It is great fun decorating your house at Christmas. But it is much less fun when you work out how much it can cost. Here are some great ideas for making your own Christmas decorations.
All the family can have fun making these decorations. Even quite small children can join in and contribute.
Like many of us, you probably are looking for decorations made from natural materials. It is environmentally friendly and makes you feel good. Here are some suggestions.
To start, let’s decorate the Christmas tree. But we are not going to use plastic to do this, we are going to use gingerbread 
(I copied this recipe but I tried it out and it works great.)
Gingerbread Christmas Tree Decorations
Ingredients:
50g caster sugar
75g butter (softened at room temperature)
50g golden syrup
2 egg yolks
250g plain flour (sifted)
bicarbonate of soda
ground ginger and ground cinnamon
Method:
Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 4 (160C or 180C for fan assisted ovens).
1.Cream together the butter and caster sugar and gradually add the egg yolks, bicarbonate of soda and golden syrup.
2.Add in the flour, ginger and cinnamon and thoroughly mix.
3.Take the mixture and divide into two balls, kneading until a sufficient dough is created. Chill the dough in the fridge for around half an hour.
4.After this time, remove the dough and using a rolling pin, roll out each ball to just under 1cm in thickness. Then using your dough cutter, cut out all the required shapes and using a chopstick or skewer, make a small hole in the top of each shape for the ribbon to go through. Place each shape on a greased baking tray, re-rolling the dough trimmings as needed.
5.Once you have enough gingerbread shapes, you will need to cook them in the oven for around 10 minutes, or until golden brown.
6. Allow to cool completely, then thread the ribbon through the holes.The gingerbread can be placed out on the tree for a couple of days before being eaten, or left to go stale and used purely as decorations. If kept airtight, the gingerbread will last for around 1 week.
Why not try decorating these with sprinkles or other cake-decorating items? It is such fun.
Pine cones make great natural decorations. They can be placed in their natural state or you can spray them gold or silver. The same thing applies to holly and ivy.
Oranges also make great decorations. Try slicing them into thin pieces and cooking them very slowly. They provide an original and aromatic display.
Almost any item from your garden will make a good decoration. Small branches are particularly good.
Get the whole family involved in finding suitable natural decorations. Christmas will be even more fun.