On the 10th day of Christmas, Domestic Sluttery gave to me... a pretty papercut from Mr Yen!
This is one of my favourite prizes so far. I've been coveting this papercut for a long time now and the lovely Mr Yen has been cutting and snipping away this weekend so we can give one away. I want to put coloured paper behind it, or maybe even an image of Alice in Wonderland, which would look great in the background. But it doesn't matter what I'd do with it, I have to give it away. Darn.
So what do you have to do to win? Tell us awesome things about your Christmas decorations. Do you still make paper chains? Go all out with the tree? Get a bit fairy light happy? Have you put your tree up yet?! Tell us in the comments before 8pm tonight, and we'll draw a winner at random and tell you who has won tomorrow.
Good luck everyone!
The small print (yawn): The competition will close at 8pm December 13th. This prize is only available to UK readers, sorry overseas people! You must also leave a name as well to make sure we know who you are! If you're anon your entry won't count, and they definitely won't count if you enter more than ones (we do check). We're not allowed to enter our own competitions, but Siany all about the Christmas tree baubles and picks them up whilst she's on holidays. We wish we could enter our competitions. Humph.
I would like to win this please! I make my own paper chains (out of old magazines, oo recycling, and I also made these trees out of old magazines:http://www.re-nest.com/re-nest/how-to/how-to-make-a-magazine-christmas-tree-072467
ReplyDeleteI have the cutest Christmas stocking acquired in Denmark - it has little woolen mice coming out of it! :)
ReplyDeleteMy mum has a battered old yellow star that she's had since I was born. It's falling to bits, but every year she just tapes it back together. She refuses to even consider having anything else on top of the tree. I love it.
ReplyDeleteThis year - much to the delight of my children - I made about 20 metres of paperchains; really enhances the shabby chic look in our undecorated lounge! My favourite decoration though is still my kilner jar filled with fairy lights.
ReplyDeleteI love making paper snowflakes, one year I only had pastel coloured paper, but I still made them and put them up in the windows, the house looked like a nursery school but I didn't care :)
ReplyDeleteWe have a 'airey' (half angel, half fairy...I was a confised 3 year old) that we still put on top of the tree at my parents' house. She's falling apart, and we have to mend her each year, but Mum refuses to get rid of her. And too right! :)
ReplyDeleteAt home, my mum still puts a Santa that I made when I was three (I'm 29 now) at the top of the tree. He's made from a painted toilet roll insert, some construction paper and some cotton wool. I repaint him and replace his beard every couple of years so that he doesn't start looking too "loved".
ReplyDeleteMy tiny flat isn't really the place for decorations but I make it smell like christmas by making mulled wine or just boiling water with cinnamon, orange and cloves.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a child I was allowed to choose a new fairy for the top of the tree - I chose a hedgehog fairy, obviously. I have kept this fairy with me every since, its been to uni and will be adoring the tree in my house this december. It reminds me what Christmas is all about - fun, laughter, shiney things and behaving like a child. Christmas is not a time for sophistication in the home!
ReplyDeleteAhh, I have been coveting this Papercut too!
ReplyDeleteI like to make paperchains with my little sisters out of old newspapers. We fill the house with them. It is super-cheap (free paper), eco-friendly (reuse) and fun to make! Of course, we have our Christmas songs blaring out the stereo so we can singalong as we make them.
tinsle made out of popcorn - you have to make twice as much as you'll need due eating on the job!
ReplyDeleteI made a fairy for the top of our tree about 7 years ago. It's now tradition to give the fairy a famous face from that year's events either from the news, TV or something we have done. We've had Alan Sugar, Courtney Love, Lady Gaga, George Michael, Michael Eavis (we went to Glastonbury that year) and this year, after debating candidates such as Cheryl Cole and Julian Assagne, we have gone for Shaun Ryder.
ReplyDeleteI make my own snowflake stencils and use snowspray to print a pretty snowstorm on my window! I also put white feather boas on my tree to look like the most luxurious snow!
