Decorations inspiration please - what couldn't you be without?

[Fluffy24]

I've never really 'done' Christmas until this year (new DS earlier in the year seems to have brought some Christmas spirit with him!) but now I'd like to make an effort and make the house look nice.

Will probably go for a real tree but I don't have any decorations for it, or elsewhere in the house.

Apart from the purchase of the tree I'd like to spend not more than £40 on decorations this year, though will add to them in future and maybe buy some more things in the new year sales.

Where do I start? What core things could you not be without? Where do you buy them? How much do I need for a 5' tree? What non-tree things do you have?

You need to pick a set of lights and a topper and then the best thing to do is buy a few boxes of decoration sets in the theme colour that you want or completely mismatch it if that's what you like Then pick a few nice/sentimental decorations, for example, baby's first Xmas.

Then through the years add more nice ones and remove the cheap fillers. I'm 11 years in to my tree and have only a few of the original fillers. I can remember where most of them came from and what years.

Try M&S for nice, mostly glass baubles. They are always 3 for 2. Garden centres tend to have lovely selections. I like specialist Christmas shops, one pops up locally from late October and has a really big selection for my kitchen tree. My original decorations were brought from The Pier (remember them!) my children choose decorations each year too.

Hi Fluffy
I may not be the best person to advise on how to fully decorate your home on £40 - we spend a lot more than that, but I can offer what I know, and hopefully bump this so others see it too.

Where do I start? well, if you're buying a tree, start with decorations for that before the rest of the house. Do you want lights and tinsel, or just baubles? Something I read online recommended 100 fairy lights per foot of tree. I use 440 lights on a 7 foot tree and it's never been a problem.
Tinsel makes a lot of mess, but the needles from your tree will do that anyway!
We have about 80-90 baubles on our 7ft tree, but usually end up leaving the back bare because we don't have enough to fill it entirely.

After the tree is done consider for other areas. In our house we decorate the living room with greenery with big red bows attached, we have a manger scene for the Base of the fireplace and a Christmas village scene for the top. We have various "novelty" lights (santas, snowflakes etc) on the walls, and a large reindeer pulling a sleigh on the living room window. We also have christmassy cushions and candles which come out. A Christmas train which goes around the tree and a Christmas countdown thingy.

We then have fairy lights in the hall, signs for all the doors (things like "north pole this way" or "reindeer ahead") and a 3d rope light sleigh (which I think is actually for outside).
Wreath on the front door. Fairy lights and spray snow on bedroom windows. Big stencilled spray snow display on kitchen window.

What core things could you not be without?
Christmas tree, Christmas train, nativity scene and village scene.

Where do you buy them?
Some where bought, some where made. Most of the village scene was made from oven bake clay, a lot of the tree decs were too. Lights can be bought anywhere from b&q to garden centres, supermarkets to discount shops (home Bargains, b&m, poundstretcher) etc.
Our train was bought from Tesco about 5 years ago, it's still going strong. Nativity was bought from a charity shop.
If you're starting out with nothing I recommend looking for bundles on eBay/Gumtree to get started.

How much do I need for a 5' tree?
How long is a piece of string? It totally depends on how much you want on your tree.

Happy decorating!!!

Sorry x-post with chocolate

I think you may struggle at £40 if that is to include lights, particularly if you are going for a 5/6ft plus tree. The lights for my 6 ft tree had to be replaced last year and I am sure they were £70 from home base as I needed 2 boxes to cover the tree.

Decoration wise can be fairly cheap as lots of the pound shops/b&m etc do multipacks of decorations.

I have collected over the years. My tree is all Disney and I have lots of vintage stuff. I despise tinsel though. None of that in this house!

You should be able to get enough lights for £20-25, perhaps less if there are any offers on. The smaller the tree the less lights you will need. But don't leave it too late to get lights. Check out the large retailers such as homebase, Argos etc.

I would get a tree topper and baubles. There are plenty of packs of cheap plastic baubles available in various shops (Poundstretcher, The Range etc). Buy a small number of nicer baubles to place in prominent places on the tree. You could always make some decorations and either use them in the middle of the tree, or display more prominently if they are really good.

If you have a fireplace you may want to buy a garland or string a small number of lights.

Put baubles in a shallow dish with a candle and put in a couple of places.

Coloured fairy lights for both tree and hedges along the garden path and lots of bright multicoloured baubles for the tree would be my absolute minimum. We also have a wreath for the door (artificial and reusable), homemade snowflake bunting for the living room window and various other bits and bobs. Most of ours is from The Range, big garden centres etc. Worth keeping an eye on Lidl, we've got some lovely bits from there.

