Decorate Your Home For Christmas On A Budget

How to decorate your home for Christmas on a budget is a great thing to be thinking about if you’re trying to be money-conscious. Here are several tips and ideas for decorating without spending a lot of money, if any.

 

 

Decorating for Christmas is one of my favorite things to do. I start planning months ahead of time by collecting pictures and pins for inspiration and ideas I want to copy. Being people who are trying to live frugally though, this requires careful planning and intentionality. We are working to save money to pay off student loans. Because of that we try our best not to spend extra on things that are not necessities. Below is a list of tips, ideas, and strategies for decorating your home for Christmas on a budget!

 

Decorating Your Home For Christmas On A Budget

 

Time:

The best way to decorate your home for Christmas on a budget is to start early! If you’re not last-minute shopping, you can go to thrift stores, consignment shops, and yard sales to find what you’re looking for.  So the earlier you can start planning the better.

 

Get ideas:

Create a Pinterest board or have a folder for physical papers that inspire you for Christmas. Look for colors and features that your pictures have in common. You may prefer wood elements, greenery, or snow. There are modern, vintage, and minimalist ways to decorate too! For a few years I loved the blue and white aesthetic with a lot of snowmen, other years it was just gold and silver, and lately it has been the forest greens and vintage reds.

 

Organize what you have on hand:

Create an inventory by sorting what you currently own for Christmas. Take what you have and create some piles of things that you want to go in the same room.

When organizing what you have on hand, make a pile of things you don’t like or don’t use. First, don’t keep it if you won’t use it! An item has served its purpose if it was used and enjoyed even once. When you no longer use it, it’s time to get rid of it.  It’s now just taking up space and probably emotional space in the form of guilt for not using it. If you’re afraid that you will miss it, put it back in storage for one year and write a note on the box saying that if it’s not out the next year that you’ll get rid of it. (Just for the record, I’m not talking about something sentimental or generational. I’m more talking about the fast-fashion type decorations.)

Second, see if what you don’t use anymore can be taken apart and repurposed in other ways such as tree or wreath decor or accents for centerpieces or even gifts!

 

I had bought a plain large wreath with a 40 percent off coupon because plain was extremely cheap, then I used pine cones, and a few floral accessories from other Christmas decor that I was getting rid of and made a wreath that I have loved for almost ten years now!

Additionally, you can start a group chat with your friends to see if anyone wants what you have and ask others to do the same. This way you can know that what you are getting rid of is going to a place it will be valued. Plus you may get some free Christmas decorations you like better in return!

I save all the bows, ribbons, boxes, and tissue paper that we are given each year so that I can use it for both decorating and wrapping the next year. If I don’t feel that we will have enough for the next year, I budget and go shopping the day after Christmas so that I can get great deals on Christmas decor and wrapping supplies.

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Frugal Living Tip: I have found that there is wrapping paper and supplies that do not go with what I consider a traditional Christmas color scheme. I keep an eye out for these on the day after Christmas so that I can buy them discounted but use it for other gift-giving opportunities. I’ve seen pink and red paper and one that was striped with green, blue, and pink!

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Make a list of things that you want and need:

Making list of things you want and need goes directly with starting to plan early. You can keep it in your notebook, calendar, or phone. The list should be easy to access and update so that you can work on it year round.  If you know you want more wreaths, write down how many you want, where you want them, and what size they should be. One of the mistakes that people make when decorating for Christmas on a budget is getting the first thing they see that “kind of” fits what they are looking for. If it’s not what you want and you’re going to replace it with something better later, then you’re not saving money!

 

Make your decorations for free or almost free!

 

Budget Christmas Decoration Ideas:

 

 

Presents! A well-wrapped Christmas present is excellent decor. If you do your shopping early, wrap the presents early too. Beautifully wrapped presents will fill up the area under your tree and make your home look decorated. Find wrapping paper that matches your color or decor theme. But don’t forget that it’s your place to decorate so all your presents don’t need to go under the tree. You can put some on a mantle or next to the television or on a countertop.

 

If you want to decorate outside, find a few empty boxes, place a large rock or brick inside, and then tape them shut. Wrap them neatly and decorate them to match the theme that you are going for inside your house. If kept out of rainy or snowy weather, you can use these year after year as decor.

As I mentioned above, the things you don’t love, like, or use can be taken apart. Use the aspects of these decor that you love or are attached to in something new!

 

DIY Wall Art:

You don’t have to be an artist for this! You can just write out lyrics to a Christmas song. I loved the idea of a scroll, so I took some butcher paper and taped either end to empty wrapping paper tubes. Bennett wrote out a few lines from the hymn “Oh Holy Night”. He measured the spaces and sketched everything out in pencil first, so it did take time. It’s one of my most treasured decorations because of the care he put into recreating something I had been envisioning!

 

If you don’t want to try handwriting song lyrics, print out our free Christmas wall art prints here! These are a 5×7 prints. You can place them in a larger frame with a border or nice matting if you want to take up wall space.

When printing, you can print on traditional printer paper or you can order these prints through CVS, Amazon, or Walmart!

 

DIY Decor:

Use the things that you have at home to create your decor. If you have a bag of popcorn, you can string it into a beautiful popcorn garland. Popcorn garland is great cheap Christmas decor for your tree or doorway. Make sure the popcorn is at least a day old before you try to string it up or it will crumble.

Check out our holiday cardboard craft for children. Customize this craft to bo a beautiful and cheap decoration that suits your house.

 

I took old Christmas-colored fabric and cut it into small rag strips. It took a while, but I tied the rag strips in knots around a Christmas light strand. This made a fabric garland that adds to the Christmas decor without spending a lot of money. This wasn’t my idea though. My mother-in-law gifted me one for Christmas a few years ago and it is easily one of my favorite decorations. When the lights went out on it I took all the fabric off that strand and remade it along with making a few more!

A can of spray paint in your Christmas colors can be used on old glass bottles or jars. These can then be used as centerpieces on tables or as vases for real or fake holiday greenery!

 

Working on these ideas and strategizing early will help you to create the Christmas setup that you’ve envisioned on a budget. Let us know in the comments below if you’re going to try any of these tips!

Save it for later!