ReplyDeleteWe have 3 trees (which will all be going up next weekend), the biggest gets the full works with flashing lights and tinsel, baubles everywhere! The smallest table top one just has some traditional wooden decorations on it, not lit as it goes in the hallway. The last is a medium fibre optic tree, I used to not dress it at all and just enjoy the lights display but then last year I strung some popcorn and hung that round it and found I really enjoyed the look so I'll be doing that again this year :-) other than that it's swags of tinsel on the mantle and round anything that stays still long enough and I'll be dragging out my moving and musical figures to go in the window as well (must remember to get some new batteries for them this week!)
ReplyDeleteBecause we're poor (recent graduates), my flatmate and I made all of our Christmas decorations- hand stitched soft hearts and robins for the tree, and paper chains everywhere! I think they look much better than shop bought ones- and every time I look at them they make me smile and remember the red-wine fuelled nights of creativity.
ReplyDeletethe boys and i got our tree last weekend - it's always real due to my hatred of any tree that looks like it comes from the '80s (my parents used to assemble the same artificial tree every year and my job was to sort the branches into size order). we're collecting baubles each year - we have snowflakes, a christmas cracker that gallo made at nursery, glitter balls, jack from nightmare before christmas and one featuring father christmas drinking a rum punch on a beach in jamaica. caleb (4) wanted coloured lights this year so i had to forego my nice white ones - at the top of our tree we have a great big purple bow and a silver star with a butterfly landing on it. an addition that reminds me that winter is ALMOST done with and spring will be here before i know it. our kitten can also be found at the top of the tree most days...
ReplyDeleteI leave my Christmas decorations to my girlfriend: though she has made me buy a Christmas box to fill it full of trinkets and home-made things. I haven't yet taken to sewing anything: I value my thumbs too much!
ReplyDeleteMy son (four and a half) and I make salt dough decorations. This year there are stars, baubles and ginger bread men . . . an improvement to last years scaredy cats and ghosts as we only had Halloween cutters in the house :-D!
ReplyDeleteThe level of concentration when he painted was just adorable, and he was covered in paint right up to his elbows!
Like a lot of you I go all out, with fairy lights or paper chains hung from any possible corner. My favourite decoration though will always be the knitted nativity. My grandad made a stable and my mum whipped up the figures and it just isn't Christmas until we're having to prop one of the wise men up against his friend.
ReplyDeleteI started buying Christmas decorations a few at a time long before I had anywhere to put a tree (shared flats etc), on the basis that when I did have the space and money for my own tree, I'd have lots of memories to hang on it. I've now had my own place for three years, and the decorations have overflowed the tree for two of them. I have so many I can't fit them all on, and had to buy a second, smaller tree this year (which there isn't really room for, but hey!). And STILL I sewed some cute little felt ones, because it seemed like a good idea at the time. I've also got a glass one I blew once, and an orange studded with cloves that I made myself (and am unreasonably proud of!)
ReplyDeleteI did the traditional as a child: cut out snowflakes and endless wonky paperchains. Of course I'm ever so mature now and wouldn't do anything of the sort - but tiny rings and gems and things, even charity shop or plasticy finds, look really special strung on silver thread, and I like to hang polished, tiny keys on my xmas tree, as if it might be full of secrets.
ReplyDeleteI have been getting heavily into old-skool paper decorations this year - paper chains, snowflakes, the lot! There's something very very satisfying about unfolding a snowflake not knowing how it's going to come out.
ReplyDeleteI made my grandmother's tree every year when I was (a bit) little(r) - she couldn't see, so it had to have every sparkly shiny thing imaginable... We tied a silver tinsel tree to a green one (I know, I know, but I draw your attention back to the need for sparklies) and wrapped the whole contraption in enough tinsel and lights to moor an aircraft carrier. And then I would spend the rest of the afternoon angling all the decorations so they shone right. It was awesome, in a this-kind-of-behaviour-is-only-acceptable-at-Christmas kind of way.
ReplyDeleteOur tree can only be described as 'eclectic'! We have flat, tin birds and bells from my mum's childhood, decs made out of ping-pong balls, pegs, egg boxes etc etc made by my brother, me and my son, 'posh' decs from friends & relatives abroad, commemorating something or other, about 4 fairies from various ages, decs found whilst clearing out houses of relatives, decs brought as presents from holidays abroad, and a new dec every year - this year it's a lego snowman.
ReplyDeleteOne year, sometime soon, the tree will collapse under all the weight!
I'm upping the tinsel factor this year for extra cheer - silver tinsel wrapped around floor lamps makes them look like giant icicles, which is pretty cool. And red and yellow tinsel woven through the bars of the daybed is the crackling fire I don't have... :)
ReplyDeleteThis is my first year away from my family for Christmas so I've been slow to do my own Christmas decorations. But about a week ago we had our first snow fall of the year and I couldn't help but get all giddy! I made tons of paper snowflakes and hung them up all over my apartment. Feels a bit more like Christmas with a bit of decoration around :-)
ReplyDeleteMy 6 year old girl drew some lovely baubles and decorated them in bright colours with glitter, she then cut them out and stuck them on my fireplace. They look really cute x
ReplyDeleteI love all crimbo decorations and try to get a new bauble every year, I have yet to find this years one yet. I also force my work colleagues into the christmas spirit by putting tinsel on all their monitors. There's no escape!!!
ReplyDeleteWe put our tree up this weekend and its definately a mixed bag of a tree. It has decorations on it we were given for our first born, a little cross stitch stocking from my sister in law, decorations passed down from family and a new decoration that each of the kids chooses each year. And chocolate of course, you can't forget the chocolate! The kitchen also has paper chains that me and my son made last year (well, me mainly!). The rest of the house just has tinsel anywhere that it can!
ReplyDeleteI love my fairy lights!! They go on the stairs, across the bookcases, in the window and all over the tree!!! :)
ReplyDeleteI put lots of different baubles and tinsel stuffed into as many vases, bowls and jugs as i can find and dot them around the house on tables and windowsills and other places. Tinsel looks suprisingly less tacky once squished into a vase!
ReplyDeleteI get one lovely new decoration for my tree every year, no matter how much it costs, to slowly spruce up my tiny tree with it's hand me down and cheapy decorations. This year I bought the tiniest cutest little handmade rudolph from the Chatsworth Christmas market - but he was so cheap that I think I might be naughty and buy something else as well...
ReplyDeleteMy boyfriend and I actually sat down and cut out snowflakes for our decorations - the whole drawing round a plate, folding it up and cutting out little triangles to make patterns.
ReplyDeleteHave yet to put our tree up as we're moving house this week but we're a little scared just in case our new cat takes a fancy to it. Do cats make good tree ornaments? Hehe!
I love making tissue paper snowflakes like we used to make in infants, and sticking them all over our windows
ReplyDeleteMy mum is the unofficial Mrs Claus, she gets excited about anything/everything christmassy. She drags us round garden centres, Christmas emporiums etc. still at our ages to hunt out new ways to decorate every inch of the inside of our house. Every year we all get together to decorate our 2nd Christmas tree, yes we have 2 in jewel coloured decorations and then she sends us away to make cups of tea while she sneakily rearranges the whole thing ( and to be fair it always looks gorgeous)! She also has an angel tree which every year I buy her a new angel to go on and it sits on a table in front of the door and welcomes all our friends into our home - Our villages version of a Christmas grotto.
ReplyDeleteI've lived with my boyfriend for more than two years now, but as we always go home to our families for Christmas we have never had a tree. This year we couldn't resist, and bought a tiny, foot-high live tree that we can hopefully keep outside during the year and bring inside for Christmases.
ReplyDeleteLuckily I had some fairy lights in the back of the cupboard from my student bedroom, but the tree is so tiny the lights go round it twice and then up and down our bookcase too!
As we're rather money short the only option was to make decorations for the tree so I spent a very enjoyable Sunday afternoon making a 20 point star for the top out of some metallic gold paper. Rather a feat of engineering! Sadly since then the glue has decided that it doesn't like the metallic surface and several of the points have committed suicide! I like to think it gives it a more rustic look!
Considerably more successful were the baubles I made out of strips of gold and silver paper strung together with ribbon. I think these may actually be kept for next year! The star however may need a rethink!
