Fru-Gal Friends

Very Valuable Member Joined : 13 Oct 2006 Posts : 260

Christmas Tips and Ideas

* Keep things as simple as possible. If you find that you are unable
to manage the twenty-five different cookie recipes you want to make, pick two
or three of your specialties and just make large batches of those. Don't
serve fifteen different dishes for Christmas dinner. Just do the five or six
favorites.

* Take scraps of fabric or felt and cut into Christmas shapes. You can
do this by using cookie cutters or templates. Then attach them to twine,
wire or ribbon and use for garland all over the house or on your tree.

* When stringing popcorn for garland, let it sit for a couple of days
to get stale. Stale popcorn is easier to string. (I sure wish I'd known that
last year! We made popcorn and cranberry garland. It was very pretty!)

* Put some vegetable oil on a rag and polish red and green apples.
Place in a bowl and fill in the spaces with greenery. (Lemons look nice, too!
...Or is that a different time of year? ;-)

* Wrap some of the pictures you have hanging on the wall to look like
packages. This can be a really cute and inexpensive addition to your
decorations!

* Send your Christmas packages early. This may seem like an obvious
tip, but many people don't do it. You can save a huge amount of money by doing
this. Not only will you save money, but the more things you can get done and
out of the way early, the fewer things you will have to do all at once at the
last minute when too many tasks are already stressing you out!

* When you have to send things through the mail, think about what
you'll buy. Is it fragile, heavy or very large? None of these are good candidates
for shipping. (Some of our family spend $150 in shipping to mail $100 worth
of gifts.) Instead send smaller items like videos, CDs, or books, which can
be sent inexpensively by Media Mail. If you're OK with gift certificates, you
can usually send them for the price of one stamp.

* Do you like to have fresh greenery in your home for Christmas? Go to
any place that sells Christmas trees (tree lots, Lowe's, Wal-Mart, etc.) and
ask for the branches and cuttings that have fallen off. They are usually
glad to get them off of their hands since they're just going to throw them away.
Besides using them for decorations, try tucking them in and around your
artificial tree to give it that fresh tree smell. (We sometimes go to a local
park after a windy day and collect freshly fallen evergreen boughs.)

* For the kids' table at Christmas or just to use as a cute
decoration, put a candle in a glass jar or bowl. Fill the rest of the bowl around the
bottom of the candle with cinnamon candies, peppermints, nuts or colored gum
balls or jaw breakers.

* I like decorating my house in a Candyland theme each year. If you
have the same type of theme, at each place setting for dinner, decorate a small
glass jar with a ribbon around it and fill it with multi-colored candy. This
not only adds to the table decorations, but you can write the person's name
on the jar and make it a small gift for him or her to take home.

* One of our traditions at Christmas is to always dress up. After all,
we are celebrating Jesus' birthday, and in the same way that we would dress
our very best if we were invited to the birthday party of the Queen of
England or the President, why do any less for Christ's birthday? Besides, dressing
up adds to the fun!

* Buy your Christmas tree after December 15th when they are much less
expensive.

* Instead of a fancy tree skirt, use a white sheet. The colored gifts
look great against the white. (Then your seven year old can decide she wants
to wear the tree skirt herself! ;-)

* Don't worry about the extra expense of a "tree extender". They don't
really work. Your tree just needs lots and lots of water. Make sure the cut
end is always under water or it'll seal itself shut and stop drinking. Check
often! Your tree may drink gallons of water in the first few days.

* Go to your carpet store and ask for the cardboard cores that carpet
comes on. I wrap them in white plastic trash bags and twist red ribbon around
them. That way I have instant giant peppermint sticks for my outside
decorations (and they don't cost $50 each like the ones in the tores).

* Are some of your Christmas decorations and ornaments looking a
little battle-scarred and worn? Maybe you want to change from the country look to
a more sophisticated look? Try spray-painting your older things with gold,
silver or copper paint.

* Recycle that artificial tree that you don't want any more. Bend the
branches and connect them to make either one very large wreath or several
small ones. If you're not ready to part with an artificial tree, you can still
watch at garage sales for inexpensive trees to use for wreaths in the coming
year.

* If you send a lot of cards each year, consider sending postcards
instead of Christmas cards. They are less expensive to buy and cost less to
send. You can even recycle some of the fronts of old Christmas cards to use as
postcards.

* Got more eggnog than you can drink? Use leftover eggnog for French
toast. Just add a little cinnamon to it and it works wonderfully.
_________________
DEBBY/OK

DOMESTIC ENGINEER... I work in the field of love and guiidance of young children;.

Subject: Re: Christmas Tips and Ideas Wed 29 Nov 2006, 8:11 pm

Thanks Debby glad you are back.. I missed you
_________________
Gayla

"They take great pride in making their dinner cost much; I take my pride in making my dinner cost so little."

---Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)

Subject: Re: Christmas Tips and Ideas Wed 29 Nov 2006, 9:33 pm

It was great to see you posting debby. You were missed greatly!!

I love the idea of wrapping your wallhangings. I might just try that!
_________________
Vicki

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Subject: Re: Christmas Tips and Ideas Thu 30 Nov 2006, 8:58 pm

I wish I had a 7 year old to wear my tree skirt! What a funny idea! Laughing

Subject: Re: Christmas Tips and Ideas Fri 01 Dec 2006, 5:38 am

Great tips Debby, thanks. Great to see you posting, everyone missed you!
_________________
~ By sowing frugality we reap liberty, a golden harvest. --Agesilaus ~