Affordable Winter Decoration Ideas

Written by Rita Jabbour

Thumbnail Photo by Lynda Hinton on Unsplash

No, you’re not dreaming: you have indeed survived to the end of the semester (minus one more week of exams)! And that can only mean one thing. It’s WINTER BREAK: a time for celebration, joy and spending time with friends and family… but also, another kind of spending: the kind that involves all your hard-earned money. Despite it being a wonderful season, we often find ourselves a little strapped for cash by the New Year from spending on presents, decorations, outings, and activities. And yet, it would be out of the question to limit gifts or not decorate. Whether you plan on decorating your house, apartment, or even your dorm room, a budget shouldn’t stop you from being able to do so. Here are a few holiday decoration ideas that will ensure your home reflects the holiday spirit and that you stay well within a reasonable budget.

While some of these suggestions focus on ways you can be creative and hand-make decorations, some ideas include purchasing ready-made items at reasonable prices.

Ornaments

It goes without saying that one of the most important décor items is ornaments. Once you have your tree, whether artificial or natural, you need to spruce it up. You can find affordable packs of Christmas balls and other shapes of ornaments at Dollarama that can range from $1.25 to $4/pack, depending on the size and number of the pieces. You can also find similar products at Walmart, Amazon, and Michaels, although they tend to cost a little bit more. 

However, if you consider getting yourself immersed in some arts and crafts, here are some ideas:

Photo by Wholefully

Salt dough ornaments: A great way to make durable ornaments is making them using salt dough. They are a super easy and excellent way to create personalized ornaments for your tree with three simple ingredients that you should already have at home: flour, salt, and water. Click on the following link for the full recipe and instructions! How to Make Salt Dough for Ornaments, Handprints, and Crafting. Once you have successfully made the dough, you can make ornaments of your handprints, fingerprints, or even a pet’s paw print. You can also use different Christmas-themed cookie cutters. Then, with some paint and glitter, you can design them in any way you like, add ribbon, and hang them up. [https://i2.wp.com/wholefully.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/salt-dough-ornaments-19.jpg Photo by Wholefully]

Styrofoam: Another craft idea is buying Styrofoam balls or other shapes for less than $2 a pack at Dollarama. You can design these with holiday-themed colours of paint and glitter, including designing them to look like Santa, a snowman, elf, or even snowflakes. Another idea is to use a piece of red, gold, or desired fabric to wrap around the Styrofoam. You can even use ribbons, sequins, and any other crafty material. With this task, you could choose to go all out and tap into your kindergarten-arts-and-crafts fantasies! To hang them, you can either purchase ornament hooks to be attached to the Styrofoam or simply poke a hole with a pencil or knife and push through a piece of ribbon that allows you to hang the ornament onto your tree or elsewhere. All these supplies should not cost you more than $10, and you get to make several ornaments.

Paper snowflakes: Cutting up paper snowflakes is another quick and easy craft you can do for ornaments, or just decorations in general. Fold up any piece of paper you can find up to four times. With some scissors, make small or big cuts at different sides and areas of the folded paper. Open it back up once you’re done snipping and you should have a snowflake. This craft will cost you absolutely nothing if you have paper and scissors at home. You can choose to keep it as it is or spice it up with some… you guessed it… paint and glitter! The same way you made holes in other ornaments, you can cut a slit just big enough for a piece of ribbon or string to get through, tie that up, and you’ll have snowflakes to hang on your tree, windows, or even have them cascade from your ceiling!

Photo by Amazon

General Decoration Items

Add some ribbons: Moving on from ornaments, you can pretty much make anything appear like a Christmas item with some ribbons and bows. You can wrap your throw pillows to make them look like presents, as well as your doors! Add a bit of ribbon to anything you find around your house that can pull off appearing as a ‘gift.’ If you don’t already have ribbons at home, you can check them out at Dollarama, Staples, Michaels or Amazon.

Recycling: If you have some glass jars or bottles lying around from previous purchases, you can make use of them by painting and designing them with holiday colours, drawing characters, writing quotes, or anything else you feel would represent you during this holiday season. You can also do the same with empty toilet paper rolls; transform them into a Santa, reindeer, or snowman using paint, paper, colouring pencils, fabric, ribbon and even some cotton for the ‘snow’ effect.

Candles: Speaking of glass jars, you can place candles within them and scatter them on tables and counters around your home. Whether painted or clear, the warm and cozy feeling that candles emit can make it feel like the holidays in any space. So, don’t hesitate to light a few.

Photo by Homestead Acres

Lights: Just as candlelight can reflect the holiday spirit, sparkling lights do the same. Buying two or three strings of lights should not cost more than $6 from Dollarama. You can hang them on windowsills or just around your home.

Hot Chocolate Bar: Adding a hot chocolate bar nook in your home is a fun way to add a decorative and holiday-like feel to your space. Because, let’s face it, who wouldn’t enjoy a warm cup of hot chocolate in freezing weather? So, personalize a little table or a small corner of your kitchen counter with festive décor and all the needed ingredients! Hot chocolate packets, milk, and a kettle are all you need for a successful cup. These ingredients are usually things you already have in your kitchen, so no spending there! If you really want to make it unique, include marshmallows, candy canes, and whipped cream.

Decorations you can buy

As for those who prefer not to get their hands dirty when making decorative items, turning to a few stores for affordable items is never a bad idea. As a tip, there are several reasonably-priced décor products available at Dollarama if you feel like popping in and seeing what can fit your budget. These include garlands, ornaments, stockings, plush characters, and many more table and wall décor items that may be of interest to you. Also, visiting a nearby thrift store to look for holiday trinkets could be a successful trip. 

Don’t forget that you can always find some way to bring the holiday spirit into your home without spending a lot of money, especially if you’re planning to spend it on presents and fun holiday activities. You can make some crafts to use as decorations, go out and buy your décor, or go with a collaboration of both. Whatever you decide, you should know that simply by adding a decorative item or two (not even anything extensive), you can remind your exhausted mind that the holidays are right around the corner, and reassure it that it’ll only need to maintain its thinking spree for a few more days!