The air is getting crisper. The hours of daylight are shrinking. Before long, Christmas will be upon us.
While you’re browsing for presents, it’s easy to be tempted to toss a bunch of holiday décor into your cart to make your home feel festive. But the expense of seasonal decorations often slips under the radar when you’re planning your holiday spending — and suddenly you’ve spent far more than you intended.
To avoid that after-Christmas remorse, try these wallet-friendly tips for dressing up your home during the holidays.
23 Ideas for Affordable Christmas Decorations
Deck your home without draining your savings. Here are 23 creative and inexpensive Christmas decorating ideas.
1. Wall Christmas Trees
A flat Christmas tree mounted on the wall saves both space and money. You can craft wall trees from a string of lights, lengths of garland, a large piece of felt or even strips of Washi tape. For inspiration, see this feature from Apartment Therapy.
2. Choose an Artificial Christmas Tree
Bundling up to visit a tree farm and cut down a perfect tree is a lovely tradition, but you’ll get more value by choosing an artificial tree. While some faux trees can be costly depending on size and features, they’re reusable year after year instead of becoming curbside waste at January’s end.
3. Opt for a Small Tree
Rather than splurging on a 7-foot centerpiece, save money by picking a smaller tabletop tree. You’ll not only spend less on the tree itself, but also need fewer lights and ornaments to deck it out.
4. Garland
Garland is an inexpensive decoration that instantly adds holiday ambiance. Besides winding it around your tree, you can drape garland across the mantel, over door frames, around windows or along the staircase banister. Instead of buying pre-made garland, craft your own using natural items like dried citrus, pine cones, construction paper, popcorn or cheap ball ornaments.
5. Homemade Ornaments
Leave the store-bought trinkets behind and grab a hot glue gun. Making ornaments is a great way to create holiday memories while producing decorations you can hang or display around the home. Check out this Good Housekeeping post for DIY ornament ideas.
6. Twinkling Lights
A strand of lights can fill a room with holiday warmth. To cut costs, use shorter light strings to brighten small spots — such as a mantle or window — instead of wrapping gutters or a large tree. You can also arrange lights on a bare wall into a star shape or spell out “Merry Christmas.”
7. Window Stickers
Spruce up your windows with seasonal decals. You’ll find snowflake, ornament and gingerbread stickers at dollar stores, craft shops and big-box retailers like Walmart or Amazon. With careful storage, you can reuse them next season.
8. Candles
Candles are a simple, low-cost way to bring a festive glow to any room. Create a centerpiece with red, green, white or gold candles, or place them on the mantel or a broad window sill. For a flameless option, tuck battery-operated votives into Mason jars painted in holiday shades.
9. Dress Up Your Doors
Turn doors into giant presents by covering them with wrapping paper. This works for both interior and exterior doors; add ribbon or a large bow for a finishing touch.
10. Bells on Door Knobs
Make your home sound as festive as it looks by tying jingle bells onto red or green ribbon and looping them around doorknobs. When doors open, the cheerful jingle will have kids peeking around corners looking for Santa.
11. Use Ribbon as Decor
Ribbon is more than a gift topper. Use wide ribbon in holiday hues like red, green or gold to craft bows for your tree, mantel, doorknobs or drawer pulls. Tie ribbon around a glass vase with a candle for an effortless seasonal centerpiece.
12. Wrap Empty Boxes
One of the simplest décor tricks: wrap empty boxes to create faux presents. Stack them in an unused corner, at the base of stairs or on the porch for instant holiday charm.
13. Holiday Card Display
A thrifty way to boost holiday spirit is to showcase the Christmas cards you receive. Arrange them into a wreath or tree shape, or clip them to a ribbon and hang them along the banister with lights or garland. You can fill out your display by picking up inexpensive cards at the dollar store.
14. Craft Your Own Advent Calendar
Instead of buying an advent calendar, assemble your own. This Country Living article offers several ideas. Decide on the small treat, trinket or note you’ll reveal each day.
15. Gingerbread House
Whether you use a kit or bake the pieces yourself, a gingerbread house is a festive project that doubles as a decoration. Keep in mind it’s likely temporary — enjoy it while it lasts!
16. Show Off Kids’ Holiday Art
If you have little ones — or nieces, nephews or grandkids — display their seasonal artwork on the fridge, shelves, mantel or countertops. It’s a heartwarming and inexpensive way to decorate.
17. Create a Holiday Tablescape
Make your dining table feel festive by draping it with a red, green or white cloth and filling a vase or tray with seasonal items like pine cones, holly, cranberries, pine sprigs, jingle bells, candy canes or candles.
18. Sock Snowmen
This simple craft doubles as an affordable ornament. You may already have the supplies: white tube socks, rice, buttons, pins and fabric scraps. Follow the instructions in this Darkroom and Dearly post to make them.
19. Candy Canes
Boxes of candy canes are often inexpensive at grocery or dollar stores during the holidays. Fill bowls with these striped treats for tabletops and coffee tables, or hang a few on the tree instead of buying extra ornaments.
21. Faux Snow on Windows
If you long for a white Christmas but don’t get snow where you live, spray-on snow can create a wintry effect. Use spray snow on windows for a frosted look or spray your wreath to mimic a dusting of snow. A can typically costs under $10.
22. Painted Flower Pot Decor
Turn plain flower pots into outdoor holiday accents with a little paint. Use at least three pots in different sizes. Paint them white for a snowman motif or green for a flower-pot tree. Once dry, invert and stack the pots and add painted details like a face and buttons for a snowman or ornaments and tinsel for a pot-tree.
23. Light Projector
To illuminate your home’s exterior without hauling out miles of lights and climbing ladders, use a light projector. You can find them at Amazon, Home Depot, Walmart and similar stores for under $40.
Nicole Rivers is a senior writer at Savinly.
