Maybe not every year, but as a special surprise, prepare a themed tree for your husband, partner, or child. One year, I made a Star Wars tree for my husband. I took a white plastic tree from the Dollar store, and decorated it with purple and blue lights. I continued with blue and silver and purple strings of beads and ornaments from the goodwill. I then wired my husband's old action figures onto the tree.
I need ideas for thrifty Christmas tree decorations this year. I would like to try a different theme, such as country, etc.
By ER
I love country, when I used to decorate for Christmas, the more "countrified" I could get, the better.
Cloth yo-yo's are easy, quick to make if you have scrap fabric. Can add alittle cotton and sew a button in the middle, and yarn for a hanger. I found rag wreaths on here, where you take scraps and tie to a ring for a wreath. I made a tree shape, and tied scraps with red,green and gold (not even holiday fabric) in them and then made a holiday bow.
In the south, we have sweet gum trees that drop "millions" of sweet gum balls. They can be sprayed gold or other colors and hung on the tree. There is a website called favecrafts.com, that have an enormous amount of crafts. The magazine Christmas trees are popping up on there and maybe here, too.
Even old Christmas cards can be used for ornaments, or glued to just about anything. You could decoupage a dish or can with old holiday cards.
Hope these few ideas will inspire you. Our thrift stores have alot of decorations to choose from,too.
Good Luck and Happy Holidays!
Gingham fabric torn in strips and tied in bows, pine cones tipped with white craft paint, cinnamon stick log houses would all make nice ornaments for a country tree. String popcorn and cranberries for garland. I actually used packing peanuts in lieu of popcorn and red wooden beads to make a longer lasting garland.
String popcorn...used to be you could even buy colored popcorn. Glitter on small pine cones.
I love ripped rag balls. I sometimes make them into ornaments. You can make them country fabric or all holiday.
When you are done, you can add buttons or bows made from ribbon or more ripped fabric. If you don't have styrofoam balls, you can simply make the center out of old balls of yarn you can't use.
I use cool temp glue to keep them in place, making sure that the strips cover the strip under it so nothing in the center shows through.
You can of course make them from nothing but strips, but the center you can't see is lost so I make "faux" balls. I put them on wreaths, too.
I hope this helps.
Try an Asian tree, make colorful origami ornaments.
We use to make ornaments for our "Elf Shop" and one that was a favorite was using the lid from the frozen orange juice can and taking a nail and outlining a picture in a Christmas theme, like a wreath, candle, etc. (tin-punching). We would take white ruffling and glue around the edge of the ornament, add a string for hanging and you have an inexpensive ornament with a country flair.
When those little colored beads that children use for their birthday parties break, don't throw them away...you can cut them into little pieces about four or five inches long, more or less, and then hang them on the branches, they make little candy cane shaped ornaments when you hang them on the end of a branch....
