5 Great money-saving decoration ideas...

1. Cut shapes out of felt and string together with needle and floss or strong fishing line to hang all over the house.

2. Drop a tea light candle in a glass jar (old mayonnaise or jam jars are perfect) and tie a ribbon round the neck of the jar. Now you have your own Christmas candle. Take down your pictures and wrap them like a gift, then hang them back on the wall. It’s a great gimmick for Christmas.

3. Use a sponge to print stars or other shapes on your windows. Just add a teaspoon of liquid dish soap to acrylic craft paint. After Christmas you should be able to wash it off easily with window cleaner.

4. Make a candle garden by taking a plate or tray and arranging candles of varying heights on it. Tuck some greenery in between the candles to give your candle garden an extra festive touch. Paint some stones gold or silver and arrange them around the base of the candles.

5. To give your Christmas tree a natural look, slice oranges thinly, skins and all and dry them out in your oven at the lowest setting for a few hours. Now thread them onto a ribbon and hang on your tree.

4 Tips for avoiding a Christmas tree mess...

A natural Christmas tree is a beautiful thing. The scent of the needles; the green hue…

But then there's the needles digging into your carpet… Water stains on your carpet… Struggling to get it through the doorways... Needles showering out like confetti...

So here are 4 ways to take away the mess and hassle:

1. Get a tree bag with your tree. Slip the bag up over the base of the tree before you put it in its pot. The bag now will be hidden under the tree until it’s time to take it down. When New Year arrives, pull the bag up over the tree like a pair of trousers. This way, when you take the tree out, there will be no trail of needles through the house.

2. Avoid water stains. When you water the tree, it’s inevitable that it will get overfilled and the water will stain your carpet. To stop this from happening, put a plastic tray or small bucket between the pot and the carpet.

3. Keep the net on. Don’t cut the net off your tree until you have it indoors. It’ll be much easier to slip through doors and hallways and there will be no mess left behind. You’ll find it much easier to get it in the right place and to tell if it’s straight too.

4. Save your knees. Bending down to water the tree can cause havoc with your knees. Instead, hang a funnel from one of the tree branches, slip a length of plastic tube over the end of the funnel and run it down into the pot. You could also get one of the kids to let you know when it is full.

 
Here’s to your wealth and happiness, 

Pascale Barrow
Managing Editor of Personal & Finance Confidential