Christmas is creeping up on us, and a fun and cheap way to get in the festive spirit is to make your own decorations at home.
Homemade Christmas decorations are a perfect activity for the whole family, and a way to rest your brain while doing something relaxing and creative.
They’re also affordable and often much better for the environment than store-bought goods.
We have compiled a list of ideas for making Christmas decorations at home:
1. Cookie Cutter Garland
What you need:
- Cookie cutters
- Ribbon
- Baker’s twine
How to make it:
Cut short pieces of baker’s twine to hang your cookie cutters along a long piece of ribbon. You can hang the garland wherever it suits your home: a mantel or across a window.
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2. Candy cane Christmas wreath
What you need:
- Candy canes and candy balls
- Hot glue
- Wire
- White ribbon
How to make it:
Make your desired wreath shape and size out of your wire, and wrap it in white ribbon. Attach the candy cane sticks and balls to the wreath with hot glue to conceal the ribbon and wire. Loop a ribbon around the top of wreath to be able to hang it.
3. Jingle bell table decorations
What you need:
- Dark and light green paper
- Green pencil
- Red balls/beads
How to make them:
Cut out your leaves from the dark and light green paper. Fold the paper to make the veins of the leaves, and then trace those indents with the green pencil.
Position your leaves down the centre of your table and lay the red beads throughout.
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4. Wooden bead stars
What you need:
- Wooden beads
- Paper and pencil
- Wire
How to make them:
Draw a five-point star on your piece of paper. Get your wire and make a loop in one end. Thread the wooden beads onto the wire, bending the wire in line with your drawing as you go.
5. Salt dough ornaments
What you need:
- All-purpose flour
- Salt
- Water
- Mixing bowl
- Toothpick
- String
How to make them:
To make the dough, combine 4 cups of all-purpose flour, 1 cup of salt and 1 1/2 cups of warm water in a mixing bowl. Knead the dough until it is firm and smooth.
Roll out the dough and cut it into whichever shapes you desire. Use your toothpick to poke holes through the decorations for hanging.
Bake at 150°C until the dough is dry (about 1 hour). Once completely cooled, loop string through the holes and knot it at the end.
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Picture: Unsplash
