Cheap Christmas Ornaments

by Lauren

One year when I was a kid, I decided that I wanted to make each of the adults in my life a really fancy-looking ornament for Christmas, so I could feel more grown-up. Fancy, and yet also CHEAP Christmas ornaments were the necessity there, because as a kid I did not have much more money for supplies to make things than I did for outright purchasing ready-made things. Luckily, some pretty fancy-looking ornaments are made possible on a pretty limited budget, if you’re ready to take the time.

The version I made as a child required that I purchase several multi-packs of small Styrofoam spheres, a Tupperware-sized container of mixed sequins, a package of a few thousand short, nail-head pins, a bottle of glue, and some metallic thread, all of which came to under $5. I spent some time idly sorting sequins by color, while doing other things, using an ice cube tray as a way to keep things organized. Then, I doodled out some design plans for different ornaments, and set to work. The small pins would get pushed through a sequin, then dipped into the glue and pushed into the foam. I could have given each sphere a layer of paint first, but as I was methodical enough to overlap all the sequins in a consistent way, the base material never showed through anyway. To create a hanger for each ornament, I threaded a piece of metallic thread through the sequin (a metal bead cap could also have worked) chosen for the top of the ornament, creating a loop with the knot on the underside of the sequin. Then the pin was pushed through the sequin, dipped in glue, and pushed into the foam, trapping the knot underneath. I let them dry overnight, and viola! Lightweight, snazzy looking ornaments. Everyone loved my handmade gifts.