How to decorate your Christmas tree for under a fiver

The luckiest of us have a box of treasures in the attic to dust off and lovingly decorate the tree year after year. But if that’s not you, decking the halls/tree/porch/stairs can be an expensive enterprise. For the tree alone there’s the tree, the tinsel, the lights and then the baubles. 

But we’ve got your back if you’re budgeting this year, with heaps of ideas to decorate your Christmas tree cheaply. So who better to help us festoon the fir this festive season and have loads of fun doing it than craft legend Christine Leech, co-author of Zero Waste Christmas. 

‘You don’t actually have to spend anything to dress your tree,’ says Christine. ‘With a bit of a forage around where you live, a rummage through recycling and some imagination, you can get amazingly stylish results. Plus you’ll love them all the more for having lovingly crafted them by hand.’

‘I have to say, I thought this would be hard and it would all fall apart,’ admits Chrstine, ‘but threading freshly popped corn that costs just a few pennies onto a piece of red wool or embroidery thread using a chunky tapestry needle is surprisingly easy.’ Dress up your ropes of corn with offcuts of red fabric. ‘I used an old shirt, but anything red or green will do: tea towels, old napkins, offcuts of an old dress. Tear the fabric into strips for that rustic look and knot them round in regular intervals.’

Baubles made from newspapers don’t sound especially bouji, but they look surprisingly chic. ‘Simply cut up strips of newspaper about six inches long and fold them along their length to make a fan,’ says Christine. ‘Then fold your fan in half and glue each end together to make a circular decoration.’ For a brighterl tree use the colour photography pages from magazines and free supplements. To make the hanger, all you need is a silverlined crisp packet. ‘This is my favourite sustainable Christmas hack because it uses crisp packets which are notoriously hard to recycle,’ she says. ‘Simply cut thin strips of the plastic packet and curl with scissors. It’s so easy and it means you never need to buy plastic ribbon again. You can use it to hang your decs, or for present toppers.’ 

If you have the time or the inclination you can dehydrate your out-of-date fruit to make these organic decs, or you can buy a pre-dried packet which is scented too. ‘Simply tie the fruit up with torn strips of old red or green fabric, adding cinnamon sticks and foraged greenery,’ says Christine. ‘You may be surprised how well these last through the years too if you keep them somewhere dry until next year.’

If you have a selection of old baubles and want to create real impact on your tree, thread several together and tie them in a bundle to create one mega bauble, make several and place them in your tree’s branches.