Christmas tree: trimmed, be-baubled, lit... with optional large, furry Manx cats - One took a flying leap into the middle and brought the whole thing crashing down last year, the other has worked out how to unhook baubles and 'steal' them for noisy play/football sessions around the kitchen floor at midnight - what will this year bring? ;P
ReplyDeleteSalty dough decorations all the way! ;P Have a few from when I was younger and I used to think they looked a bit tacky on the tree but they blend in ok :) I also love the ice spray thingy you use to stencil snowflakes (or anything else) onto windows- we're a big fan of that in our household! ^_^ Shibani x
ReplyDeleteWe put our tree up this weekend so that the kids could join in - and then they decided they would rather play xbox :o( But I am happy - I love all my baubles, they are a haphazard collection of things I've bought, been bought, my husband had bought, we've bought together and a few very treasured baubles from my nan and great nan - these vintage glass beauties (one from about 1930 ish, we think) go at the very top of the tree out of the way of excitable paws. Last year the cats took the tree over and smashed one and I was gutted, so this year it is strongly anchored to the floor by a pile of slate roofing tiles!
ReplyDeleteThis year we fully intend on dressing our new, artificial 2ft tree with ALL the ornaments we've had for our 7ft trees of past. That includes 2 sets of lights. It shall be glorious.
ReplyDeleteEvery year my mum puts out a christmas decoration I made when I was 5 (I am 30 now) - it consists of a lump of grey clay, sprayed with some glitter and a sprig of plastic holly on top of it. Not the best of my creations but I love it. Our own tree at home isn't the biggest, or doesn't have the fanciest of baubles, but the fact that my 3 yr old twin daughters helped me to decorate it, makes it special :)
ReplyDeleteI have just managed to reason the £30 purchase of a live Christmas tree in a pot - whilst living in wild debt - as to me, Christmas is not Christmas without the tree. But I have viewed it as an important investment. This is it. This tree and I are going all the way now, there's no turning back - I'm keeping him forever. Mulled wine, sparkly lights, the Christmas tree and Me x x x Penelope Patrick x
ReplyDeleteWe put lots of sparkly stuff up yesterday, and have a peacock taking pride of place on the tree!
ReplyDeleteI LOVE this (and in fact any) papercut so much I have even gone to the extent of buying the paper and tools to *try* and make my own if I don't win!
ReplyDeleteThis year my daughter and I had a go at making our own homemade Christmassy gingerbread house as a decoration complete with sugar penguins with snowballs. I feel a new tradition coming on!
I decided that the 'Home Made Christmas' look is where it's at, and so I've hand made all my decorations! I've made stuffed hearts out of beautiful fabrics and dried out orange slices in the oven for hours to pop on my tree too. Instead of tinsel (because let's face it - it can be rather unsightly!) I've made mini bunting to be draped around the tree. It's on a tiny scale and all made out of bias binding and red-themed fabric (think polka dot, gingham, chintzy fabric with red flowers), and it looks SO fabulous and unique, even though I do say so myself! I wanted to bring floral and vintage chintz to my tree - which was difficult remit but works so well! Pics available upon request!
ReplyDeletexxxxx
I absolutely adore Christmas Trees, we have no fewer than 4 in our house. And they're not teensy weensy ones either, oh no! A family one, a kids one, a real one, and one just for good measure in the dining room. Treetastic!
ReplyDeleteI love christmas but I seem to have no * arty farty * gene in me ...If im asked to make something out of a box it still looks like the original box only with stuff stuck or painted on it ...I have a christmas tree dedicated to my girls * christmas decorations * the eldest is now 19 and the headless fairy still tops it with the addition of pringle lids with sparkles and pva glue and stockings ...I adore * home made * anything but as I said I dont have the gene to make things so this would be awesome xx
ReplyDeletemy favourite (and most treasured) Christmas decoration was made by my little boy two years ago (when he was 4yrs old).
ReplyDeleteIt's a pink glittery gingerbread man... it catches the light beautifully and manages to make everyone smile!
