Easy and Beautiful Christmas Decorations on a Budget
Lots of Ideas to make your own easy and beautiful Christmas decorations on a budget!
When I moved into my first new home with my husband we didn’t have a ton of money. Or any money. We got a hand-me-down tree from my parents, but when it came time to decorate it and I started looking at ornaments I just couldn’t afford it on our tight budget.
My sister (who is a very crafty art teacher and extremely generous) spent hours and hours that year making me dozens of homemade DIY Christmas decorations for that tree. She gave it to me as a gift that year and most of those ornaments we still have, to this day!
For this reason, I have never really been the type to buy ornaments. We have a few, but most of what we have are collected, gifted, and made. So that’s what Christmas is to me and every time I open my ornament bin it reminds me of that thoughtful thing that my sister did for me all those years ago.
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This year I bought some inexpensive chains and bells from Amazon and hung them on my mantel garland and I love how it turned out! You can find the supplies for that here.
DIY Christmas Ornaments
This year, I was craving a few new things but I didn’t want just to buy them. I decided to look online for a few I liked and try to recreate them at home with a little creativity and a trip to the local craft store. I begged my daughter to help out too and she’s been doing them with me and we have honestly been having a great time with it. We have created new holiday memories, too.
This got me thinking about all the easy, inexpensive things that you can do to decorate for the holiday season beyond the Christmas tree ornaments. There are a lot of ways you can bring in some festive decorations without spending too much or buying all the latest trendy decor.
Painted DIY Ornaments
The first of this year’s DIY projects were these painted ornaments! I saw some pretty off-white painted ornaments online and thought it was something we could try to recreate.
I found these white glass balls at Michaels so I didn’t have to paint the balls first. If you have some clear ones or some old ones in your stash, just give them a shot of spray paint first! If they are clear, I love the idea of dumping a little paint on the inside and rolling it around so that they stay shiny glass on the outside.
You can easily find these plain balls at most dollar stores or big bags of them at thrift stores to keep prices down. You can also take your old decorations and give them a new look
Next, we hand-painted some designs on them using some craft paint we had on hand. I really don’t think these need to be perfect, just quick little strokes for leaves or berries or petals. Trust me, my skill level when it comes to painting is marginal at best but these still turned out so good so if I can do it, you can too!
Next, we used a little gold rub-n-buff on the tops and added a velvet ribbon. I love how they turned out!
Gold Leaf Ornaments
The next ones we made were some gold leaves. These were really easy and foolproof. I grabbed some faux leaves from around my house and in my stash. I just pulled a few leaves off existing stems that I had, but you can also find leaves at the Dollar Store. The great thing about this project is that they don’t have to be really nice faux leaves, any cheap ones will do with a nice shape. I thought the maple leaves turned out best.
Next, I bought a gold leaf kit on Amazon and followed the directions. I spread some adhesive on one side, let it dry until tacky, and then stuck the gold leaf sheets down on the leaves and brushed away the excess.
Once dry, I spray painted the back with a little gold spray paint (you could also gold leaf the back, but spray paint was much faster and I think it looks ok for the backs!)
Then I used the included varnish to add a coat to the front of the leaves to make sure the gold leaf product stayed stuck.
Once the leaves were gold, I used some fine wire that I found at the dollar store to wrap around the stems and create a little loop to hang on the tree. I put two or more together just because I liked how they looked with more than one leaf. Then I just tied a little brown velvet bow on it and that was that!
The gold leaf kit that I used probably had enough gold leaf in it to do about 30 or 40 leaves, so this is an affordable solution to get a lot of ornaments for less!
Little Gingerbread Houses
I cut little houses out of some scrap wood in my garage, and then painted them to look like Gingerbread Houses!
I started by cutting a basic house shape and then I glued on the roof with a little wood glue.
I used this brown paint flocking kit to paint the houses once the glue was dry. I found this at the craft store, but I have seen similar results from people just spray painting brown and adding baking soda or even cinnamon might work if you want to give that a go!
Once they had a bit of texture I thought they looked a bit more like Gingerbread. Next, my daughter and I added some white puffy paint to decorate them.
I added a tiny screw hook in the top and some ribbon. I could not love these more!
Mercury Ball Christmas Ornaments
I also bought some clear glass ornaments and tried my hand at making them look like mercury glass. This was really easy, I didn’t get a lot of photos but it’s pretty hard to mess it up!
I sprayed the inside with a little looking glass spray paint. Directly after, I sprayed a mixture of vinegar and water out of a spray bottle (just a small spray) and then swirled it around inside.
Next, I took a hair dryer to dry the paint and it sort of “shrunk” in there. I then repeated those steps with some gold metallic spray paint.
I rub and buffed the tops again and that’s all! They turned out cute!
Wood Trees
I found unfinished wood trees on Amazon in a big pack. I stained them and added a keyhook to the top, and a ribbon. Very inexpensive!
Thrifted Decor
If you are into thrifting at all, do not underestimate the Christmas section at this time of year! There are often some vintage GEMS hanging out there at this time of year.
The last few years the Christmas decor has become a little bit more kitchy and traditional and there are plenty of those things at the thrift store! Think Chrimstas villages, santa mugs, and figurines!
