The List Maker: It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas!

I do not particularly remember having a fondness for Christmas decorating as a child. I mean, I LOVE this time of year but I don't remember participating in helping my mom decorate. I guess for me, my sense of ownership in having a part in the celebration of Christmas came when I was in college. Having secured a position at Importer's Warehouse, (which was a definite step up from my position at Bruno's - not that Bruno's wasn't good, it paid the bills but I was the ONLY cashier old enough to work past their 10:30 p.m. rule for labor law compliance and the working til midnight every night coupled with 8:00 a.m. classes did not mix) I dealt with Christmas decorations day in, day out. I always found it funny that Importer's Warehouse's main sales were generated from Christmas trees and Christmas decor yet the owners were Seventh Day Adventist and didn't even celebrate the Christmas holiday.
Anyway, that year, me and my college roommate bought Christmas decorations and we got a tree. I was hooked! I loved it. Now I adore seeing the house all festive with Christmas reds here and there. However, I am still a cheapskate and a tightwad. So I've tried to get creative and lo and behold, I think I have:)
My sweet mother-in-law has given us three artificial trees over the years. Whenever she goes to throw one out, we take it in. Three free trees! Who can beat that?
Having headed up the Holiday Auction for three years, I received some of the decorations from one of the auctions. My man was put on the assignment of cutting 64 "discs" of wood and I kept some of them after the event. I showed you in a previous post how I used them as a centerpiece. For Christmas, I wanted to spice them up. Of course, I found a pin on Pinterest for using epsom salt in the bottom of a Mason jar to look like snow. Here's what I did. Again, Pinterest was my muse:)

Once I placed my salt and tea lights in the jars, I needed to tie in the Christmas feel. Here are the materials I used. My husband had purchased the salt for some project he had going in the garage so I just used a little of what he had already. So this was free to me:) The cedar that I used, I got from my neighbor who just so happened to be trimming back his trees recently. I used the cedar for this project and to drape across the top of my armoire in the living room. Again, free! The rest of the materials were purchased at the Dollar Tree. Here they are:

And for the final product?

Pretty cute (and easy) if I do say so myself. They look really soft and inviting with the candles lit.

Not sure how many years I have been going to my mom's house to decorate her tree but I truly enjoy it. I think what I enjoy is I get to tell her what she needs to buy for her tree and then I decorate without having spent a dime:) She's of the age where she has a little more budget to spend on Christmas decor but has a lot of shoulder problems and can not decorate the tree. It's turned out to be a pretty fun time for her and I. This year I brought little man with me. The tree turned out beautifully but for some reason these are the only pics I caught of the day: