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“It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas”….well, at least at our house it is! It is definitely that time of the year again, and all things that twinkle and jingle start showing up everywhere you turn!
I enjoy every part of the Christmas season, especially putting up Christmas lights (check ’em out here). And we’re pretty stocked up on ‘nog and gift wrap here in the iHB household, but we also have a ton of Christmas decorations that we’ve amassed over the years.
We’ve been fortunate enough to get some great deals on these decorations, and I wanted to share with you some ways that YOU can save money on them as well.
5 Simple Ways to Save Money On Christmas Decorations
1. Get An Online Coupon For Your Tree
We’ve done this for the past two years and have cut our tree (pun intended!) cost almost in half! Places like Groupon offer great deals for little “U-Cut” tree places where you can get half off your tree. (p.s. don’t forget to activate your Groupon cash back by using Rakuten!)
They usually have a cute gift shop as well with free cider, cocoa and popcorn, and a place to buy ornaments and candy. This year, we paid $20 for a $40 credit on a tree. Though, we did end up paying another $15 for our tree this year because of Michelle’s champagne taste (on a tap water budget).
Out of the 100 acres of tree we could have chosen, where even the Noble Firs were only $40, Michelle picked one of the only Korean Fir trees and said we had to have it. I couldn’t tell the difference, but the tree place got all excited about it and asked us where we found this hidden gem. Apparently they are pretty rare around here, and we found one of the only ones.
Figures. 🙂
2. Thrift And Dollar Store Decorations
Thrift and dollar stores are a treasure trove of Christmas decorations this time of year, and can be a place where you can stock up on some great stuff for super cheap!
Wrapping paper, stockings, ornaments and all sorts of table top decorations can be found here and will save you a bundle over buying at places like Macys.
And you can get some really nice stuff. We went here for our first Christmas after getting married because we were living on $14 an hour and the Dollar Tree was just down the road.
3. Buy Your Decorations BEFORE Thanksgiving
Most people know that buying during the off-season will save you some cash, especially right after a holiday. But not many people know that you can buy WAY beforehand and save money as well. “Christmas creep”, as I call it, has caused stores to start putting out Christmas decorations and items just after Halloween. Most of this stuff is last-year’s leftover stock and needs to be cleared out. It is heavily discounted (I saw up to 75% off at some locations), and can really save you a LOT of money on your decorations. The selection is quite limited, but the savings are awesome, so it could very well be worth your time to check out these deals.
4. Do it yourself!
Michelle is the queen of craft, so it’s no surprise that there are always some awesome DIY decorations hanging around. And now that she’s thoroughly addicted to Pinterest, there are more and more showing up.
Check out at the bottom of the post for a quick sampling of what we have cookin’ in the house of iHB!
Just ask!
As I was conglomerating my epic collection of outdoor Christmas lights, I was running out of cash and ideas for how to get more.
I put it out on Facebook that I was looking for more Christmas lights, and to my surprise, I had at least half a dozen friends and family members off up their perfectly good-working lights!
I ended up getting a few thousand lights from my mother-in-law, and almost paid for shipping for my uncle to send me his old lights as well. I completely stocked up, and still had more available to me if I had wanted.
I would encourage anyone who wants to save some money to just put it out there. Ask if anyone wants to part with their old Christmas decorations and lights. Hey, if you don’t try, you’ll never know!
Comments: How did you put together your collection of Christmas decorations? Did you score any great deals? Have you made any of your own? Also, has anyone put up more lights than me on their house? I’d love to see pics!
Great tips! We buy a lot of ours after Christmas as we can generally score some pretty nice deals that way. Neither one of us is particularly crafty, so making something is usually out of the question.
After Christmas is a great time as well. My wife always picks up inside decor at craft stores and such when they are crazy discounted in January.
Pretty much all the ornaments on our tree came from our childhoods. When I moved out my mom just gave me all the ornaments that were mine and my wife’s mom did the same. Growing up I had an aunt (well a cousin really, but we called them all aunt) who would send me an ornament ever year, after 18 years this gives you a really nice collection! Occasionally we will pick up an ornament or two when we travel if we happen to see one in a little shop we like.
As far as lights on the house, all I have is some red and white ones going up our lamp post out front.
We’ve got a HUGE collection as well of personal ornaments. I like it that way, because you can point to each fo them and remember where they came from.
