Decorations - starting from nothing

[CrackleMauve]

So we will have moved into our first house in time for Christmas, leaving behind the small flat that we've never really decorated as we're usually away and there's no space for a tree.

This year we plan to have Christmas at home in the new house. My daughter will be 22 months. I want to make the place look properly Christmassy.

So, where is good to get decorations from? Things that are nice but not ridiculously expensive as having just moved we have a lot to spend money on. And what do I need? Apart from decorating the tree I'm never sure what other decorations to do. Inspire me lovely Christmassy people!

my favourite is green garlands with white fairy lights in. Good for up the bannisters or across the mantlepiece.

you can then dress them up with extras like berries or ribbons or baubles or whatever you fancy. Diff every year - but sooo christmassy.

congrats on your new house!

If you have enough money go to a christmas fair. In Bristol they have a german christmas market and every year I buy the dc a new globe for which then looks lovely next year. Lots of nice things.

If your crafty have a look on pintrest to see what you can make?

Lidls and ikea do great ginger bread men houses!

If you buy a few bits of tat now and a few posh baubles then every year you can get rid of some of the tat and add new.

Garden centres do loffly expensive decorations.

Last Christmas was our first in a bigger house and we had a Christmas wedding with the reception at home and I needed loads of decorations. My best purchases were from our Next Outlet, they had some great mixed boxes of decorations on 3 for 2. The Works was also pretty good with tubes of baubles for £1 or so. I got a pretty cute wreath from B&Q and lots of little things from Wilkinsons.

I also brought in loads from the garden (didn't have the budget for flowers) and sprayed hydrangea heads and bits of hedge gold to intersperse with tea lights. Once I got started I was really inspired. I also got married with red raw fingers where I had to scour off the spray paint (we didn't bother with ring shots!)

Tesco often has really cheap but nice decs. To save money, mix it up with homemade stuff, if you have the time, pinecombs with gold spray paint (or unpainted) in bowls, arranged on mantlepiece, hanging from ribbons etc etc. Dried out orange slices, hung with ribbon. Could also make simple arrangements with candles, berries, holly etc. Here (in US) I know lots of people string popcorn together which can be fun for kids to make. Also lots and lots of fairy lights always makes it look Christmassy and they are really cheap at lots of places.

Home Depot, eh Aloha..!?!? Not much use to the OP though

Costco have good cheap decs too

Thanks for all the suggestions. I do like the sound of some homemade ones, and lots of fairy lights are a definite. I am so excited about the whole thing!

We made some salt dough decorations last year and added some mixed spice to the dough to make them smell lovely, also dried some orange slices and tied some cinnamon sticks to the top.

i personally quite like ikea Christmas decorations, i like the nordic feel!

itsatrap If you do salt dough ones again, get some hard boiled sweets make a hole in the middle of dough, put sweet in the middle before you bake, and it comes out like coloured glass in the middle. Grammar

Yes, look at lots of garden centres Christmas displays, also entertaining for your toddler. Remember that posh breakable things aren't worth it where you have a toddler, so for now stick to shatterproof baubles, and wooden, fabric, plastic or metal tree decs.

Look at supermarkets and DIY places like B&Q and Homebase, also shops like The Range, Wilkinsons, Next, M&S, Dunhelm Mill, John Lewis, etc. Hobbycraft have lots of stuff to help you make your own things, like plain artificial fir wreaths and garlands to customise yourself.

Forgot to mention, make paperchains with strips of cheap foil type wrapping paper, and secure the ends of each loop with sticky tape. They don't come apart and look good, and don't cost much.

recommend The Range, really affordable and has lovely stuff! And the xmas stuff is in store now!

We've started buying one special bauble every year, which is relevant to our year, no doubt this will get hard in the future but we have a fancy house from the first year we lived together, a dog in a santa hat from the year we got the dog, a Jamaican Santa from honeymoon and a mr and mrs from the year we got married. This year it will be a baby's first Christmas. Hoping that in the future everything on the tree will have a special meaning

You could also start a tradition of giving your DD a new posh tree decoration (more interesting than a bauble) every year. Then they get a whole collection when they are grown up. We usually got them from past times, and the elves deliver them with Xmas jammies on the 24th :)

M&S Xmas decorations are always 3 for 2. So with big purchases like the tree and large garlands you can save some money. When we moved into our house I brought a couple big packs of decorations and then over the years have brought nice individual ones and have gradually gotten rid of the plastic ones to the point that the cheap ones are only fillers to give the tree 'depth'.

It's also nice to have the memories of where they have all come from :)

fuzzpig that's a brilliant idea! I'm going to start that tradition when i have my baby next year. The elves were already coming and I'd love for baba to have their own special bauble etc they can put on the tree every Christmas eve. Thank you!

You're very welcome. Can't take credit for it though - I got it from an Internet forum... :o

I moved into my first flat about 10 years ago, having shared student type accommodation until then, so I had no decorations at all.

The first Christmas, I bought an artificial tree, and my mum bought us baubles and decorations for the tree from Matalan. They are still going strong 10 years on, and since then, I have started to spend lots and lots on Christmas decorations, much to DH's annoyance [bah humbug emoticon].

My advice would be to decide on a colour and stick to it. The Matalan things my mum bought were all silver and white, and I still do the tree in silver and white every year. M&S decorations are always lovely - they had loads of shaker type stuff last year which i bought loads of for the hall.I am so excited about bringing it all out again.

I fell in love with all the rich jewel colours in House of Fraser the first year we were married. Bought some of their baubles and that's set the theme for the next 22 years.

Of course when DDs arrived seven years of collecting nice glass baubles had to be replaced with cheap plastic.

My advice is wander round shops and garden centres and see what theme and colours appeal.

Also I've always had traditional flats and houses. Our tree would look daft in a minimalist white box.

Last year DH fell for a artificial silver tree, So we have silver, bronze and white in the white PVC conservatory, which would look all wrong in our warm terracotta living room.

M&S did 3 for 2 on their decorations last year - they had some really lovely shaker style ones - and some lovely paper chain loops that I made with my boys (ds2 was 2 and a half then and DS1 5)

Buy individual things because you love them rather than loads of stuff because its cheap. Build your collection every year with a few things you treasure and look forward to seeing again every year. Make some special things - or recruit others - we have a lovely knitted Christmas mouse from my mother for example. Make up any shortfall with natural greenery like the old days; gather holly and ivy for a pictures and mantlepiece or around the base of candle sticks, Cyprus branches woven up the banister, with a few things hanging off them. Sprayed pine cones are lovely (you can sometimes buy bags at garden centres) And this is just my personal taste, but NO tinsel!

The very same places that sell lovely decorations usually reduce them drastically after christmas, so personally I would get a set or two of mixed baubles in your preferred colour for this year, and after christmas get some really gorgeous ones - last year I managed to get some at 75% off so my tree is going to look properly poncy this year. : )

I don't like the whole "themed" thing- we have a tree full of love - of homemade decorations the kids made at school, all clashing colours, and LOADS OF TINSEL!

homemade paper chains adorn the ceiling, snowflakes dangle down - some more "artistic" than others - our Christmas is about the kids and family, not "style"..... looks a bit of a mess, but would not dream of changing it for the world....

I just bought a china Santa jar/pot/thing for £3 in the charity shop. Can't wait to fill it out full of chocs!