How to Have an Old Fashioned Home-Made Christmas

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1) Make paper chains for the Christmas tree. Use glue, staples or tape, whatever you have.

2) Gather the family and string real popcorn. This is great for feeding the birds during winter on an outside tree.

3) String cranberries, place them on the tree inside or outside.

4) Have each family member cut out ornaments using the cardboard from cereal boxes. Use cookie cutters as stencils. Cover them with paint or aluminum foil.

5) Use tufts of cotton balls or snips of fiber fill as snow on the ends of your Christmas tree branches.(This avoids the use of aerosol snow)

6) Have a family cookie baking , candy making day. Make them from scratch the old fashioned way.

7) Set aside another day for family cake baking and  pie making.

Draw names in addition to other gift giving, have each family member “hand make” a gift for the name they drew. It must be made from scratch or recycled.

9) Find someone who is alone or shut in and share your Christmas with them. No matter how simple your Christmas may seem, there’s always someone who has less.

10) Have  a family art day and make Christmas cards using cookie cutters as stencils.

11) Use a mixture of powdered detergent and a little water to make snow paint. Have fun painting the window panes , etc. (Another tip to avoid using aerosol sprays)

12) If you need to go out hunting for a tree, do it as a family.

13) Make a star for the top of the tree using cardboard from a cereal box and cover it with aluminum foil.

14) If you use an artificial tree, at least wire on a few real branches from a real live tree to give you the cedar or pine odor without using sprays.

15) Gather pine cones  and place them in a basket.  This also gives a natural pine odor.

16) Push whole cloves into an orange , tie a ribbon around it and hang it where ever you want a nice  Christmasy odor .