A Frugal, Thrifty, Cheap, Traditional Christmas is the new Irish Christmas

A thrifty, traditional Christmas is the new Irish Christmas in the current recession.

Keep everything as simple as possible. 

Budget - Make your shopping list and Christmas present list, months in advance. 

Use as few processed foods as you can manage.

Use natural and locally made decorations.

Christmas Tree: if you live in the country, you may be able to buy a fresh tree off a neighbour. The commercial ones are cut in November and are sometimes found wilting on Christmas Day. If a tree costs too much, try using just a few evergreen branches and decorate them. Even a bare branched tree or potted shrub can look wonderful, once decorated.

Decorations for the Tree: every year after Christmas, carefully put away all the decorations that are in good condition. Build up a family collection of ornaments for your annual Christmas celebration. Save that paper fairy made by your child in junior infants class, it will last for years and will cause amusement, as it ages. Try and add one or two carefully made/chosen new items each year. Make your ornaments, some are easy to make and last for years.

A Christmas Decoration - handmade locally in Kilkenny: Jerpoint Glass bauble.

Date: don't allow Christmas to last for ever, prevent it from starting too early, by considering the traditional dates for decorating the house i.e. putting up the tree on 23rd/24th December and leaving it up for the 12 days of Christmas, taking it down on the feast of the Epiphany, or what used to be known as Little Christmas or Womens' Christmas on January 6th. If you are under pressure to start early, try celebrating Advent with a homemade decorated wreath, or an Advent calendar or candle and stand firm on everything else, until a couple of days before Christmas.

Wreath: these are expensive and never look as well as a homemade one. There is nothing simpler to make. Forget florist's fancy rings, foams and other secrets. All you need is a wire coat hanger, cut off the hook and make it into a circle. Then go outside to a garden and cut lengths of greenery, evergreen plants preferred, and roughly bind them to the wire using green thread or string. Once you have achieved the shape and size that you require, then bind it with some red or colorful ribbon and decorate with whatever you have to hand - Christmas decorations, dried flowers, fir cones etc. You will be surprised at how easy and quick it is.

Decorate your House: plastic decorations are expensive. Use the traditional ivy, holly, yew or fir. Drape them on top of your pictures and intertwine the ivy up the stairs. Use greenery that grows near you. If you do this on Christmas Eve they will last until Jan 6th when it is time to take them down and add them to the compost heap. Trail the ivy along and around the table on Christmas day. It costs nothing and looks great.


External Decoration: forget the flashing Christmas lights, just don't even think about them. A single candle flame, in the window, on Christmas Eve and on Christmas Day, is remarkably effective and a most welcoming sight.

Food: decide well in advance what you are going to eat and write out a menu, then write out the shopping list of ingredients that you require and stick to this list rigidly and you will save yourself a small fortune.

Santa Claus: Santa will be only too well aware that there is a recession this Christmas, so he will only be bringing small presents that will actually fit into a sock or stocking. These should either be hung at the end of the bed or near the fireplace to make life easy for him, so that he won't have to waste time wandering around looking for them. Parents who have laboured long and hard should ensure that their children are aware that presents bought by their parents are the products of those parents' hard work and are to be appreciated as such.

Wrapping Presents: whenever you receive a gift, always save the paper and any ribbons. Then, when Christmas comes around you will have a good supply. If you want to be really thrify, try using newspaper sheets, they can be most decorative, especially when wrapped with some recycled ribbon.

Christmas Crackers: if you have to have them, either make them yourself or buy cheap ones and carefully open them and fill them with homemade gifts or sweets that you know everyone will enjoy.

Turn off the Electricity: light the fire and light some candles. Decant your sloe gin, fill a few glasses, tell some stories and have a great Christmas.

Email: kilkennyseakale@gmail.com