Time to get into the Christmas spirit and start decorating your home ready for the festive season. Instead of running out to stock up on new decorations, why not get the kids involved and use natural materials you have or can discover in nature?
Did you know? Each year, the average household spends £185 on Christmas decorations and 12,500 tonnes of Christmas decorations are discarded in landfills, totalling £1.2m* - that’s a lot of waste. Natural Christmas decorations are a great way to educate your kids about sustainability and the great outdoors, all while having fun in the process.
Compostable Christmas Garland
This is so simple whilst achieving the perfect look for Christmas.
Dry orange slices in a warm oven (around 60c) for 2 hours, checking to make sure they are not getting too sunburnt!)
Cut velvet ribbon and tie into little bows.


Ta-da ~ so simple yet so impactful. Provided you have used a natural twine, you can compost this along with your orange slices and store the bows for next year.
All you need is some paper, scissors and a little bit of creativity. Use old newspapers, magazines or any other existing paper you have around to reduce waste.
- Cut the paper in to a square shape
- Fold the paper into a triangular shape
- Design your snowflake - draw in pencil first and cut along the lines
- Hang them up in your home using string or ribbon
- At the end of the festive season - recycle with other paper

Do you have any pebbles in the garden? If so, get creative with this fun and festive painted rock activity. Need some inspiration for designs? Try some of our favourite simple ideas: Christmas Tree, Stocking, Bell, Holly, Present, Star. If you're looking for a mess-free alternative to paint, poster pens are a great way to get creative without the clean up afterwards.
- Flat Surface Rocks or Pebbles
- Acrylic Paint (Like these from HobbyCraft)
- Small Acrylic Paint Brushes
- Wash the rocks and let them dry completely before painting.
- Protect the table top surface with sheet of old newspaper.
- Allow paint to fully dry between steps and when changing to a new colour.
- Repeat each step as needed for additional coverage

- Pinecones
- White School Glue (Like this one from Hobby Craft)
- Bio-degradable Glitter
- Paintbrushes
- Brush each pine cone tip with enough glute to catch and hold the glitter in place
- Place the glued pine cone in a bowl to catch excess glitter
- Sprinkle the glitter over the pine cone, tilting in each direction until all of the glue is covered by glitter.
- If you’d like to hang the pine cones, use either an ornament hook, or a small length of ribbon (Wrap it around the upper levels of your pine cone and leave enough length on either end to tie a bow so that you can hang it on a tree.)

- Chop the orange into slices about 1/2cm thick.
- Place on a lined baking tray.
- Into an oven at 100C.
- After 2 hours turn the orange slices.
- Leave for a further 2 hours in the oven.
- Check and turn.
- If they are still very flexible you may need to return them for another hour or two. This will vary with your oven and the thickness of the orange slices.
- Once your fruit is fully dried, pierce a small hole in the centre star of the fruit and loop a piece of string or ribbon through
- You could also stack the fruit by layering several different dried fruits, chillies or anything else on to your string.

- A selection of thin tree twigs (pencil-sized diameter works well)
- Cardboard
- Glue (A hot glue gun or very sticky strong hold craft glue both work well)
- Pipe cleaners or ribbons (for hanging the decorations)
- Firstly, make sure all of the twigs are thoroughly dried before starting (drying out in a warm airing cabinet works well)
- Cut cardboard pieces 6″ x 1″
- Take a push pin and make a hole 3/4″ down from the top of the backing strip.
- Take a pencil and poke through the hole.
- Cut a range of twigs from 4 inches to 1 inch long, slightly shorter each time
- Glue them onto the cardboard backing in a Christmas Tree shape - getting shorter as they go up, stopping just below the hole
- Loop the pipe cleaner or ribbon through the hole to act as a hanger
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