Budget-Friendly Ways To Make Your Home Feel Extra Festive This Holiday Season

Christmas is rapidly approaching, and it is the time of year to eat, drink and be merry. However, with the cost of living crisis and prices continuing to go up, many have been left feeling anything but merry.

Even if you have to pull those purse strings in very tightly, you can still enjoy the festive season. Here are some great budget-friendly ways that can make your home feel extra festive during this holiday season and make your home a winter wonderland.

1. Make your own Christmas centrepiece by foraging

You can create a stunning festive look without it costing you a penny, and you can enjoy exercise while doing it. We are talking about making your own Christmas centrepieces using foliage picked up whilst going on a woodland walk.

You can pick and use holly branches and leaves, pine cones, acorns, autumn leaves and more. Foraging is a great way to make outstanding and unique centrepieces for your table, hallway and door.

You can place strands of foliage along your mantelpiece if you have one. Put holly branches complete with berries among them and add a few pine cones. You could use pine cones and holly berries on a painted upturned jam jar lid and finish with a festive candle in the middle for the table.

1. Make a bauble chandelier

Are you wondering what to do with the leftover baubles that you cannot fit onto your Christmas tree? Well, why not make a bauble chandelier?

Buy a couple of cheap small hula-hoops or craft hoops and paint them or wrap them in ribbons. Then go ahead and tie on some of your leftover baubles. Cut the string at different heights, so some baubles are lower than others, and finally, wrap some ivy and holly strands around the hoop and hang it from the ceiling.

1. Hang handmade stockings up

If you are handy with your hands and like sewing, you can make and hang up handmade stockings. These not only help you to save money but also bring that personal and unique touch to your Christmas. If you can’t sew, you can use fabric glue.

Just take pieces of felt or fabric that look Christmassy that you already have around the house and cut out stocking shapes. You can sew them or glue them together and then decorate them as you wish. This is also a great way to involve the children, as they can make their own stockings.

1. Make your own door wreath

Door wreaths have become very popular, but they can be costly. However, you can make your own very easily.

This is done by collecting some thin pliable tree branches and shaping them into a ring shape, tying them together with string or using hot glue. If you need more structure, bending a wire coat hanger into a circle can provide a great base for a wreath. Weave in some branches to fill in the centre of the wreath, giving it some stability, tying or glueing them in place.

Get some cheap thick green tinsel and thread it around the wreath and through the centre using glue to keep it in place. Make sure you have some tips of the tinsel around the outer loop sticking outwards to look natural.

Stick on baubles, ribbons, and anything else you want onto your wreath to finish it off then hang it on your door.

1. Make small box decorations

If you have any small cardboard boxes lying around, you can make some artificial small box decorations.

You can also do this with any cardboard you have around. Just cut the cardboard into six squares and fold over about an inch of the edges, cutting into the corners. Fold the edges over and glue them to form a box. You can then take some cheap wrapping paper and wrap the boxes up to make little fake presents that can be placed as decorations.

Alternatively, you can make the boxes but allow them to be opened and put small favours in them and place them on the table for guests.

1. Make a cheap candle centrepiece for the table

Centrepieces stand out and make a focal point on any dining table where you will serve guests Christmas dinner. The only downside is they can be costly. To save money, you can make your unique centrepiece and here is how.

Buy a cheap 3-tier cake stand from your local pound shop. Alternatively, you can buy plastic plates and cups and stack these on top of each other to make a cake stand.

You can then place pinecones, holly leaves and berries, acorns, dried autumnal leaves and such around the plates, along with some baubles and bows. The top tier of the cake stand can also hold a tall candle surrounded by festive decorations.

1. Make your own Christmas crackers

Christmas crackers are a nice touch at the side of plates for Christmas dinner, but they can be expensive and let’s face it, they are usually filled with useless plastic bits and bobs that only get thrown away.

Why not make your own this year? You will want to plan ahead if you want to make your own and save up all the empty toilet roll inner tubes.

Take the inner tubes and place treats inside, such as wrapped chocolate. Write a joke on a small piece of paper; you could even make paper hats too. Then, wrap the tubes in crepe paper and twist the ends around. If you have some leftover ribbon or thin tinsel, you can tie the ends with a glamorous finish.

1. Have fun making Christmas salt dough ornaments

Of our budget-friendly ways to make your home feel extra festive during this holiday season, this is one of the most fun-packed if you have children.

You can mix up some salt dough and sit down and make Christmas ornaments such as Christmas trees and stars, even Father Christmas. Just buy some cheap all-purpose flour and mix four cups with one cup of table salt and 1 ½ cups of water.

Mix it all into a dough, then turn it out onto greaseproof paper. Place another sheet of greaseproof paper over the dough and roll it out, so it is about a half-inch thick.

You can then use shaped Christmas cookie cutters or draw freehand shapes for your ornaments. Make sure you make a hole in the dough to hang the ornament. Bake them in a 120°C oven for about 90 minutes to 2 hours. Allow them to cool, then use acrylic paint to decorate them.

There are plenty of ways you can make your home feel extra festive during this holiday season and on the big day. Along with saving some money, you also enjoy some unique decorations. Plus, you can have fun with the children collecting Christmassy foliage from your walk and keep fit.