My Frugal Life: A Frugal Christmas
But I remember my very first Christmas in my townhouse with my two babies. I as able to afford a few toys, but not decorations or a tree (my favorite part of Christmas. But do to some maneuvering and creativity, I able to pull off a pretty good Christmas.
First, I was able to get a live tree for $10.00. Yes, this was some time ago, but still unheard of even at that time. The reason the tree was only $10.00 was it was missing some branches at the bottom. I ask the lot manager could I gather some branches off the ground and he said it was OK. He also said I could take what I wanted off the ground. So I gathered up the branches and carried home as many as I could. Since this tree was a little smaller, I was able to get some bricks to give the tree some height. I covered the bottom of the tree with a red table cloth from the thrift shop. I also sprinkled gold and silver confetti on the table cloth. Since the tree was missing some of branches, I leaned the tree in the corner and added the branches that I had gathered, to fill in some spots.
For my tree decorations, I again went to the thrift shop. I found bulbs, garland, and ornaments. Most of the garland had missing pieces; so again, I just use different ornaments and bows to cover up the missing spots. I used the leftover branches to make wreaths for my front and back door, also using some of the decorations that I had gotten from the thrift shop (I tied red ribbon the wreaths and hung pine cones and bulbs. I even found a bag of letters (wooden, paper, ceramic) and I spelled out different sayings throughout the house. My lights were from the thrift shop and they worked. I used coffee cans punched holes in them, painted them gold, red and green, and put used candles in them as a table decoration. I found a green sheet to use as a table cloth and found 4 red placemats. I decorated the table with gold, red, and green plastic dishes. Except for the tree, everything was found or came from the thrift shop. I had compliments from family and friends. With just a little imagination, time, you make a Christmas worth remembering.
Jetruth from Waterloo, IA
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