You don’t need to spend a lot on fancy and breakable Christmas decorations to have a lovely home this holiday season. There are a number of ways to decorate cheaply and have fun at the same time.
Make Christmas Decorations With the Children
One of the best ways is to enlist the children’s help, or get crafty yourself. Get some heavy art paper in a variety of seasonal colors and some cotton in rolls and in balls. You might also get some glitter glue or or spray and glitter pens depending on your budget and the ages of your children. (Watch out for harmful fumes if you use any sprays. Always use in a well-ventilated place.)
You can also go the easy sticker route and create artwork from Christmas themed stickers or from jumbo coloring and sticker books with holiday themes, which you can usually pick up in stores for only a few dollars.
Use the Internet to Get Great Free Christmas Decoration Ideas
Also consider Dover editions, which have very elegant coloring and stencil books. They have a lot of free samples online that you can download and print. Other great sources of free artwork and activities include HP.com and their free newsletter and homeschooling websites, which have lots of ideas for holiday activities that you can do at home with your children. There are also computer discs of vector art (line art) for the holidays, some of them Christmas-themed, that you can print and have your children color in.
You can have children cut out their decorations and hang them up on the walls, mantelpiece or windows. You can also string them on string or fishing twine and dangle them outside. You can ‘laminate’ them first by using the inexpensive sheet pockets you can buy from an office supply store. Put the ornament inside the plastic pocket and cut around the plastic with a hot knife. It will cut the plastic and seal it at the same time. (Keep children away from this part of the process).
You can also use the plastic sheets to protect any of the children’s drawings. The drawings can be used to decorate the home or serve as placemats for the holiday meal. (Make sure they lay flat-do not put cotton or lots of glitter on them.)
Make Your Own Garland and Signs
Your child’s work can go on the trees as ornaments or they can create garlands from the craft paper cut into strip and then glued into loops, one inside another to make a chain of various colors. You can also use food such as plain popcorn and cranberries strung with a needle and thread. (Be careful with the needle with older children.
A “Merry Christmas” sign, one letter per page, can also be created and strung together with string or colored paper. Children can take turns coloring in the letters and decorating them with glitter, cotton and so on.
These Christmas decorations do not have to be expensive. The only limits are your budget and your imagination. If you are willing to take the time and plan ahead and use the Internet for free or inexpensive resources, your children can create great holiday decorations this year which could well end up as family heirlooms that you will cherish and keep on using for years to come.
Evelyn Trimborn - Evelyn Trimborn is a freelance writer who frequently contributes to a number of blogs, including: healthful-goddess.com, ...
