My vlog where I tell about my time at the Anniversary-Birthday Party. All participants was sent a plain brown bag and we were to decorate them with anything we could come up with. Then the bags were filled with small gifts thus the grab bag was born. This would be a great recession-proof idea for those on a very tight budget. Some of my ideas for low budget gifts 1. Favorite childhood books at www.bibliofind.com 2. Have a winter picnic at your favorite place bring a thermos of hot cocoa and …

Office decorating contest.

Only eight Christmas trees this year (down from nine last year), but with a new lighted Christmas village display

Christmas Tree: It is said that during the 7th century, an evangelistic monk traveled to Germany to spread God’s word. He offered a tree to the first village he came to, explaining that its triangular shape represented God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. This first “Christmas tree” was decorated with small, white candles.

In 1610, people began to add tinsel to the traditional decoration. When the concept of Christmas trees spread to England, they began to decorate it with glass beads and snowflakes. By the 1800’s, America was introduced to this festive custom. However, it wasn’t until the years after WWII that that real lighted Christmas trees, by then either with candles or electricity, developed into a universal tradition in the United States.

Christmas lights: Even before electricity, Christmas was associated with light and guidance, and thus candles were a popular way to decorate during the holidays. There were holders designed specifically to cling to the branches of a Christmas tree, and for a few precious minutes, the family or town Christmas tree could be lit up with many little flames of hope.

Today’s electric lights stem from Edward Johnson’s 1882 Christmas tree. He was a colleague of Thomas Edison, and decided to put this wonderful invention to use for festive purposes. After his small rotating tree lit up by red, white, and blue electric bulbs, the idea began to develop into what we have today.

Ornaments: At one point in time, all ornaments had to be crafted with glass, or otherwise made from edible objects. Europeans originally marketed glass ornaments to be hung on a Christmas tree or wreath. Christmas trees were strung with cranberries, popcorn, or gingerbread during the pioneer days of our culture, when material possessions were an encumbrance. With the invention of injection mold plastics in America, more affordable and durable ornaments became available.

Candy Cane: A German choir director used to give straight, mint sticks to his students when they behaved well. Sometime during its development as a Christmas tradition, the candy cane took a curve—and was thereafter shaped like a shepard staff, representing the guidance of Christ over his flock.

Christmas tree

• Rather than buying a real tree thats been cut down, transported and then thrown away, purchase a large potted plant or small tree that can be used each year as your evergreen Christmas tree.

• You could always purchase an artificial tree that can be reused for many years, these range from 10 pounds to over 100 pounds. Ours actually looks real!

• If you buy a real tree, pay the Woodland Trust or a different organization to plant one in its place!

Christmas Decorations

• If you have evergreen shrubs and trees – to make sure you have an annual supply of eco-friendly Christmas decorations why not do some of your pruning just before Christmas and use the choice bits for inside? If you have not got any evergreens but have a garden ask for some of these plants as Christmas presents. They may take a few years to grow but then all you will need to do is harvest in December and be as creative as you like.

• Make a homemade wreath using branches trimmed from your garden or somebody elses.

• Purchase handmade decor made from recycled or eco-friendly materials. If possible by Fair trade as well, as they are a great way to support the disadvantaged. While some of these crafts may not be from recycled materials they provide much needed income to needy individuals.

• Ivy is good to drape around pictures, windows and the base of Christmas trees, it will hide the wires of the tree lights. There is as far as I know no substitute for electric fairy lights but as they last for years and use very little power, their impact is relatively low and they do look great.

• One of the advantages of using natural decorations is that after Christmas they do not need to go in the bin they can enter your normal garden waste on the compost heap.

Christmas tree ornaments

• Make homemade ornaments from (painted) pinecones, painted eggshells, crushed (colored) aluminum foil, paper chains, paper snowflakes, old CDs and more!

• Decorate a doll as an angel.

• Do an online search for recycled or homemade tree ornaments for numerous ideas or purchase these recycled or eco-friendly tree ornaments if you cant be bothered to make them.

Gifts

• Buy a subscription to an organisation working to make the world a better place such as the RSPB, RSPCA or Oxfam.

• If you are buying a present that uses batteries make sure the person you are buying it for has a battery charger and buy rechargeable batteries.

• Buy a homemade present, bird table, compost bin. Chocolate cakes often go down very well!

Gift wrap

• Collect extra photocopies or no longer needed papers from work for your children to draw on the back.

• Use colored pictures from your childrens colouring books.

• Use leftover pieces of fabric or wallpaper.

• Use recycled paper.

• Put the gift inside another gift such as a decorative tin, nice wooden box etc.

• Use gift wrap, gift bags and gift boxes, ribbon and bows from last Christmas or previous celebrations. Leave the tags blank on the gifts you are giving so that they can be reused.

Greeting cards & gift tags

• Send an e-card.

• Make a greeting card or tag from scrap paper, fabric or wallpaper.

• Make cards or tags from pieces of food box.

Packing material

• Use saved packing material such as foam or bubble wrap.

• Crush up newspaper into loose balls. This is cheap, quick and lightweight! This is our preferred method for box filler.

After the New Year

• Find out where you can recycle your real Christmas tree or Christmas cards, local councils and supermarkets are a good place to start. They will turn your trees into mulch for use in parks and public gardens.

• Use any wrapping paper that is no longer reusable for shelf liners or craft projects.

• Save boxes, gift bags, wrapping, filler, ribbons and bows for future gift wrapping or craft projects. Give them away to friends, neighbours etc if you have too many to keep.

This year, the latest craze in Christmas decorating is going back in time. Homeowners seem to be less interested in the icicle-type lights and the use of single color strands. Baby boomers seem to be harkening back to the days of their youth, by bringing back the full color glory of traditional Christmas lights.Lawn ornaments have become a must-have for the decorating elves in your neighborhood. Families everywhere are installing huge lawn ornaments, many consisting of animated light patterns. They sheer number of choices for shapes, sizes, and designs should tell you that these are very popular with festive homeowners. I am a huge fan of the old-style bubble lights (you know…..the ones with colored water and bubbles inside), and they have returned with a vengeance. Many people seem to be gravitating back to using real trees, instead of using plastic pre-fab ones. Who can blame them? They smell great, and they make Christmas feel that much more real. My family has always used a real tree. It has become a family tradition to go out and cut the tree ourselves. We usually wait until mid-December. We all get bundled up in our snow gear, get our sleighs out, along with a thermos of hot apple cider, and make our way into the bush. The kids love it, the dog loves it, and it makes for an excellent family adventure!It seems that Christmas flowers have also changed with the times. Although the classic red poinsettia will likely be with us for the rest of time, many florists are offering their customers alternatives. As has been the case with flowers in general for some time, florists are now adding dyes to traditional holiday flowers and bouquets. My personal favorite happens to be a bright violet poinsettia. My daughter prefers cobalt blue. What is yours?Whether you are a staunch Christmas traditionalist or you are keen on changing along with the current decorating trends, Christmas decorations have never before been so varied and left consumers with so many choices. So get out there and shop, shop, shop! Tis the season, after all! Catherine Spelling absolutely loves Christmas with family and friends. She often starts shopping for next year on Boxing Day, and hides the gifts for an entire year. When she is not trying to prevent her children from finding her purchases, she writes for christmaslightsanddecorations.com – an online resources for all things relating to Christmas and decorations, with information about Christmas lights, Christmas ornaments, Christmas crafts and more.