Stuck for ideas and don’t have a massive budget? Jan Millward shares some of her favourite ways to get creative this Christmas…
- Ask family and friends for donations of old Christmas cards. Get your group sorting them out into themes: robins, religion, snow scenes, angels and so on. Cut them out to make gift tags or new cards.
- Make table decorations in old teacups. Push wet Oasis into your cup and decorate with bits of fir tree (if you have a real tree, often the bottom branches are removed), old Christmas baubles, ivy, and anything festive you may have in the garden (most of us have some ivy creeping up a tree or a fence).
- Recycled wreath. Use strips of old ribbon and any festive-coloured bits of material you may have. Knot short lengths onto a circular wire frame to make a great wreath!
- Simple Christmas crackers for table decorations can be made by putting a few treats and a cracker joke inside a length of kitchen-roll inner, and then covering it in wrapping paper and tying off the ends.
- Christmas stockings. Use cheap festive socks, and add a tangerine, a chocolate coin, and any other goodies you can find (eg a small bar of soap or a pocket-sized pack of tissues). Tie with ribbon, add a label and get them delivered with the breakfast trays on Christmas morning!
- Play ‘Name that Carol’. Play the first line of a carol or read out a line, and see if your group can guess the carol. Carry on singing the first verse together when they get it.
