Edited to add paragraphs and to apologise for the length. There's just something about your posts that really resonated with me.
I use my kitchen scissors 🤣. Lots of shops sell really basic ones for under £10 that look great even if you just tie on a new piece of ribbon or add a few bits , and mostly you can take any fresh stuff off the base and reuse the fake stuff in following years.
The sorts of things we add range from dried orange slices, (do tte' yourself in the oven and tie them on with string) pinecones,(picked up in the local park) bundles of fresh rosemary, cinnamon sticks (the Indian spice packets in the local shop are much the cheapest - probably because it's not true cinnamon, but it looks and smells as good) , clumps of fir (or leylandii....) sprigs of holly or trails of ivy( from the nearest railway embankment!) for the neighbour who likes natural or ribbon, tinsel (we save all the bits that break off other decorations) and cheapy fairy lights mixed with a few really cheap small plastic baubles for the neighbour who likes bling, and you know what, even despite our lack of skill, they all look good.
We also really enjoy the time we spend making them. We book a couple of hours, play Christmas music, eat mince pies, drink tea or wine, gossip and share the bits and pieces we've each brought and it's fab. If you haven't got friends or neighbours nearby , would your children be up for jazzing one up with you?
As others have said, so much of the good Christmas memories is not about the material stuff, but about doing things together and that love and time is the key. We used to walk round the local streets between tea and bed time looking at all the Christmas trees in people's windows and choosing which ones we liked best. My nieces say that those are some of their best memories, along with the wet weekend afternoons when we would haul a duvet off one of the beds, make hot chocolate and watch a movie all snuggled up together on the sofa. Combine that with a picky tea served as a picnic on the living room floor and they were in heaven!
I get the impression that you've had such an awful time over the years that your self esteem and confidence are through the floor, but good for you in taking the steps needed to get you and your children out of the crap a nd into a better way forward.
If you've reduced your basket by half it sounds as though you are finding the balance that is right for you in not spending all your savings, but working out what is most important to you so that you can enjoy Christmas too.