Mon, 09/11/2009 - 17:54 | 
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Try avoiding all the usual tinselly plastic things, glittery and gorgeous as they look and ‘Deck the Halls with Boughs of Holly’, as the old song goes.
Hanging branches of greenery high up around the walls or over doorways and using natural decorations will save money and help the environment. Holly, lengths of ivy, laurel, or branches of fir (even off-cuts from the base of the Christmas tree) will add new textures, colours and scents to your room. Weave them through the banisters, make swags for mantelpieces or fashion into wreaths or garlands to hang on the door.
It is really simple to use lengths of whippy twigs to form neat twisted circles to hang from the tree by cotton loops, and they will last for years. Willow in various colours, dogwood and even privet can be used to make other simple forms too, like stars, and making the most of natural resources can be great fun for the whole family.
If you decide to have a real Christmas tree consider decorating it with bits and pieces you have gathered from the countryside or your garden. Collect pretty autumn leaves, feathers, berries, acorns, and nuts, seed heads like teasels, honesty, old man’s beard, Chinese lanterns and poppy heads. Pine cones come in all sorts of sizes and shapes and have probably been the most constantly used natural decoration over ages. They can be piled into bowls and baskets, sprayed in gold or silver or hung on the Christmas tree.
Organised folk can squirrel away suitable material during the year, but if you are not, (and not many of us are, despite making it a regular New Year’s resolution!), or have nowhere to store things, then there are still bits and pieces to be found now. If you are stuck for ideas and lucky enough to live near the sea then try the beach as source of free decorations. Shells, small pebbles with holes in them and twisted pieces of wood, worn smooth by the sea, can be picked up and used to give a fresh and original twist to Christmas decorations.
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That's a good idea, and thanks for the sharing.