Frugal Friday: How to decorate a Christmas Tree for under $5

Hello all my lovely readers!! Happy Friday!!


Let me start today's post by explaining a little bit about this year's Christmas at The Shabby Nest. As you may know, we are moving. Well, here's the kicker...we're moving out BEFORE Christmas. Yes. BEFORE Christmas. (note to self....never move at Christmas time again.) We will be spending the actual holiday with my in-laws which will be absolutely lovely, but in the meantime things are a bit, shall we say, chaotic. Still, I couldn't let a house with four kiddos go without a Christmas tree now could I?


So this past Tuesday, we made our annual trek with the Hubby's family to a Christmas tree farm about an hour away (the same place his family has been going for the last 37 years) to get our tree. I told the Hubby that since we are moving, I was not pulling out the regular Christmas decor, and I wanted a small tree. We found the perfect little tree.


Once we got it home and put the lights on it, I explained to the kiddos that we were going to do something a little different this year. They were fine with that as long as there were still Christmas lights involved...because to them, that's all that really mattered.


Inspired by these two trees in the PB catalog (yes, there's that old PB catalog again)...





we created this sweet little tree. I'm calling it our Family Tree...

I printed out a bunch of black and white family photos (wallet sized) and simply punched holes in them and added twine to hang.

This is my favorite engagement photo outtake of me and the Hubby- notice "the Rachel" hairdo...circa 1995

That was the end of day one (and the tree was not done). The next day, the Toddler Demolition Team and I made a trip to Walm*rt and purchased a package of stencils. The kids thought I was a little nuts, but they humored me. I punched holes in the cards and added twine as well.

We used some snowflake ornaments purchased last year at the dollar store (I tried to avoid getting them out, but the kids spotted them in the box when I was getting out the lights, and hey, it's Christmas, and they're kids.)

Instead of a tree skirt, I just wrapped the base in some pretty black and white damask fabric that I had in my stash. It lends itself well to the color scheme and adds a bit of elegance as well.

Finally, to top it off, Mr. Two fell in love with this funny star (also at Walm*rt for $1) and had to have it for the tree. I wasn't too jazzed about it, but I bought it anyway. Then I hit upon the idea of combining the book wreath project with the star to make something fitting for our Family Tree. I just rolled up pages from an old book and hot glued them to the back of the star. I. LOVE. IT. Mr. Two couldn't figure out why I would glue "sticks" on the star, but when I told him that the "sticks" made the star extra special, he went along with it. :-)

It must be noted too that aside from putting on the lights, and the star, I let the kiddos decorate the tree by themselves (and I only moved a couple of things afterwards...I couldn't help myself...it's an illness, really.)

So here's the $$ rundown...

Lights............ free (already in our Christmas stash)

Tree skirt....... free (from my fabric stash)

Photos........... free (printed right off the computer)

Twine............. $1 (dollar spot at Tar-jay)

Stencils.......... $1.49 (Wally-world)

Star................ $1 (Also at Wally-world)

Snowflakes..... free (in our Christmas stash - but purchased at the dollar store initially)

Grand total....$3.49

There's some frugal decorating going on here, oh yeah! And you know, I think this may just be one of my favorite trees yet. Everyday I get to look at the faces of those I adore smiling back at me from a tree that celebrates the most wonderful season of the year. Isn't that what it's all about?

Have a great weekend~