It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

...everywhere you go...and it's great! A big part of our family traditions are decorations. Not just decorating our own house and tree, but getting out of the house and seeing all the lights there too.

Every year we visit Stafford Town Centre, and every year the Christmas lights switch on gets better and better, with a parade, music, food and fireworks. Later on in December, we visit the Haughton Christmas Lights. The village really pulls together, decorating their own houses with fantastic lights, Santas, snowmen, and reindeer to raise money for charity. It is such a wonderful atmosphere, the children love it and it really gets us in the Christmas spirit. Around the second weekend in December we head off to the Forestry Commission, to find our perfect tree and inevitably end up buying the first one we saw, but had disregarded because "how can we be sure its perfect, if we don't check them all?!"

After a day of decorating the house, we decorate the tree, then I start feeling capable and crafty, making a wreath and table centre.

Having a table centrepiece really finishes off dining room Christmas decor. There are so many ways you can make one and it really comes down to your own personal taste. It can also run up quite a bill, if you don't shop around for the lovely little trinkets you need. Some people place the items directly on the table, I have done this before and in my case it was a mistake. I had set the table on Christmas Day and it looked pretty good, (if I do say so myself) but once all my serving plates were out, the drinks served and the people seated, there was no way the centrepiece could stay. We had barely enough room for the wine, which is obviously essential, so I had to pick the nice table centre apart, moving it all aside, which was a bit of a pain. (Atleast I hadn't covered the table in fake snow like some do on Pinterest. It looks lovely, but with four boys, a dog and two cats, the whole house would look like the inside of a snow globe in seconds!)

With last year in mind, this year I decided to create my centrepiece on a tray. It can be easily moved off onto the sideboard and put back on the table after we're done with no fuss at all. Not only that, but this one is seriously cheap! I have used decorations I already had, revitalised and repurposed things from around the house and shopped at Home Bargains. I love this shop! Not only can you get toiletries cheap, but if you look carefully at some of the home decor, there are some serious bargains to be had. I bought the two gold Christmas tree candles I used this year for £1.99 each. On other websites I have looked at these go from £9.99 to £17.99 each (I'm serious, £17.99 on Zara Home website, it's crazy!)

I started by painting a wooden tray I had. It came as a base of a beautiful hamper, my lovely friend Niccy had made up for us all Christmas last year. I painted it white with some old Farrow and Ball eggshell paint we had left after doing the boys rooms. If you wanted to recreate this, tester pots are the ideal size for this project and only cost a few pounds. It took a couple of coats as the tray was black on the outer edge.

I had bought a glass tea light holder from Ikea a few years ago (for approx. £1), so I used that as a vase for the berries. I bound some eucalyptus with red and white twine and added a little bell, I had stolen from a Lindt chocolate reindeer waiting for Christmas. The pine cones had come loose from a garland I had, the bells and star I bought this year, which were decorating elsewhere in the house, so I purloined those and the two mercury tea light holders that were in my living room (bought from The White Company a couple of years ago) and positioned them on the tray. I used a few silver baubles and a branch from our Christmas tree to finish and...voila!

It is a little different than last years, which was much more traditional. I had a lot more foliage, wood and red then, but I'm really pleased it how it turned out this year. It's beautiful and simple and was all achieved on a budget.

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