October 10, 2008, Newsletter Issue #79: Make Your Own Christmas Tree Garland

Tip of the Week

If you are frugal or even if you are looking for a fun craft you can do with your children to add to your Christmas tree, why not try making your own garland to spruce up that tree and get the family involved at the same time?

One fun family activity you can do to make your own garland is to make popcorn garland. It really doesn't get much easier than popcorn garland. You can pop a large batch of popcorn, find a needle and a strong thread cut to the length you want your garland to be. Thread your needle into the thread and then poke individual popcorn pieces with the needle and thread to the end of the thread. Continue doing this until you have strung your entire thread with popcorn. This is a great activity to do with children, just make sure they are old enough to work with a needle or you may have a lot of poked little fingers.

If you have very young children you may to consider cutting colored construction paper into strips and then taking a strip, glue the ends together, then taking another strip, intertwining it with the ring you have already made, glue the ends together and continue this process until you have made garland rings with construction paper. This is a fun activity for parents and kids to do together and a very inexpensive one at that, construction paper can be found at any retail store for less than $3.

Another fun way to make your own christmas tree garland is to follow the same procedure you would with the popcorn garland, but instead string pretzels, marshmallows, gum drops and Lifesavers candy onto some thread and then decorate your tree with that garland.

Christmas tree accessories, such as garland, don't always have to be purchased. Many families enjoy making their own garland for their trees; why not try it with yours? After Christmas, you can even put the popcorn garland outdoors for the birds to enjoy.

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