Pippa Middleton's thrifty Christmas decorating tip makes us want to abandon immaculate trees in favour of personality

Pippa Middleton once revealed her thrifty Christmas tree decorating tip and it’s inspired us to embrace a rustic and personal approach to seasonal styling.

Decorating for the festive season can often feel a little bit overwhelming, especially when we see some amazing Christmas tree themes and light-adorned celebrity homes. Whilst we love glass ornaments and beautiful centrepieces, it's fun and cost-effective to balance out these more luxurious decorations with some more affordable and creative options too. We can’t help being inspired by Pippa Middleton’s thrifty Christmas decorating tip which she revealed in a festive piece for the Daily Mail in 2012.

In it, the Princess of Wales’s sister reminded us all that "individual style is everything" when it comes to Christmas decorations and she loves adding a few homemade additions to her tree and home. Pippa explained that she prefers trees decorated with "plain fairy lights" and a "variety of baubles" including wooden, glass and felt, but often includes some DIY decorations too, including fabric-covered baubles.

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Describing these as being "among [her] favourites", Pippa shared her belief that fabric-covered baubles are a "practical way to revive tired-looking decorations and make the most of fabric scraps".

Home-made fabric-decorations are an easy way to instantly make your Christmas tree - or bannisters or door handles - that bit more personal to you. If you have some fabric leftover and unused in a box at home from another project or an old cushion cover you want to re-use, they can be cut up and glued to a bauble to give it a new lease of life. This is a more sustainable approach to Christmas decorating and having a few fabric-covered baubles amongst your other decorations adds a lovely textural contrast too.

As Pippa suggested, it’s a handy way to "revive tired-looking decorations" and even if you want to pick up some new fabric to use, you can look for more affordable options with a design really tailored to your style so they can be brought out again and again.

Pippa Middleton’s thrifty decorating tip has given us plenty of ideas for both this season and next year and fabric baubles weren’t the only pearl of decorating wisdom she shared. The Princess of Wales’s sister went on to reveal that she also loves "glitter-dusted pine cones to hang on the tree or use as part of a table display in bowls mixed with baubles".

Embracing natural décor and giving your Christmas tree and home a more rustic feel is one of those Christmas decorating ideas that we keep coming back to because it’s so cosy and beautiful.

To create Pippa’s shimmery pine cones simply put a light layer of glue on the places you want the glitter to stick and use a paintbrush to apply your chosen colour of glitter. Pine cones and bunches of holly can be foraged during frosty winter walks or if you’d prefer faux pine cones for extra durability or already glittery cones then you can often bag yourself a bargain on these too.

Adding a loop of thread or ribbon turns pine cones into simple but effective ornaments or you can turn them into a glimmering table centrepiece by arranging them in a bowl, like Pippa said.

Homemade Christmas decorations are such a lovely detail for the festive season and womand&home's Lifestyle Editor Tamara Kelly believes they can be so timeless too.

"Homemade Christmas decorations will never go out of fashion. Not only are they a sustainable way to emulate the latest Christmas decorating ideas they also help to save money and create a family-fun day of Christmas crafting, making memories to treasure forever," she says. "Making your own decorations is also a beautifully sentimental way to embrace the nostalgic Christmas decoration trend, crafting timeless decorations that can be used for years to come."

Tamara Kelly

Tamara is a highly experienced homes and interiors journalist, with a career spanning 20 years. Tamara has spent the last 17 years working with the style teams at, Woman & Home, Country Homes & Interiors and Ideal Home, and it’s with these award-winning teams that she gained a wealth of knowledge and honed her skills and passion for shopping, styling and writing about every aspect of lifestyle and interiors.