Amy Winehouse has reportedly spent a jaw-dropping £18,000 on Christmas decorations. The Christmas shop took place in London at the luxury department store Selfridges. Even at Selfridge’s prices that is a ton of tinsel. London should be prepared for a power surge when Amy turns her Christmas lights on.
I am delighted that Amy is off the crack and throwing herself into the spirit of the festive season with such gusto. Over the next month she will have hundreds of fairy lights to replace and pine needles to vacuum up. There is simply going to be no time for intravenous drug-taking until January at the earliest.
If you don’t have a budget to match Amy’s don’t worry as it is perfectly possible to decorate your home with a mixture of old magazines, paper and flour. At the most you may need to ‘borrow’ some string and glue from the office stationery cupboard but compared to drugs it’s a small crime.
Christmas Bunting
This is easy but time consuming. Do it in front of the telly with a glass of mulled wine. Cut out triangles of paper from old magazines. Glue two triangles together with the string running along the top to form one triangle. Continue until you have the length of buntified string you require.
I am a big fan of bunting year round but come Christmas it is nice to go for red and green triangles. You can either use some cheap wrapping paper or just be selective in the pages you cut out from your assorted old magazines and junk mail.
Paper Snowflakes
My paper snowflakes tend to look like the result of a particularly productive morning at playschool so I am not going to attempt to direct you myself on this one. There are lots of patterns available online and even lopsided snowflakes look good.
Christmas Tree Decorations
Mix 2 parts flour to 1 part water in a bowl and combine to a thick doughy consistency. You can add food colouring at this stage if you are using it. Roll out the dough until it is about 0.5cm thick and cut shapes using cookie cutters.
Use a skewer to put a hole at the top of the ornament and then brush with oil. Bake in a hot oven for 10 to 15 minutes until the decorations are hard.
Once cool make a string loop and hang from your tree.