This year I am sadly treeless, but have instead hung my very favourite tree decorations (either handpainted wooden ones I got when a baby or handsewn ones I've made over the years) from the string of fairy lights I've hung between the bookcases in the living room. I've made extra paperchains to compensate too. Working in a shop means that I don't have any time to do anything else Christmassy decoration-wise, but I'm planning some sneaky baking to surprise my fella with gingerbread on Christmas morning.
ReplyDeleteI like my Christmas to be a mad hotchpotch of missmatching loveliness! We have a rubbish fake tree with what looks like about 7 branches. We had to put it on a table to make it look more like something you'd like to look at, but with metres of tinsel and some multicoloured glittery decorations it now looks magical (in my eyes at least). It's our first tree in wedlock so it will always be special for me. Christmas is yet another excuse tocrack out the bunting I made for our wedding day too. Huzzah!
ReplyDeleteI love that our Christmas tree still has decorations that I made growing up - bleach bottle cap lids covered in glitter, little handmade stockings, they're all still going decades on - it means I get a more than a little nostalgic putting up the tree
ReplyDeleteBeing inspired by Kirstie Allsopp last year i decided to make some salt dough decorations. The result is a little "rustic" but i've covered them in glitter glue and they look fab. They were also an absolute joy to make: it was like baking biscuits but having the end result last for more then 30 minutes! They may not be my chicest decorations but they are the one that make me smile the most and get the house looking nice and festive.
ReplyDeleteAaah, I love this.
ReplyDeleteMy tree isn't up yet but every year my and my mum put up the tiny little wooden decorations we bought at a Christmas market when I was tiny. We both love them they even when we've changed trees, themes, houses etc they've always remained.
My Christmas decorations consist of a bright pink Christmas tree, eyeball fairy lights (from Halloween but they're too cool to not be used on my tree) and an array of kitsch bought and crocheted ornaments that is if the cats keep their paws to themselves. I have a statue of Jesus that goes on the top of it. It's an eclectic mix but it works for me. :)
ReplyDeleteI love Alice in Wonderland too. I have an AIW themed sleeve tattooed on me. :D
This is my first time away from my parents for Christmas (normally I throw all sorts of tantrums to make sure I'm there!) so I now have my first very own tree. I'm trying to keep it classy but my excitement keeps getting the better of me, and being naturally attracted to sequins and sparkles it's a struggle! My mum always puts up these paper sculptures of the three kings - I'm desperately trying to find some myself, they really make my Christmas!
ReplyDeleteI don't bother with decorations as I live by myself.
ReplyDeleteWow!! A lot of sluttery fans want this prize!
ReplyDeleteWell, at home we decorate the whole house, and my mum likes it elegant and pretty... but I love love LOVE tacky pink tinsel, so I always blitz the attic spare bedroom (the soon-to-be kitsch-tastic grotto) where lucky family members stay over when we're all too full to move! I also like to go a bit ott with paper chains, fairly lights, and little happy christmas messages!
Anyway, happy christmas, sluts!!
For as long as I can remember, my mum would buy a HUGE tree (well, it seemed huge at the age of 8!), we (brother and I) would get so excited that we could help decorate it. We'd listen to Christmas songs, sing loudly and put lights EVERYWHERE. We'd cover the tree in every kind of bauble (literally every colour), home made decorations (toilet roll, glittery stuff and drawings) and tinsel. We'd all admire the tree, take pictures with us next to it... and then, unknown to me (until I left for uni), every year when brother and I had gone to bed, mum would REDO THE WHOLE TREE in her own way and take all our stuff off!!!
ReplyDeleteI'm now 22 and she STILL doesn't let us put the baubles where we like! xxx
This year all the children at my school made decorations etc to sell at our Chritmas fair. They had great fun making, marketing and selling them! All the stalls looked fantastic. I would have to share this papercut with them if I won! :-)
ReplyDeleteMy favourite as a kid was this little bear holding a bell that we hung on our tree and I used to ring it on Christmas morning. Also have the love for tinsel and wearing like a feather boa as I decorate the tree/until I remember how scratchy it is :)
ReplyDeleteUsually at my dads house we go all out American style with the tree, he even bought fake snow for it. We cover it in as many lights and candy canes as we can before it falls over!
