Simple Christmas decorating with Nectar

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December is finally here and the Christmas festivities can begin in earnest. I tend to hold off putting up our decorations until mid-December (in my house growing up they didn’t go up until the weekend before Christmas), but I thought I’d share a sneak peak into the simple Christmas decorating style I’ll be embracing this year, along with some savvy shopping tips with Nectar. A double-whammy of inspiration and money-saving ideas!  Nectar challenged me to spend £100 on giving my home a festive feel, with the added incentive of collecting as many Nectar point along the way as I could by making my purchases through the many Nectar partners, taking advantage of any special offers up for grabs.

We’ve had a Nectar card for years, but I hadn’t explored the Nectar app before so I downloaded it and did all my Christmas decorating shopping on my phone. One of the first offers that caught my attention was for 10 x points on eBay. I’m a keen eBay shopper but I didn’t realise that I could have been collecting Nectar points all this time, so it was great to link my account up with the Nectar card. I managed to collect a whopping 441 points in a single purchase of something I’ve always wanted – a 6ft twig tree pre-lit with lovely warm white twinkly lights. This won’t replace the real tree we’ll pick up later in the month, but I think it’s perfectly acceptable to have both, right? And the tree is suitable for indoors or outdoors – I think searching out versatile pieces like this one is great because it means you can change things up every year.

I also shopped at House of Fraser, taking advantage of a triple points offer to buy a felt snowflake table runner, which I decided to use as a festive wall hanging behind the tree. Again, it’s about finding a number of ways to use a single item. The runner adds interest to the wall, but I can easily unclip it and use it on the table when we’re entertaining guests over the festive period. Next up, I hopped over to browse Habitat’s collection (another of my favourite stores), where I could earn a point per pound. The Nectar app takes you through to shop on each partner’s website, but makes sure it registers any Nectar points when you make your purchases.

Here’s a breakdown of how I spent my £100:

6ft pre-lit twig tree, £49.95, eBay
Glass hanging ball vase, £12.99 for six, eBay
Grey felt table runner, £9, House of Fraser
Tray, plate and mug, £28, Habitat
TOTAL: £99.94

All in all I managed to tot up a fantastic 640 Nectar points, which is pretty impressive for a quick and stress-free shopping spree.

As much as I love the twig tree, I think my favourite purchase is the set of glass hanging ball vases. I think what really appeals is the idea that I can style these up in so many different ways. They work brilliantly as Christmas baubles on the tree and I was spoilt for choice when trying to decide what to put in them. I opted for a couple of simple sprigs of foliage (I put a bit of water into the vases to keep the foliage fresh for longer), but I also considered little pinecones, tea lights, dried flowers, or even fake snow with a little bottle brush tree. I definitely won’t be packing these away into the loft after Christmas is over – I plan to use them to create a mini seasonal display throughout the year.

High on my festive to-do list is to see how all my friends and family decorate their own homes for Christmas – I’ll find any excuse to pop over for a coffee (or mulled wine), see what they’ve done, and go home full of ideas of things to try in our house. How would you describe your Christmas decorating style? Do you change it up each year, or do you love embracing a look that stays with you year after year?

Disclosure: This post was written in collaboration with Nectar, but the content and view are my own