Enjoying a Christmas as it used to be might be the best thing you do this holiday season, it will make your day low cost, fun and still special.

Make your own gifts

This is a great way to show how much you care and save a little money. You will need to put some time aside to make homemade presents for your family and friends but it is all worthwhile when they see how much effort you have made. Here are a few ideas  along with websites that I think will provide great inspiration:

Make your own Christmas hampers, fill with the family’s favourite food – give the basket a theme for example Italian, so you can buy pasta, sauces and Italian wine to go in it. Sometimes it can be cheaper to go to a company who makes up Hampers. Do a comparison of what is in it and how much you would have to spend to do the same before buying or making!

M&S have some beautiful hampers for varying budgets and if you don’t buy from the website then you could get your ideas on what to put in your own hamper.

Take a look at these websites for filling ideas and where to buy your hamper:

I know I have mentioned this site before but I couldn’t get over how may ideas they had to helping our wallets survive the festive season: Money Magpie has a great amount of information on packing your hamper and where to go to get the best price. The information is from last Christmas but the ideas are there.

Why not use your skills, hobby or creativity to give a gift this year. My uncle is a great welder, one year he made us a bird feeder stand to put in our garden, it was perfect, personal and non of the neighbours had the same! If you have recently been on a frame making course because you enjoy using different techniques to display your artwork then there is a fantastic idea – use a photograph taken of the person you are giving to and place it in your homemade frame.

My grandma’s hobby is embroidery and she makes wonderful images, she regularly uses her talent to give her family and friends unique pieces of artwork made by her! If this doesn’t sound like you but you fancy putting your creative flare to work then check out these websites for making your own gifts. These websites have some fab ideas to making your Christmas homemade and special: Do it yourself Christmas and All About you

Making your Christmas gifts does not have to be all about art and creativity, why not try cooking your gifts? If you know your friends and neighbours love your homemade biscuits when they come over to visit then why not make a batch and give to them in a lovely festive tin to see them through the Christmas period. Perfect as you know that they love them and it saves you money, I must admit it also says a lot when a friend knows you well. My mum makes jar after jar of her own recipe piccalilli – they are always on demand from our family and friends as they love how she makes it, so now she gives them as gifts in a lovely vintage jar with ribbon and homemade labels. They look festive and personal. For recipe inspiration and ideas on what to make visit the BBC Good Food site – full of great recipes.

Great places to find your craft materials and attend Christmas workshops! www.lainesworld.co.uk; www.creativecrafts.co.uk; www.canonburyarts.co.uk

If making your own Christmas gifts is really not you but you would still like that unique and personal touch then there are artists and crafters out there that do it all for you, take a look at Not on the High Street.com and etsy.com (Etsy is in US Dollars but it features craft makers and artists from across the globe, the currency converts when you make a purchase and all charges are displayed at your purchase, you can also select where  in the world to buy from.)

Handmade Decorations

Okay so this section is just a bit of fun and our Old Fashioned Christmas Section wouldn’t be the same without it! Making your own decorations will give your tree and house a unique style and it can be catered to the colours you want! Here I will list websites to get inspiration, how tos and where to buy handmade decorations:

From making your own door wreath to creating the perfect centre piece for your dinning table, this website is full to the brim with ideas on how to make your own decorations.

My all time favourite decoration to make is the snow flake – totally childish I know but one day I will get them looking dainty and beautiful. If you are good with a pair of scissors then why not decorate your windows with beautiful designs – think outside of the box and use different materials, or add light white feathers to the tips to make the flake seem like it is floating. This is also a great activity to get the kids involved in.

A delicate and fanciful decoration to make is a hanging snowflake or star ornament for your tree. Collect together beads of your choice – matching types work best with this, these do not have to be beads you buy from a craft shop – they can be beads from a necklace or bracelet you no longer wear, you will also need 10 corsage pins with pearl ends. On each pin fill with your beads and push into a round piece of cork in the shape of  star.

In order to cover the cork, use a glitter paint pen or if you don’t mind getting your hands dirty lightly cover the cork with PVA glue and sprinkle with glitter or tiny pearls depending on the size of your star.

Tie some strong thread to one spoke of your star and hang on the tree with pride.

