Decorating the Christmas tree with little money...

[sa]

We live in a small city apartment, so we store our off season stuff at some of our family members' homes.

This year I went to grab my Christmas ornaments and couldn't find them. I know they have to be somewhere, but for now they are lost.

I have family coming to visit and I want to have my tree up and decorated by this weekend. I don't want to spend money on a whole new set of ornaments, so I'm looking for cheap alternatives.

The only thing I could think of was using different colored ribbon to decorate the three. Or the paint strip idea from YHL (not happening!).

Do you have any other ideas?

[thewop]

What about getting some pics of you and your H/SO from the past year printed as ornaments? You won't need that many, to fill up a small tree, and it would be a cute way to show your family what you've been up to this year.
ETA: you could use different colored ribbon to hang them for some added visual interest.

[simpsongal]

Are you near a park w/pine cones? I think those look nice, especially if you paint the tips white like snow. I would tie bows w/the ribbon. If you have old holiday cards, you can cut out the pics, punch a hole in the top and hang them -- it looks nice, sort of victorian.

[pumpkin]

You could string popcorn, get some holiday ribbon and tie bows on the tree, hang cookie cutters. I also have a friend who painted a ton of those basic styrofoam balls and hung them on her tree.

[magdala9]

Paper snowflakes
Candy canes
Felt cut into traditional Christmas shapes.

[kellikans]

I like the idea of taking pinecones and painting the tips white. you can even maybe add glitter in the paint for a little sparkle.

[peach]

Paper cutouts. Check out the blog Dear Lillie -she decorated their tree with some white reindeer paper cutouts, it looks adorable.

Black and white photos, trimmed into circles with a hole punched in the top and ribbotn added.

I lady I babysat for did her tree with tea cups and old silver spoons one year.

[minniebee]

One year when our Christmas stuff was packed away in an off-site storage unit, I decorated a tree with cut out gingerbread cookies. I used a straw to make a hole in the top of each cookie before baking them. Instead of decorating them with frosting (since they wouldn't be eaten) I decorated with paint, which is easier for me to work with than frosting. I added some cranberry garland and popcorn garland. It was a down home country kind of tree, which isn't my usual style, but I got a lot of compliments on it. People thought it was cute.

[sa]

These are some cute ideas. Thanks for the blog rec too. I like a lot of the stuff on there.

Thank you girls.

[boiler717]

You could use ribbon to tie bows on the tree

[Deleted]

I bought linen fabric and cut it into strips to tie bows. Have you checked the dollar store or thrift stores? I did entirely all new ornaments this year and only spent about $25 by buying at thrift stores!

[jena]

Candy canes, ribbon bows, and popcorn garland. Salt dough ornaments if you are so inclined.

Sent from my HTCEVOV4G using proboards

[auntie]

I did edible g'men and candy canes the year DS was a toddler. Another year I did gingham and calico bows. White paper snowflakes can be pretty too.

[TBM]

Some of our favorite ornaments are from the year we were staying in a hotel and I brought a small tree, lights, some cord and some hooks and made a rule that we had to 'find' or make ornaments for the tree.

We still have the origami birds made from Ricola wrappers (I was sick) and a popcorn bag from going to see Muppet Christmas Carol at the theater on Christmas eve, the joker from a deck of cards that we bought so that we could play games, a pine cone or some kind of pod...stuff like that. I loved that tree so much, and love to see those ornaments every year. It was so much fun to have something that was like a little time capsule of that particular Christmas.

[davescatch]

I just have to say I love these ideas! I may do that thisyear - I just don't think I can open up my ornaments box this year (too many memories). I may steal a few of these ideas.

[AmyRI]

I have a lot of ideas with filling clear glass ball ornaments and embroidery hoops saved in Pinterest.

Glass balls filled with strips of sheet music, tiny bells, holly springs, or wrapped with fabric and tied with ribbon.

Embroidery hoops with fabric, scrapbook paper, or ribbon. One was even Santa's belt made out of felt.

pinterest.com/amyri/christmas-ornaments/

You could also just buy a big set of cheap multicolored glass ball ornaments or snowflakes at someplace like Target to fill in the rest of the tree without taking too much time or money.

[floridakat]

I did a teacup tree one year for my mom's formal living room. I tied up whole lemons in tulle and tied them to the tree with ribbon, and wrapped up squares of sugar with ribbon and tied those on as well. I used her teacup collection, and put some looseleaf tea in tulle as well. It smelled wonderful!

[sa]

I'm going to head to the store some time this week after work. I'll let you know how it comes out. Thanks for the ideas.

DC - I'll be thinking of you this Christmas. ({) (})