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You are here: Home / STYLE / How to deck all the halls without spending all the money

How to deck all the halls without spending all the money

November 23, 2017 by Molly 1 Comment

I love decorating and I love Christmas. But I don’t love spending so much money we have to eat beans and gruel for the month. So when it comes to decorating FOR Christmas, I’m a less is more kind of gal. (Did I just type “gal”? Sorry. Gloss over that.)

Despite current Instagram myth, it IS possible to deck the halls without bankrupting yourself. You don’t have to buy a whole new set of bedding for each room, re-wallpaper the lounge in a festive print and invest in a whole new set of cushions. You really, really don’t.

But what you DO need to do, if you want to embrace Christmas at home is get creative, invest in one or two key pieces that you can reuse year after year and, most importantly, nail the lighting.

Here are some of the ways we manage to give our house a festive makeover without going crazy with the cash:

Buy one or two special pieces that will last forever

As a kid, some of my favourite decorations were the old ones. We used to have Christmas posters (I think they were actually posh wrapping paper my parents’ had re-purposed) that were displayed year after year, along with a slightly battered fairy who sat on top of the tree. But I liked these familiar pieces and got excited about unwrapping them each year, rediscovering old festive friends.

Now I’m a mum myself, we’re beginning our own decorating traditions. Each year I tend to buy one little item that will be wrapped up and treasured for years to come. These pieces stand out alongside the bulk-bought baubles, and give the tree a bit of individual personality. I never go crazy with decorations and, for me, the most I’ve ever spent in one Christmas on decorations (not including the Christmas tree) is £50.

I particularly love the decorations at Cox and Cox this year. The understated copper accent ones are my favourite (I’m a traditionalist when it comes to the tree and go for metallic, red and white decorations) but if you’re more into kitsch, retro designs or prefer a bit of colour they have those options too.

Make your own (you don’t need a Blue Peter badge!)

You know when you get a real Christmas tree you sometimes have to saw some of the end off the bottom of the trunk? We had a bit of random Christmas tree trunk hanging about in the log pile last year so we sawed it into smaller rounds and made some decorations out of it. A chunkier round with a hole drilled out of the middle and spray painted can be a cute candle holder, or saw it even thinner and drill a hole in it to make your own tree decoration.

Another idea is to tie a group of twigs together, spray paint them (or leave natural if you prefer a rustic look) and hang these from your tree or display on a mantelpiece. It’s so easy to do and costs next to nothing.

Use nature (it’s free!)

Every year we also have a collection of spray-painted pinecones which we reuse at Christmas and dot around on shelves in clusters or as a table centrepiece. In the past I’ve put a dab of PVA glue on the tips and rolled them in glitter – which can even be a fun craft activity with the kids if you can bear the mess.

You don’t have to actually do anything to your finds though. A collection of pinecones on their own, around a few tealight candles can look really pretty. Or scatter them through a bowl with some sticks of cinnamon and baked orange slices for a homemade festive pot-pourri. And while we’re on the subject of oranges, we also (I say “we”, I mean “I”) do homemade spiced orange pomander balls to put on the mantelpiece. It’s literally an orange studded with cloves – it smells amazing and adds a splash of jewelled colour to a mantle display.

Get clever with lighting

I string up fairylights everywhere at Christmas. And I mean everywhere. They go along the banisters on the landing upstairs, we have at least two sets on the tree, another set around the breakfast bar window into the kitchen and then more in the living room – although the downstairs is kind of open-plan so you can see twinkly lights all over the place. This is an unapologetic approach to festive lighting because, when it comes to lighting, the more twinkles the better I reckon.

Last year I went a bit nuts and bought a light-up stag head for Christmas which we ended up loving so much we’ve kept it in the living room all year! There’s one very similar here, if you’re in the market for a lit stag silhouette.

 

Tell me, how do you plan to jazz up your home this Christmas without spending all the cash? Any more ideas for me?

 

 

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Thanks to Cox & Cox for commissioning this post. For more details about how I work with brands head over to my Work With Me page or send me an email at mollyjforbes@gmail.com. 

Filed Under: Interiors, STYLE Tagged With: Christmas, Christmas decorations, decorating at Christmas, handmade Christmas decorations, interiors

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Comments

  1. Ghislaine Forbes says

    November 27, 2017 at 9:32 pm

    We go into the paddock and find a suitable branch and bring it inside and put some lights on it. Hey presto free Christmas decorations! We used to have a proper Christmas tree but now we are HOME ALONE there seems little point. Love ma x

    Reply

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Hello and welcome! I'm Molly Forbes - podcaster, presenter and blogger with a passion for positivity, confidence and body image chat. Regularly writing and vlogging about empowering female issues from a motherhood angle, I also cover lifestyle and fashion topics for like-minded mums who want to rediscover themselves after having children. Thanks for stopping by! Read More…

