  | Homemade Christmas Tree Decorations | |||
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Simple stuff...Everyone
knows how to make a pompom so we won't give instructions, just suggest
that if you are involving children in making these it is
probably a good idea
to use nice thick yarn There are some interesting traditions about edible decorations on Christmas trees. Which will make you feel very knowledgeable & wise when you &/or your kids are making & eating delicious gingerbread & spice biscuit decorations. There are a couple of recipes here, and of course you can use Lebkuchen, but any fairly sturdy biscuit will do - just remember to make a hanging hole in the biscuit as soon as they come out of the oven. You can mix up icing & use glittery bits & sparkles to make them even more beautiful. You can obviously buy all kinds of cutters - stars, Christmas trees, bells, reindeer, angels, babels - the range is fairly endless., which add to the effect. A good tip if you want to keep the biscuits fresher for longer & safe from easy scoffing by younger members of your household is to wrap the biscuits in foodgrade cellophane before hanging on the tree. It actually looks rather pretty as the cellophane is all shiny under lights. When the Christmas Matters team was young, it was absolutely the done thing to make decorations out of egg boxes. At it's most basic this involves cutting up the box into 6 (sort of) bell-shaped sections, smothering them in paint/glue/glitter & then making a hole in the top & attaching thread/ribbon for hanging. We were still hanging the ones we made at playschool on the tree 15 years later...
For a subtle & natural look you can raid the greengrocers & your spice cupboard. Cinnamon sticks look very pretty tied up with ribbon & suspended on the tree. Or you could try slicing a couple of oranges very thinly & drying them on a baking sheet in a very cool oven overnight. Then thread the dried orange slices onto decorative cord using a tapestry needle. When you feel like more of a challenge...
Another idea is to make little stockings - you could even fill them with sweets or other little gifts. I also like to make little interwoven felt hearts which look very pretty, make excellent little bags for tiny gifts & are fun to do. We sell kits for a gorgeous felt Elf's Hat, Christmas tree hearts & beaded Christmas tree decorations in our shop. A great use for last year's Christmas cards is to make one of these Christmas card baubles. It's a bit fiddly to do but is rather satisfying & looks pretty good. Perhaps not something to do with with very young kids - because it needs quite a lot of patience & concentration! Beaded
tree decorations look like hard work, but they are very quick to do
& the results are fantastic. The fun thing about this is that
there
are loads of different beautiful beads to choose from, and you can
really go to town with your designs. Here are some
instructions
for making a very beautiful bead
star or why not buy one of our Christmas beaded star kits from our shop.
Or for something less challenging, why not thread beads onto a long
piece of nylon thread to make a very effective alternative to tinsel. | ||||
so that they don't get too
bored of winding.
Maybe a
few glittery strands would be a good idea too - & definitely
use
nice shiny ribbon to hang the completed pompoms. If you (and your kids)
like making pompoms then it might be worth investing in a pompom maker
- it's well worth a fiver because it makes the whole process a lot
quicker. 
Trees
need festoons! Departments stores and on-line shops sell
ribbons in different patterns & widths - a few lengths of these
can
look very elegant on your tree as an alternative to tinsel. A
string of bows is a quick & easy festooning idea. You
need a
couple of metres of string/cord/raffia & some coloured crepe
paper.
Cut
the paper into pieces 8 x 8 cm and pleat, as if you were making a
fan. Tie the pleated paper at 6cm intervals on the string and
fan out the ends to look like bows. Lovely!
Felt
is a great fabric to work with because you don't need to worry about
fraying & it is very forgiving of mistakes.