Darn Near Free, 10 Minute Holiday Centerpiece: a DIY!

Whaaaaaaaaat?, you're asking.  Are you crazy?  A centerpiece that's darn near free AND takes less than ten minutes to make?!  Get outta town!

No wait, it's true!

I made this centerpiece for our dining room table for less than $3.00, along with items I already had about the house.

I've never been much for holiday decorating, any holiday.  Not sure why.  Can't explain it.  Maybe I'm  a weirdo, I dunno.

This year though, Mike's family is coming by for Christmas for the first time.  Hailey wasn't people friendly so we never really had people over.  She had a few human friends that she loved dearly, but not that many.  So, with circumstances as they are now, well, without tearing up here, people can get in the door these days.

SooOOooo, if folks are coming by, the house should probably be a little holiday-ish, yeah?  Mike asked me if I'd do it up a bit.  Of course me, I'm always about budget-friendly too.

Right, here's what I used and how this came about:

• Christmas tree trunk trimmings, free
• tree branch trimmings, free
• white floofy snowy-ish fabric remnant, $2.50
• mini ornaments, previously owned
• tea light candle holders, previously owned

We were at Home Depot (gasp!  I know, I cheated on Menards!) to shop for our Christmas tree when I spotted a large bin of tree branch trimmings, ya know, the bottom branches people don't want, and a couple of buckets with tree trunk pieces in them.

Huh.

I asked the friendly associate wielding a chain saw if the stuff was free for the taking.  He nodded and said, a-yup.  The gears started turning in me wee head so I opted to grab some branches and trunk cut offs, not having any idea what to do with them.

Mike, ever leery when he sees me digging into stuff, asked what I was going to do with what I was stacking in my arms.  I blurted out, "make a centerpiece!," surprising myself.  Well, all righty, a centerpiece I would make then!

At Joann Fabrics, I snagged a remnant of white snowy-like floofy faux fur fabric* that I was planning to use for something else when I realized, oh, duh, if I cut a sliver off then there's something to go under the trunk trimmings to protect the table.

And then I realized, oh, duh, if I cut it all curvy, it'll be reminiscent of snow!

So that's what I did.

I freehand cut the fabric all curvy, arranged the wood chucks all nice, trimmed up pieces of the pine branches and placed them about, dotted the whole thing with itty bitty mini ornaments, then capped off the whole thing with tea light candles.  Here and there I smooshed some of the fabric trimmings in bunches between the wood to fill in and give it a more snowy piled feeling.

Voila!

Sure, the tree trunk cut offs are a smidge uneven and they tilt but that doesn't bother me.  If it bugs you, I'm sure they can be carefully trimmed to even.  Carefully.  I won't light the candles on the super tilty ones and burn my house down, don't worry; I'll move them to less tilty pieces.

But, yeah!  Practically free, painfully easy, created in a flash, and absolutely perfect for holiday decorating procrastinators!

*The faux fur is a Joann Fabrics affiliate link.  Mwah, thanks!  Please see the "boring stuff" tab for more info.