Fluffy, if your baby will be crawling, make sure that all your tree decs are unbreakable, and that there aren't any small bits that he could choke on if he puts any in his mouth.

We do what mmmmchocolate said about buying the cheap filler baubles (Homebase did great sets a couple of years back, where they had loads of different styles but in coordinating colours, looked good on the tree).

We try to buy baubles at places we visit, so that every year when we're putting up the tree we get a lovely reminder of past memories. We don't just buy things meant as tree decs - key rings, if you take the key holder off, can easily be strung up on the tree, and are usually the right size.

You don't have to have a traditional tree topper. We have a small stuffed toy who we put on the top of our tree for years, until DS came along and claimed him for his own.

Thanks for the ideas, I like the idea of starting simple until I get the hang of it!

We bought good sets of lights from Home base last year & they came in plastic tubs for storage. I like Ikea for decorations as I like a Scandinavian theme to my decorations & they are very reasonable. So I colour theme on red, white & gold with a real tree. I also use a lot of candles mainly tealights in glass holders & a couple of hurricanes again Ikea is a good source. I also have a Scandinavian inspired table cloth. I have Christmas cushions made by my mum & a few felt craft pieces I have made including bunting ( prima on line or pintrest are good for ideas). I also hang evergreen garlands from my stairs & make a wreath with friends every year for the front door. But I draw the line at Christmas bedding when did this become a thing.

Bonesy - your house sounds wonderful can I spend Christmas at yours please it sounds exactly how I would love mine.

You'll needs lights, a tree stand and baubles for the tree. I use a few multipack baubles in red and gold that I got from Woolworths years ago, a few that I have bought over the years and I also make some biscuits which I hang from the tree, and I tie bows of red ribbon and gingham fabric.

I have a wreath on the front door, with a string of battery powered lights wound through it.

Inside but not-tree, I have an advent calendar nativity wall hanging, greenery around the mantelpiece, a bowl full of pine cones and dried orange slices and clove-studded dried oranges which I sprinkle with the White Company Winter pot pourri oil.

Lots of candles.

Possibly more fairy lights if you have a good place for them.

Cards.

loads of places like asda, wilkinson ( particually nice) have good box sets of decorations, whic you can add too and very cheaply too which are a great base.

If you had zero budget I would say tree, tinsel and lights. soft SOFT fairy lights would loook nice even on a bare tree.

or without a tree just lights! lighting is key.

look up natural xmas decs places like pin interest will show lots of lovley things you can get from nature too.

my whole house is shrouded at xmas, hanging off lights, mirrors, any surface...i went off tinsel but now back on it .

i dont think you could go wrong with any supermarket basic pack, some tinsel, lights and a tree.

Poundland sent me a preview email the other day and I screenshot the tree as it looked so pretty and everything is obviously £1. I'm going to try and recreate it.

Thanks everyone I'm going to get a few basic things for the tree this year, but I might get some more things in the sales after Christmas to keep for next year.

I really like the idea of a wreath.

Think I'll have a look in IKEA for some non-tree items.

Very excited now!!

Tesco 3 for 2 Christmas Dec's are very good. Go cheap and upgrade year by year

You need

Christmas tree lights
Bulk cheap packet mixed baubles - mix of glitter and satin and large and small, all in one cheap packet
One box of nicer more unique mix decorations
One wreath
2 stockings

Paper chains can really add colour and are really cheap. You can buy ready to do kits from places like M&S and John Lewis or do your own with double sided paper and double sided tape- The Range have a good craft section where you'll find paper etc.

I put some up in the kitchen and it adds some festive spirit where there isn't room for other decorations.

We normally have a tree (usually real; I collected the decorations in sales over a number of years but you can get lovely and inexpensive things everywhere now - I like Matalan's range this year which is v pretty).

We also have some paper mobiles and decorations, the Danish Livingly ones, (they can be expensive full price but we bought them cheaply in the John Lewis sale after Christmas, watch out for them in sales); we hang them in the windows and from the light fittings. You can make lovely paper decorations too - window snowflakes, hanging paper hearts and angels, paper fans and stars, paper chains, Danish paper heart baskets in Christmassy colours - really cheap and they are such fun activities for kids. Also childproof! I used to have loads of beautiful glass baubles and decorations, delicate candleholders and candles and so on, which all had to be put away once DD started crawling. All our tree and house decs now are child/toddler proof - paper, felt and wool! Gives a nice Scandi look though. If you can knit, mini mittens and stockings look fab as tree decorations.

I saw these on John lewis website and immediately thought I could easily do that for a fraction of the cost with poundland red or gold plastic ones, glitter or sequins, glue and some decorator's masking tape.