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Image description: A close up of Molly’s bare skin as she hugs herself. It’s dark and part of her body is illuminated by light. She has her eyes closed and is smiling.
“Mummy I wrote a letter to myself,” she said. “Mummy I wrote a letter to myself,” she said. And my heart swelled. Maybe I’m doing an OK job after all 🤞❤️💕 #BodyHappyKids 
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I could leave this caption here but I need to make something clear: if you think it’s great that my daughter - a thin, white, nondisabled, cisgender kid - feels good in her body but you’re not here for the self-love of any kid who doesn’t look like her.... then you’ve missed the point.
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ALL bodies are good bodies, and without this important piece of the puzzle ALL children will be at risk of doubting their body. And what happens when they doubt their body? Well... hating our body doesn’t make us treat it with love, and the same is true of kids. 
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Great, now we’ve cleared that up, can we take a moment to appreciate the incredible phonetic spelling on show here?! 
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Image description: Effie, age 6, stands against a white wardrobe holding up a letter she has written to herself. It is spelled phonetically and reads “My body is good and excellent and my body only belongs to me.”
I used to struggle to buy stuff for myself if I ha I used to struggle to buy stuff for myself if I had any spare cash - not just treats, but basics like pants and tights that fit properly. I’d tell myself I didn’t need it, didn’t deserve it, couldn’t justify the expense. There’s still that little voice (the habit of putting everyone else’s needs first and my own last dies hard it seems) but I’m leaning into exploring why it still sometimes rears its head, instead of always listening to it. 
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I’m trying to buy as much as I can from pre-loved places or small businesses these days, which is why I’m very happy to share with you some of my latest finds: a star dress from Depop (£5), earrings from @kelzojewellery by @ourtransitionallife (£12) and the comfiest tights I’ve ever owned in Raspberry Pie by @snagtights (£6.99) 💕💕💕
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This is what teaching kids to idolise thinness and This is what teaching kids to idolise thinness and fear fatness looks like and it hurts my heart 💔
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This is what happens when we only give children a very narrow representation of what health / beauty / success / happiness looks like, and when we don’t incorporate mental health into conversations about health. The body image, self-esteem and wellbeing of children suffers. And it IS suffering.
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Last week @Childline_official launched their #NobodyIsNormal campaign and released figures showing they’ve run 43,000 counselling sessions for children since the first UK lockdown earlier this year. These are quotes from children they spoke to, showing that low self-esteem is a major issue for many of the kids they’ve been in touch with. 
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Head to their page for more information and resources, and to see their fantastic video. It’s a great way to open up a conversation about mental health and self-esteem with the children in your care. 
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It really doesn’t have to be this way ✨
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Image description: a series of slides showing quotes from ChildLine. Full text can be found in Alt Text.
I was at my desk all weekend so here’s a throwba I was at my desk all weekend so here’s a throwback to September when we hiked along part of the South West coast path and discovered three new beaches. I miss the outside. 
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This post is dedicated to anyone who says opting out of diet culture and a weight-focused health narrative means you automatically won’t move your body. Actually, the opposite is true. 
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Research shows exercising for intrinsic reasons (how we feel) is more likely to lead to consistent movement than if we do it for extrinsic reasons (how we look). 
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There’s so much research on this subject and about why diet culture and weight stigma is harmful. Suffice to say if you’ve not read the research, or any books, or listened to any podcasts, or even read the captions of some of the amazing people educating about this subject then you won’t know it all... despite what you learned at school or what your own unexamined internalised bias is telling you, or what the newspaper headlines say. 
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If you’re interested in learning more about this stuff there are lots of resources in the link in my bio, but for fitness specifically I recommend following @emmafitnessphd @tallyrye @thephitcoach & @amysnellingpt for starters and also check out @drjoshuawolrich recent post on this subject too ✨ #JoyfulMovement #BodyHappyKids
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Image Description: Molly and her two daughters on a beach, smiling. They wear hiking boots and Molly is wearing purple leopard print leggings and a neon yellow jumper. The sky is blue and the sun is shining.
Did you know the same area of the brain lights up Did you know the same area of the brain lights up when we experience the pain of social rejection as when we experience physical pain? True fact. Which is why I think 
it’s wild we spend so much energy in kids’ health education on nutrition (or “good food and bad food” as is so often the case) and so little on prepping them with the skills to navigate social media in a positive way. 🧐
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Social media can be a great thing, but it can also be a scary and anxiety-inducing place too (watch The Social Dilemma on Netflix for more on this!). We’re having conversations with children about the dangers of sugar but not even touching on the dangers of social media and the impact it can have on health (because mental health is health too FYI). 
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I’m a 37 year old woman and social media still messes with my head. What chance has a tween got? 
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I could lie and say that I always take the “other people’s opinion of me is none of my business” approach but the truth is I’m a sensitive people-pleaser so when I experience negativity online it stings. 
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I don’t read hate forums and am quick to block trolls, but that doesn’t mean this stuff has no impact. 
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I had a conversation with my pal @jskychat that helped me through a difficult phase recently, and I’ve shared the tweets that started it off in case they’re helpful for you too. I think Jsky should be brought in by the government to help design a PSHE social media lesson for the curriculum to be honest, but that’s a fight for another day. ❤️
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In the meantime, I’m teaching my kids the affirmation that “Their opinion is not my truth”, which works well in all life but seems particularly apt when it comes to social media.
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