trying to buy up Christmas before the store closed. The was one who guy cut to the chase and gave everyone on his list microwaves and vacuums. I’m guessing he’s not married, eh?)

I like to call this kind of decor “something out of nothing.” My  rules were:

  1. Spend no money
  2. Use what we had
  3. Try at least 4 new decor looks

Creating Christmas Decor Without Spending A Dime

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1. The Christmas Vine: The Todd was cranky because I made him tear down a bunch of Virginia Creeper from the house this fall. Sorry! But “Garden Tudor cottage” does not translate to a wildly overgrown greenery that was creeping it’s way up the house and onto the roof. I made a deal with The Todd that I’d use a vine in our Christmas decor. It’s simply twinkle lights, decorative bulbs left over from last year, and because I’m spiteful, some of my fairies lurking in the vine.

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My dear husband thinks my fairies are creepy. I think he has no taste.

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2. Kitchen tools as decor: I’m very lucky that my dear spouse enjoys cooking, since I continue to refer to the kitchen as “that place with the big cold box.” He’s absurdly proud of his industrial-grade stove and utensils. Challenge accepted. I laced more of those cheap ornaments from last year into his whisks and hung everything over the kitchen window with a piece of curly willow I stole from the backyard.

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Waste not, want not, right? We don’t have real holly in Utah, so I had to spruce up the stuff from my yard with some fake berries.

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3. My antique Underwood typewriter: I learned to type on this thing after finding it at a yard sale when I was 10. I’ve treasured it ever since, but it rarely plays a role in anything interesting around the house. I printed off some copies of “Joy To The World” and added more ornaments and greenery.

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4. Contain those horrible fairies of yours! I told you The Todd is scared of my fairies, so I promised some sort of display that kept them under lock and key. I used glass cloches from the garden and an old birdcage, along with more old ornaments and greenery clipped from the backyard. I left one out, just ready to pounce on him one dark night…

It’s not Christmas if someone at the Collard house doesn’t get PTSD, eh? What new and thrifty looks did you come up with this year? Share, please!

 

 

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