For more ideas on what you can make for your festive home, take a look at these websites and blogs to find inspiration and help.

craftbits.com

Article in the Telegraph

Santa’s Postbag

Please add your own website or recommend a website that we should all be using to make our Christmas special.

Happy crafting!

For many of us this Christmas it’s about saving money but we still want to treat our loved ones to something special. So here are some ideas for your Christmas shopping and clever ways to save money over the festive season.

If you are an organised person with lists of ideas that your loved ones have hinted at throughout the year then firstly let me congratulate you! Secondly, you have probably already started buying to spread that cost out. If you are coming close to your spending limit then don’t worry, I have discovered a few websites that can help reduce the cost and still get you the gifts you intended. If you are not this person and need thrifty ideas to keep on top this Christmas then this is for you too!

My secret…vouchers, discount codes and freebies!

Don’t be disheartened to use a discount voucher – that is what they are there for! The places to keep an eye out for them is in the papers, the magazines and online! Retailers are always using promotions to entice customers to their stores, this works to your advantage when it’s the store that you have a present to buy from.

There are many online resources to help you save money. Money Saving Expert is THE Number 1 place to visit for everything to do with saving you money. It is fab! It has all the latest retailer offers, what publications to buy to get the vouchers from, discounts for days out, restaurants and holidays! The list is endless. If like me you are looking specifically to save money on products, visit here or another, moneymagpie.com

Another way to save some money is to get hold of freebies. This sounds like I am cheating but it doesn’t necessarily mean I am wrapping up and giving away the freebies that come through the post, I am talking about clever ways to buy your presents or ways to make a present better.

‘Magic freebies’ is a website that, yes you have guessed it…gives you 8 new freebies to choose from every day. My greatest find to date is a free £10 New Look voucher! Yes completely free, so it was perfect to buy my sisters present and saved me money on clothes that would usually cost me more. There are also offers on smaller sample products, so if you collected enough mini products – they would be perfect to put together in a basket with beautiful tissue paper for a relative that is going on holiday shortly. You can even sign up to a newsletter to get alerted everyday on the new offers.

If you are an online shopping enthusiast, not only do you largely get what you buy online for a cheaper price but you could also visit a cash-back site before visiting your intended shop. Cash-back sites offer you cash return for shopping through their website. Please be aware with these sites, read a few reviews about the sites before using them, you want one that will be reliable and offer secure payment with no delivery delay and free sign-up. Those recommended by professional money experts are:  Give or Take, rpoints and Cashback shopper.  More can be found on the money saving experts websites mentioned above.

There are many websites you can source that offer this kind of service, also if you have spare time on your hands you can even get some cash for answering surveys – this can then be put away for your Christmas drinks or to buy more presents.

Online shopping does need to be taken with some precautions, so take a look at expert online shopper, Patricia Davidson’s blog for her latest tips for safety whilst shopping online.

Keeping the cost and wrapping down!

The all time favourite…Secret Santa. It is a classic way to save time and money and a way of giving can be decided upon between you and your family and friends. Every year the owner of 100% People, Kathryn, does a fantastic Secret Santa idea, she gets all her family together to pick names from a hat, the one person you are to buy for has a set budget, say £50 and you buy for that one person only. Every secret Santa contender provides a list of items that they would really like for £50 or less – this way everyone gets the gift they want and there is still the element of surprise. Tailor this idea to your own party of people and their individual budgets.

You could even make it unique by making each others presents, for example their favourite cake, preserves or biscuits. If you are creative why not make them some jewellery or a piece of art work…the list is endless and the kids will love to join in. Take a look at our Old Fashioned Christmas area for ideas on what to make and where to go for inspiration.

This year I agreed with my friends that we will have a day out together. We decided that we just end up spending a lot of cash on presents anyway, whereas we would much prefer to spend time with each other;  as a result we spend the money on a day out we will all enjoy. We are going to Somerset House to ice skate 12 days before Christmas in a beautiful festive backdrop, the tickets are only £10 and if you sign up to restaurant newsletters you can receive vouchers to get money off your meal – ASK and Pizza Express are both good for vouchers. We have made the effort to make plans to meet which also means we can put plans in place to save money in advance.

So get your family and friends together and decide what they would like to do this year, whether it is a meal out, an activity day or even home cooked food – sometimes this is a more appreciated gesture then passing cash from one to another.