My $2.68 Christmas Decorations
I have been so busy this past week that I didn’t get out my post on Thursday like I usually do, but my house is getting decorated for the holidays.
So what is this about my $2.68 Christmas decorations? Being the first year in a proper house (not a condominium) means new decorations for a new place. We all know how expensive Christmas decorations can get. To be honest, we aren’t even putting up a tree this year, we are waiting for the after Christmas sales. I have never had a home with an eleven foot ceiling so I don’t have a tree big enough and the last several years we were at home we put up a live tree.
With my amazing front porch, I really wanted to focus on decorating that area, but even that was going to cost me a fortune. After shopping the sales and using coupons I finally decided on how much garland, how many lights and how many wreaths I could buy (not as much as I really wanted to).
I was done…BUT…I have these two pretty urns that held mums for the Fall and I didn’t want to invest in trees or poinsettias for them. What to do…what to do. These urns make a great statement and I will be making a point of changing their contents each season, so I wanted them to stay on the front porch flanking the door. These would look so lovely filled with bright red poinsettias, or white birch branches and evergreens. Alas, those things were not in the budget.
Then I came upon an idea using a cardboard box. Yes, a plain cardboard box. My boxes are 14″ x 14″ and came from Wal-Mart. I happen to know from many recent moves that Wal-Mart has the cheapest boxes around. Two boxes, each bought for sixty-eight cents (okay, yes, there was some sales tax, too). You may even have a couple of cardboard boxes laying around and be able to save the sixty-eight cents!
Next came some red ribbon. I have to be honest, I didn’t take a picture of the ribbon on the spool, but I found two yards of red satin ribbon for $2.oo on sale and bought two of those little bolts. The red satin ribbon above is from Amazon and would work out to .52 a yard, so actually if you bought the entire bolt, your price would be better [and you would be able to make bigger bows]! So there we have it, $2.68 spent and what did I do with it? I taped up the box, tied the ribbon around it, and put them up on my urns.
Here are my $2.68 Christmas decorations, looking like pretty packages just delivered! Full disclosure here, I did already own the urns and I added a few evergreens which you could cut from your yard, or skip all together. You could also just stack different size boxes for a similar look. I did not put anything inside the boxes to weigh them down, but if you live in an area that gets a lot of wind, you might want to weight the boxes down in some way. I have a covered porch, but if you want to use these in an area that is exposed to the weather, just wrap them in plastic wrap and see how pretty they look when lights reflect off of the shimmery wrap!
I will be sharing the rest of my Christmas decorations soon! I hope you are getting all decorated for the holidays and getting all of your shopping and baking done!
I will be sharing this at the following link parties: Show and Share | The Scoop | Inspire Me Monday | Creative Spark Link Party | No Rules Weekend Blog Party | Creative Circle Link Party | Friday Flash Blog
This is a perfect example of thinking outside the box! It also goes to show that you don’t have to spend a fortune to make a beautiful decorating statement. Love this Chloe!
Thanks, Sandra! I just didn’t want to spend another dime on Christmas decorations this year, this worked out to be the perfect solution!
Saw this decoration on your porch yesterday!
I am glad you drove by and saw them, Linda! The lights are all up now. My dad is getting them set on a timer, so it should be very pretty at night through the holidays!
I love your resourcefulness Chloe! Your front porch looks great. I may have to copy this idea one year. I just have one urn so I bought a small evergreen bush to plant in it and I have an old wreath that I put at the base of the urn.
Thanks Dawn…the budget on Christmas decorations was finished off with the wreath I will feature tomorrow. I had to come up with something showy on the cheap!
Chloe! I have to be honest. As a DIY blogger I see many creative projects that I love and am not usually surprised by a project. You totally surprised me! This is my favorite idea on the blog hop! I didn’t know where you were going with the simple box. Your urns look stunning and so elegant! I’m your newest fan!
Oh, Jeanette, thank you so much, that is so sweet of you! I am heading over to check out your blog!
WOW- I really love this idea, and am definitely going to use it for my own black urns! I was just thinking how I was tired of my white branches and looking for something different to do this year – ad along comes your project to the rescue! Thanks for sharing.
Thanks Liz! I was just trying to come up with something to stop the spending I was doing!
such a simple and inexpensive solution that looks awesome! 🙂
Thank you Kristina & Millie!
These look great! Even better than the expensive options.
Oh, thank you Kati! I love it when I get that rare spark of creativity, it is even better when it doesn’t cost much!
That actually looks fabulous!!! Who doesn’t love a big red bow? Happy holidays! 🙂
Thank you Erin!
Very inspired by your creative talents. Definitely something I can handle. I like the fact that you are conscious of your spending. It means so much morevwhen ypu DIY. Thanks
Thank you Judy. Yes, with a new house, you can only spend so much on Christmas decorations, each year, I will add a little more.
Very clever and very effective. It turned out great.
Oh, my, what a simple and delightfully pretty idea!! Thanks so much for sharing it! This is something I can totally do and will look so cute on my front porch. Visiting from Christmas in July.
Thanks Zenda…what am I going to do to top that this year?
Oh I remember this! I was like I am so doing that next year! Thanks for sharing and refreshing my brain!
Beautiful!!! I love this idea. Thanks so much for sharing it with us at Christmas in July! Pinned to share.
Love it! Such a genius idea. I am going to copy it. Thanks!
It is so impactful, and cheap! I have to figure out what I’m going to do this year to decorate!
i did see the whole porch & it’s beautiful !!!
Oh Thank you so much Melba!
I dried large okra that were too big to eat and hydrangeas from my yards. Then I spraypainted everything gold and created floral arrangements with them. Pretty cheap.
Oh, that must have been beautiful! So creative to use things you had on hand and just paint them!
Awesome!!!! You are so creative!!!
Thank you Christine! Furniture came first over decorations that year!