ReplyDeleteThis year though I'm living with my boyfriend now (yay) but we're too poor to afford a tree to we have home made advent calendars instead. Sewn from felt and stuffed with mini milka bars!
I've made paper stars... I can't think what they're called, but they're sort of 3D, I make them so each point is an alternating colour. At home we still have all the paper chains I made years ago and we string them up with fairy lights through them every year. There're also the obligatory dove of peace mobiles and the 12 days of Christmas teatowel that get proudly hung up. I think my mum would happily skip this stuff, but we insist!
ReplyDeleteI've put ivy along the top of the kitchen cupboards and book shelves with little baubles and gold and red bead chains. We haven't got round to the tree yet but I'm more excited about finding some mistletoe! Hannah Smeaton
ReplyDeleteAs there's only the two of us in our pokey little flat, we don't really do Christmas decorations, so instead I go all out in the office. As I'm always the first one in, you'll find me up a ladder first thing on December 1st, stringing garlands across our ceiling air condition units, and draping fairy lights across my bosses door!
ReplyDeleteThis year I have made paper snowflakes for my living room window and have made a paper chain for the curtain pole. I always have a red and black theme on my tree because it looks festive and a little bit glam :)
ReplyDeleteFirst year of Christmas in our new house. Decorations consist of just a very little tree at the moment, but isnt half the fun colecting them over the coming years? :)
ReplyDeleteLast night I sat and amde reams and reams of gold and shiny red paper chains! It took me hours but our living room looks like a magical cross between a kids party/Christmas/70's glam rock party! haha.
ReplyDeleteI love the paper! Snowflakes, paper chains, classic paper lanterns (a la Watch With Mother from the 1950s)! We've not done much decorating in my shared house yet, so I can't wait to go to my Mum's and see the tree and the holly + ivy winding round the bannister. Also to smell the sweet, warm oranges from the radiators and gingerbread from the kitchen..
ReplyDeleteDelicio!
My cat is enjoying her first Christmas by playing with my beautiful Christmas decorations. I'm sure she's trying to work out a way to climb the Christmas tree and swing from the Christmas bunting.
ReplyDeleteMy favourite Christmas decoration was made for me last year by my very favourite advocate of Domestic Sluttery, my friend Kate. It's a felt stuffed Christmas pudding, with the most adorable big red heart button for the holly leaves.
ReplyDeleteThe only trouble is that my cats like it as much as I do, so I have to search out where they've hidden it and replace it in pride of position on the tree at least twice a day!
I always put white paper roses on my tree - sounds silly, but they look really sweet, like they just grew there, and I've never seen anyone else do that.
ReplyDeleteAlso, this year my boyfriend bought me this ceramic Party Ring Christmas tree decoration! It looks so realistic, even down to the grooves on the back, and is definitely my favourite one :)
As a general rule, though, I get very bossy about decorating my tree, when I'm not really that bossy in real life. Why do I care so much?!
I've been buying a new decoration each year since I left home 17 years ago, and last year I finally realised that I'd run out of space. Instead of giving up on my tradition I bought a second tree and have started filling that. At this rate I will have a tree in every room by the time I retire.
ReplyDeleteMy favourite decoration is a snowman that I made when I was 4 and my mum used to put it on her tree every year, now I put it on my own tree, in amongst my own kids decorations. It is a beautiful 20cm snowman made from cotton wool on blue card with one eye missing and a little carrot nose,... thing is my tree is only 50cm tall so it kind of dominates in its fabulousness
ReplyDeleteMy boyfriend is at his work Xmas do on Thursday night so I'm going to surprise him by making colourful paper chains and draping them all across the dining room ready for our Fake Christmas dinner on Friday evening. I'm also going to cut out tin foil stars a la nativity plays and stick them to the TV, headboard, desk... everywhere :D
ReplyDeleteI've made some bunting out of cut out felt shapes and a broken (faux) pearl necklace plus some gingerbread snowflakes for the tree. Oh and not forgetting our tin foil covered cardboard star for the top of the tree. My mum's christmas tree has handmade stuff going back 20 odd years that my sister and I made at school :)
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