WEEKLY QUESTION 28

What frugal or practical Christmas tips (does your family practice) that you can share to cut down on Christmas-related expenses but not necessarily sacrificing on quality?

Tips? I'm not good in giving one so I'll just share our Christmas decors made out of scratch. I hope its frugal enough to answer the question hehehe...

Since real live tree for a Christmas tree is NOT frequently used here, "reusing" our 6 years old artificial one is I believe economical itself. (I would prefer a real fir tree though. But transporting it from an hour travel with the boat, I'd stick with my fake ornamented evergreen).

When we first bought our Christmas tree, silver and blue were the theme color of our decors using Lukie's excess tokens during his baptism. Its a mini basket with a little baby figurine that was made in the Philippines. I just added silver ribbons to go with it.

I changed our motif into gold and red two years ago giving in to my husband's comment that the blue and silver is more of "for adults". He suggested that it would be more exciting for the kids seeing bright and bold colors(Yeah, more catchy for Dylan who runs away like a thief with the red balls).

Only the Christmas lights and the Christmas balls were bought, the ribbons were recycled. Its a gold fish net that was used to wrap a big gift before. I just cut it and made it into bows. The angel came from the hotel where my husband works. They change Christmas decors yearly so we're happy with their "hand me downs".

Out in our terrace I used real tree branches I had cut from outside. I just bought gold and red strips and made bows and flowers out of it. the blue balls were from my old blings.

Our windows too, adorned with "true" branches and old ornaments from the hotel.

Lastly, my gift wrappers. I bought a plain red paper, the cheapest in IKEA costing only 1.40 euros (10 meters long and 1 meter in width). Then a simple white ribbon(10m) for 99 cents and gold costing 2 euros more. It wrapped 3/4 of the gifts I sent to our friends and relatives. I also asked some stores where I bought some of our give aways to wrap it or they give me the wrapper and I'll do it at home.