Old or damaged Christmas ornaments? You can creatively recycle them to make wonderful holiday decorations
One of the traditions that almost everyone observes during the Christmas holidays is that of decorating a tree. You may have traditional ornaments - perhaps travel souvenirs amongst them, for example. But the time may come when you want to get some new decorations to replace old, broken (or just boring) tree decorations.
However, this does not mean that the old decorations you replace should be thrown away: if they are still intact, you can still use them as decorations! Let's check out some ideas, listed below:
In short, you can restore the beauty of old ornaments, even dull ones, by decorating or using them in a different way.
Cover your Christmas baubles with other materials
A very simple thing to do is to cover old decorations with various materials.
You can use crepe or tissue paper, but also fabrics of all kinds, and even lace and trimmings. Choose whatever color you like and give a new life to tired, old, bland decorations!
Use what you have at home to decorate old baubles for the tree
This project doesn't mean that you have to go out and buy a bunch of things at the shops: you almost certainly already have materials at home to decorate your Christmas baubles.
These can be pages from books, newspapers or musical scores! You can also learn how to transfer photos or stickers to these old decorations.
Or, even simpler, you could dig out a box of old buttons and have fun with hot glue covering an old bauble!
... and you can also find materials in the garden!
If you like all things botanical, consider using leaves: autumn/winter leaves can be found everywhere, and many are very beautiful (like certian types of sage, or lamb's ears", aka Stachys Byzantina).
And if you have spare time, pressed flowers and leaves are perfect for this project: you can use the decoupage technique to decorate your old baubles.
A touch of gold and the ornaments will be even more beautiful than before
Whatever covering you have chosen, you can always improve the overall look with some golden decorations (or even with a bit of glitter, or sequins)! After all, there should always be some eye-catching sparkle on Christmas decorations!
Paints of your choice: your Christmas baubles will look amazing
Let's put aside the idea of covering the old ornaments, and simply think about changing their colors. You can do this simply with the help of some spray paints.
Colored powder, chalk powder or even cocoa powder!
This pile of velvety-looking balls was created by first painting them in a base paint (brown, grey, black...), and when the second coat of paint was still a little wet, they were sprinkled with powders of various kinds - even cocoa powder will work!
The charm of matte finishes
Check out this wreath: the matte finish does not detract from the shapes of the balls in this arrangement. And we are sure you will be happier with these than the "run of the mill" ornaments you can buy in any shop!
And if the ornaments are still in good condition, use them for other decorations!
However, if you are still attached to your old ornaments but don't want to hang them on the tree, don't despair: you can use them to create a festoon (like the one shown the photo), or tie them into bunch with some festive ribbon to hang on the wall. Or, you could hang them as singles, from the light fitting over the dining table.
In short, recycling old Christmas decorations can be fun and rewarding!
