Author: Santiago Luna

With Christmas around the corner and festivity in the air, you’re probably thinking about presents, decorations, and getting into the Christmas spirit.

While to most, this time of year seems like a winter wonderland, to others, it could represent other things.

According to the National Retail Federation, the average American spent $862 on gifts, food, and decorations. This doesn’t even account for the gas it takes to go get these things, the time and energy put towards setting up, and other miscellaneous expenses.

With inflation on the rise, many families across the country experience a disadvantage when it comes to the holidays.

This article is here to show you that you don’t need a lot of money to transform the space around you into a Christmas wonderland.

The supplies you will need are colored construction paper, scissors, shiny straw cleaner, tape, string, and different colored Sharpies. You can find all of these things at your local dollar store.

For our first decoration, bend the shiny straw cleaner into a Christmas-themed shape such as a snowflake, snowman, gingerbread man, Christmas tree, wreath, or snow angel. Then tie a string around it so you’re able to hang it up.

For the next decoration, take your scissors and a piece of white construction paper and fold it in half repeatedly 3 times. Then take your scissors and cut in different shapes while being careful not to cut it in half. Once you unfold it, you will have a snowflake that you can hang with string.

Another decoration you could do is take your paper and use the Sharpies to draw on designs. Then cut them out and attach them all onto a string to create a lanyard.

The easiest decoration you could do is to turn the straw cleaner into your own custom ornaments.

Lastly, take some green construction paper and cut out lines with the paper facing up long ways. Then use the tape to turn them into circles, making sure they interlock with each other. Once you have the length you are happy with, make one last circle connecting both ends.

Bend the straw cleaners into ornament-like shapes and attach them, which will leave you with a homemade wreath.

To get a warm and cozy Christmas experience, you don’t need to spend a lot of money. With the right mindset and putting time and energy into creating your desirable setup, it can happen.

If you put some Christmas music on and get to work, the holiday paradise of your dreams isn’t out of reach!

With Fall around the corner that means we’re inching closer to Halloween. Who doesn’t like to show their spooky spirit and decorate their house or room. With prices on the rise, that could be hard for some people as most Halloween decorations will run up your wallet.

In this article, I will be teaching you how to do a couple of DIY decorations starting with the easy ones and then moving on to the slightly more complicated ones. 

Some of the things you will need for these are black and white balloons, black and white streamers, white cloth, string, black paper, scissors, and finally tape. These are things you can get at any time at the dollar store or scattered throughout your house.

For our first decoration, you’re going to want one of your white balloons, blow it up, and then drape the cloth over it for your very simple fake ghost.

For our second one, you are going to have to grab a black balloon and blow it up. Then grab the white streamers and wrap it around the balloon using the tape to hold it still, till it’s fully covered, leaving two openings for your eyes. Once you’re done you will have a mummy head. 

Next, grab 2 black balloons and start blowing them up leaving one a little bit smaller than the other one. Once you do that grab a little bit of tape to hold them together and grab your black streamers. Then rip off eight black streamer lines and attach them to the balloons to create a giant spider.

Something you can do to add to the previous one, to give it a little extra spazz, is to grab your black or white streamers and tape them up to form a spider web design on your wall. 

For the next decoration, you’re going to have to grab your black paper and use a pencil to trace the outline of a bat. Using your scissors cut them out and tape them to your ceiling or wall for some spooky spirit. 

Using your black paper cut out a piece of paper that resembles a donut, you can pick whatever size you think is fitting. Next cut out a piece of paper and roll it into a cone. Using your tape attach them together finally using your scissors to get out any imperfections. This will give you a witches hat you can put on anything like your pumpkins or yourself. 

For our last decoration grab your streamers and crumple them up into eight balls. Cut up your cloth into mini squares and drape them over the balls. Use a long piece of string to secure the cloth to the heads and now you have a streamer of mini ghosts.

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays and I think everyone should get the joy of decorating with their family and friends even if you don’t want to drop hundreds of dollars on crazy decorations. These provide fun, easy, and cheap alternatives that allow you to show your holiday spirit on a budget!