And cadny cane lights are cool, I need to do that next year!
We usually just use the same decorations over and over. However, for next year I want new ones! I plan on buying decorations after Christmas is over to save.
Do it! That is a great time to buy, especially if you don’t need them this year.
We’ve spent about $40 total on all of our Christmas decorations. Our tree was given to us by my grandparents and all ornaments and lights were purchased after Christmas a few years ago. We haven’t purchased exterior lights yet, but I’ll do that after Christmas again this year (when everything is marked WAY down) and hang them next year! Woohoo…I’m kind of looking forward to that.
I LOVE putting up the lights outside. I usually grab my brothers and shove them on the roof as well, makes for a great family time. I want more, but I think I’ll need to add another circuit so I don’t overload my breaker box!
I love the pics! Great ideas. I go to a lot of garage sales in the summer and you can get almost free, really great Christmas and tree decorations then too.
BTW, your tag line says it all!!
Thanks, glad you like the tagline 🙂
Garage sales are great, you can usually score a TON of decent stuff that way, and people are more than happy to part with it.
Most of our decorations were bought right after Christmas for the next year. We usually buy an ornament or two a year and now are daughter is starting to bring home those ones that are like cookies but made with salt. My mom has one that I made in preschool. Those suckers last forever!
Haha, we made some cookie ones our first year, one still has a huge bite mark from our dog, LoL. We do annual ornaments as well, but shhhhh, I haven’t bought Michelle’s yet…
I love the crafts! I’m not even Christian and I want to make some Christmas decorations now!
Lol, do it! Pinterest has inspired a whole lotta crafts at the iHB household this year 🙂
Good tips! I also like to buy Christmas stuff on clearance after the holidays. Then I store it for the next year!~
Sounds like a great plan. If you NEED anything this year, definitely check out the thrift stores, though 🙂
I’m lucky to have a tree up this year. All of our neighbors hang lights and have blow up Santas in their yards. It’s hard to compete so I just don’t try!!!
Hahaha, reminds me of this pic: http://www.dailystab.com/ditto/
I do all the decorating inside and outside the house as Mrs.CBB is rubbish with design and she knows it. We do however get our decorations at end of season sales and pick up something new each year. Last 2 years we were able to get our outdoor Christmas lights for the whole house for around $60. Our tree was found at the side of a road in a huge zip up bag in perfect condition (we prefer the fake one over the real tree). Lots of great pics.. and the wreath is stellar.. I’m going to make one next year! Mr.CBB
Hahaha. I’m great with outside lights, and that’s about it! Nice work on the tree. We require a real tree, but it definitely costs more than a fake one. And yes, the wreath was super simple and looks great!
We bought a lot of our Christmas decorations on sale after Christmas a couple years back, and use the same ones each year. We also got some before the holidays at Michaels and ACMoore using those 50% off any one item coupons. We haven’t bought our tree yet this year, but do plan to buy a star, or other tree topper, since we’ve never had one.
Michaels is great for decor, and combining that with an awesome coupon will save a bundle! We go to Jo-Ann fabrics and do the same.
Great tips!
Even though I’m not huge on Xmas decorations (live in a condo), I love seeing homes lit up and creative Xmas decorations during the holiday season.
You’d love driving through my neighborhood 🙂
I wrote a post on this a couple weeks ago and essentially thrift stores and going shopping immediately after Christmas is how I save money on Christmas decorations. We got most of our stuff 50% off (or more) because we’ve gone after Christmas the past three years and have stocked up over time.
Nice! Stocking up afterwards is awesome. I just get too excited an “NEED” to buy stuff for the current year, so i hit up the “after Halloween” deals 🙂
I find that buying decorations right after Christmas offers the largest discounts. But then again, I never want to shop for Christmas decorations after the holidays because we have to store them all year. I love crafting Christmas decorations, though. I love that wreath! It’s beautiful!
Thanks! Michelle is pretty awesome at DIY, so there’s always something new in our house every year at this time.
We’ve slowly acquired enough decorations over the years. I love buying a unique ornament or two each year. We also noticed great sales on trees and ornaments at Liquidation world last month. Perfectly nice and super cheap.
Hmmm, dunno if we have “liquidation world” around here. Is that online or a brick & mortar store?