Festive Decorations

Homemade Christmas

With the school holidays approaching, I thought that I’d put together a few ideas of things that don’t cost the earth and can or cannot involve children. This sorts of things get everyone in the festive spirit and allow everyone in the house to be involved in ‘getting Christmas ready’.

Wrapping Paper

Buy a huge roll of brown paper and then ‘go to town’. We do potato painting, we use glitter glue, we use paint. Just indulge your creative self and it works even if you are doing festive shapes and design, or if you are doing splatter art. Its great fun and I always think that art calms the mind when Christmas chaos is all around. Kids normally love doing this and it is a great way to involve them in the art of giving and doing things for other people. A lesson we are trying to teach in our house at the moment!

Mantlepiece Decoration

Some of you might be lucky enough to have a garden with lots of winter foliage in so this is a great way to bring a bit of the outdoors inside. The other option is to head to your local florist who might sell premade bundles or ask if they could get some in for you.

You could get some chicken wire to create a frame so that you can secure the branches or you can just place them nicely and layer them so that there is a 3D effect. In terms of ‘add ons’ you could dry citrus fruit, pop pinecones on, or dried hydrangeas. Just a few different ideas.

Homemade Potpourri

This is a marmite thing, but I’m popping this on here anyway. You are going to need:

·         Pine cones

·         Dried berries (cranberries are best)

·         Cinnamon Sticks

·         Star anise

·         Cloves

·         Sliced citrus fruit

·         Essential Oil – Wild Orange, Clove, Cinnamon

·         Greaseproof paper

·         Baking tray

Heat the oven to 90 degrees and pop the dried ingredients on the greaseproof paper. Pour the essential oils over the items and spread them out. You then put them in the oven for 2 hours. You want all the items to be super dry because if they aren’t them the potpourri can mould.

When they are all dry, sprinkle some more essential oil on the top and place them in a bowl to enjoy.