Budget Friendly Christmas Decor :)

So, this year I am trying to keep my spending on Christmas decor to a minimum so I will have more to spend on my favorite little boy.  :)  I used mostly what I already had but wanted to do a couple different things this year.  Like with my set of candle holders that I got a few years ago.  They came with these hideous white ball candles.
Lovely, aren't they?  I don't know why it never occured to me to get something different...

But this year, I decided I wanted some faux cranberries (or any red berries) instead of the ugly candles.  Well, the faux cranberries were not easy to find and I was getting impatient (as usual.)  So, I decided to go with real cranberries.  I'm not sure if they will last until Christmas but they seem to be holding up ok so far.  And at $2 a bag, I can afford to change them out if I need to.  I'm glad I decided to go with the real ones since faux cranberries probably would not have been cheap.  I love how much better these look now  :)

Best $2 I ever spent  :)  Well...maybe.  haha!

Ok, so that brings me to budget-friendly item #2!

I loved the wreath on my chandelier for fall so much that I wanted to do one for Christmas, too.  I had planned on buying a small, artificial wreath for it, but...today I had an idea when I was looking outside at the rain.  :)  We have Cypress trees at the back of our property that the builders planted when they built the house.  They have grown quite big and I saw them towering above my fence and thought, I could totally cut some branches off those and make my own little wreath.  So, I put my rainboots & hoodie on, grabbed some scissors (couldn't find the pruning shears) and went out back to cut me some greenery! 

I fashioned a little wreath out of some branches & wire and added it to my chandelier.  I piled on more greenery till I thought it looked ok, but it needed some color so I got out the ol' glue gun & added some of my leftover cranberries :) 

Me likey  :) 

The best part about this wreath is that it was FREE!  yay  :p

And...just for kicks...here are a couple pics I took of my little cutie yesterday.  He was being an angel and actually cooperated while I took his photos!  I was overjoyed! 

(He was showing me his 'ear.')

p.s. I'm linking up to...