Vintage ornaments can be found by the bag full and that can save you a bundle when you are just trying to fill up the tree. Or the thrift store is a great way that you can get a bunch of holiday decorations to work a little DIY magic on if you have a little imagination.
You can also take thrifted pieces and re-imagine them as Christmas decor, like this brass horn I’ve had for years that I just tie a bow onto. Candlesticks are also a great thrifted find.
Ribbon
Nothing says Christmas like a little red velvet ribbon. You can seriously put a little bow on almost anything and it instantly becomes festive. That is one of my favourite cheap Christmas decoration ideas because it looks great and for a few dollars you can put ribbons and bows absolutely anywhere.
Last year I bought some plaid ribbon and made little bows to put on my tree, too. You can get a lot of them on the tree and they make the tree feel more cohesive if you spread them around, even if you have a mish-mash of collected ornaments on the tree.
Real Foiliage
Last year I wanted to dress up the DIY arched trellis we built by adding some greenery, but to cover that in faux greenery would have cost me a small fortune. NEVERMIND the fact that I have no place to store all of that when the holiday season is over.
What I did end up doing is covering the whole archway with clippings from pine trees and tree branches from the yard. I grabbed all kinds of evergreen branches and it turned into the most stunning archway display. The best part about it was that it could all go straight into the compost bin after Christmas!
I love using the real deal for outdoor decorations because when you use them inside, they can end up making a bit of a mess. However, I have also used them inside as Christmas table decorations or in a vase, and it’s a cheap and cheerful way to bring in some natural materials for zero dollars.
This year I saved all of my hydrangeas off my bushes outside and let them dry up, and then I sprayed them with a little red spray paint and stuck them right in my tree! I also have some baby’s breath I bought from Costco stuck in there, and some oranges I dried in the oven.
Cheap Garland Hack
If you love the look of a beautiful thick and full faux garland but can’t stomach how expensive it is to buy so many, this tip is for you! On my mantel, I usually start my garlands with the ultra-cheap stuff. The $5 or less bargain bin wire fake-looking stuff. Putting the bad garland on the bottom makes the whole thing seem fuller, and you don’t really see it at all at the end.
I also like to use whatever branches to stuff in there, they don’t necessarily have to be only brought out at Christmas Time! I have olive branches and Eucalyptus faux branches that I use here and there around my house, and at Christmas, I just stick it all in the garland. Trust me, it works and it’s one of my favorite ways to make my old junk look better.
I wrote a whole post about how I do my mantel garland using these tips and you can find that here!
Festive Printable Art
Last year I swapped out some festive Christmas art into a few of my existing frames and I really love this simple way to have a little festive touch. I wrote a blog post all about free art and inexpensive art downloads that you can print at your local print shop for not much money at all!
I store the art in the frame behind the normal print and just bring it to the front for the holiday season, which means it takes up absolutely no room in my house to store, which is a huge bonus.
Lights and Lamps
Do not underestimate the power of lights (and candles!) During the winter season when it gets dark so early, it’s so nice to have the soft glow from fairy lights or string lights or candles in the evening.
I love these wax-look faux candles and I use them year-round but especially during the winter and during Christmas decorating. They are battery-operated and work on a timer so they just come on at dusk for 6 hours, the whole holiday season. They are the best way to add some cozy warmth and a festive touch.
Fairy lights are really inexpensive and you can put them in your greenery, in your garland, on your tree.
I also love just turning lamps on and setting them on timers! There is something so cozy and festive about a lamp-lit house, but I sometimes forget to turn them all on so now I have them on smart plugs on a timer to come on at sunset and go off at 11 PM and it’s a GAME CHANGER!
(Hint: I have had bad luck with smart plugs which seem to work well… until they don’t. I recently started using these ones that are made by Amazon with my Alexa and have not had any problems since! I think because they don’t require another App to work with my Alexa App, they are way less glitchy so I recommend them if you use Alexa!)
Wrapping paper
Wrapping paper can be costly, too, but a great inexpensive way to have a very aesthetic look for less is to use craft paper! You can buy a huge roll of it and add your own personal touch with stamps, drawings, ribbons, or whatever you like and you can maintain a uniform color scheme with your wrapping that way too.
If you use craft paper to wrap with, you can recycle it, unlike many types of wrapping paper that are not recyclable.
Go Minimal
How much do you really need… that is the question. I know there are some people that really love to decorate for the holidays and they have bins and bins of it. Around here, we have very limited storage areas so I try to be mindful about how much I have.
I also really don’t like things to be too cluttered and it starts to feel like too much if I put too much stuff out.
A few stems here or there, the tree, some ribbon, you don’t have to go nuts and decorate every square inch! A little goes a long way. There are lots of creative ways you can decorate minimally to keep the clutter, the amount of stuff, and the costs way down and still have a very beautifully festive home.
Shop Sales/ After Christmas
The best deals on Christmas stuff are always AFTER Christmas is over. It is not what anyone wants to buy at that time so everything is deeply discounted. It is a great time to stock up for next year on things like wrapping paper, good-quality faux greenery, etc.!
I hope this gives you a few ideas for how you can have a beautiful and festive season without breaking the bank! Happy decorating!
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Here are the supplies I used to create some of the DIY ornaments and decorate on a budget!
These are all lovely, inexpensive ideas. I especially like the hydrangeas in the tree!
Thanks Peggy!