Homemade Christmas Tree Ornaments
Nothing makes Christmas more joyful then purchasing your tree and then filling it with bright lights and pretty ornaments. But what if you are on a tight budget? Or perhaps are spending Christmas away from home and do not want to spend a great deal on ornaments you will probably never use again?
A few years ago we found ourselves in exactly that situation. We decided to visit a family vacation home in upper state New York, but left behind all our decorations and the usual holiday trappings we were accustomed to. Instead of spending exorbitant sums of money on new decorations, we decided to go simple and make ornaments with our children. I'm happy to say it's become quite the tradition, and the children and I still prefer to make our own ornaments to compliment a few special store-bought ones.
There are several types of ornaments you and your family can make together:
1. GARLANDS - a garland purchased from a store might be made of tinsel or plastic, brightly colored in silver or gold. However, your garlands will be made from colorful construction paper and tape. Purchase whatever type of paper you like, and then cut the paper into evenly sized strips along the length (assuming the paper is longer then it is wide of course). Fold one over onto itself into a ring and tape the ends together. Pass the next one through the first ring, then tape its ends together as well. Continue to add more and more rings until it's as long as you like.
2. SNOWFLAKES - these are my personal favorite. For this its best if you purchase paper that is square, or trim your paper so that all edges are equal length. Now, fold your paper in half once. Then fold it in half again. Then again. Take careful note of which corner is the folded one, you need to make sure in the following step that you do not cut all the way through that portion of the paper.
Once you've finished your folds, go ahead and use scissors to make all sorts of cuts. You can trim off the edges, make triangular shapes in the middle of the sides, and so forth. Once you have finished all your cuts, you should be able to unfold the paper and have a beautiful snowflake shape to put on the tree (I also think they look great in our windows, or hanging from the ceiling from a piece of thread).
3. CANDLES - I buy red paper, silver paper and yellow paper for this one. The red paper is cut into a rectangle shape with rounded edges to represent the candle. The yellow paper is cut into oval shaped pieces to represent the flame. And the silver paper is trimmed into a candlestick holder shape. We use markers to decorate the pieces and give them a little more detail, then tape one of each to each other and place on the tree.
Just three very simple decorations you can make for your Christmas tree. It's fun for you, fun for the kids, and reminds us of how Christmas can be simple and inexpensive, and yet still bring us all the joy of the season.
