"Green" and inexpensive christmas decorations

old fashioned

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A few years ago I wanted to spruce up our wreath hanging on our front door, and got an idea. Though it's so simple I'm sure most have already thought of it, but I'll share anyway.

What I did was take an orange and an apple, slice about 1/4 inch thick and sprinkled both with ground cloves. The apple slices also were sprinkled with ground cinnamon and a dash of nutmeg and then dehydrated. This made the whole house smell wonderful. Then taking the dried slices of fruit, poke a small hole at one end and run a thin ribbon thru and tied to the wreath.

It makes a "natural" decoration, and anyone coming into the house gets a whiff of apple pie and citrus. This year I also did some lemons, but with no seasoning and plan to put some on our tree as well. I usually use red delicious apples because of the star shaped core, but any variety would work. The fruit can rehydrate depending on humidity levels in your area, but doesn't cause any problems. After the holidays are over you can toss em.

Also, if done without seasoning can be used on landscape trees or bushes as a treat for wild birds. I'm gonna try this too along with strung popcorn, bread cubes smeared with peanut butter, beef fat rolled in bird seed.

These are just a few ideas about decorating the home inside and out.

Does anyone have other great ideas? I'd love to hear. :caf
 

sylvie

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A charming book for the outside natural decorating is "My Recipes Are For The Birds" by Cosgrove:
http://www.amazon.com/Recipes-Are-Birds-Countless-Feathered/dp/0385495471

I hung small 10" grapevine wreaths on each window. I melted suet and dipped the bottom of the wreath in the cooling suet several times to build up the layer. In the final layer I pressed in birdseed. I tied a plaid flannel bow(made from an old shirt) on top, wove in a few red crabapple and viburnum branches and hung. We could see birds up close in every window.
Then a squirrel discovered it so we hung stuff elsewhere away from the window for him/her.
 

lorihadams

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Anybody string popcorn anymore??? I'm thinking of doing it this year with the kids, if I can keep the dogs away from the tree! :lol:
 

big brown horse

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lorihadams said:
Anybody string popcorn anymore??? I'm thinking of doing it this year with the kids, if I can keep the dogs away from the tree! :lol:
We used to do this, you will need a very thin needle or the popcorn crumbles. :)
 

delia_peterson

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big brown horse said:
lorihadams said:
Anybody string popcorn anymore??? I'm thinking of doing it this year with the kids, if I can keep the dogs away from the tree! :lol:
We used to do this, you will need a very thin needle or the popcorn crumbles. :)
How about with cranberries? Do they get mushy? I always thought popcorn and cranberries looked pretty. What else could you string with popcorn? Then you could put it outside for the birds after Christmas?
 

patandchickens

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I am big on pinecones. Wired together into swags or wreaths or garlands or tree shapes; brushed with glue and then glitter (yeah, so glitter is not 'green', oh well), made into arrangements with durable wild berries and greenery, etc. Really big pinecones, e.g. longleaf pine, can make *really big* decorations :)

Sweet gum balls are good to make things out of too, esp. painted or glittered.

My best luck at stringing popcorn has always been to leave it sit out for a day or two first so it gets a big stale and less brittle. I haven't been able to do popcorn garlands since I got cats mumble-mumble years ago, though, as they try to eat the popcorn and if they ate any of the thread inside it, it would not be a happy Christmas for anyone except possibly the vet's checking account.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat
 

Wifezilla

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I have a LOT of grapevines. Now if I can just figure out what to do with them...LOL
 

FarmerChick

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Barb and I made tons of grapevine wreaths cause we enjoyed doing it, then we decided to sell them at my market stand at the farmer markets.

I sold them plain. People loved grabbing them up and know they could decorate them themselves.

I sold alot and made good money on them. Only did it one time, ran out of time to constantly make them...lol
 

lorihadams

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We used to go in the woods and gather big bags of running cedar and then make it into wreaths.
 
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