As if the rising cost of living isn’t enough, the price of shop-bought Christmas decorations can make even the most enthusiastic fan of the festive season think ‘bah, humbug’.

Yet there is a way to put the natural back into Noel, just by taking some clippings from your garden and using them to make much more subtle decorations than you could buy in any shop.

With this in mind, Gardening Which?, the Consumers’ Association magazine, has come up with a bundle of ideas on how you can make some simple, stylish decorations to bring the outdoors inside to complement your tree, without a shimmer of tinsel in sight.

“The great thing about making your own decorations from garden material is that you are bringing the garden into the home and returning to a time when things weren't about the flash or the dazzle of Christmas but more about natural ways to dress the tree,” says Ceri Thomas, editor of the magazine.

Colourful stems, such as dogwood and birch, can be snipped to make the simplest of twig bundles, tied together with green garden wire or florist’s stub wire and then finished off with a bow made of a narrow-leaved evergreen such as libertia or miscanthus and then hung with a thin strip of raffia.

“Look in your garden for anything with berries, like cotoneaster, rowan and pyracantha. If you’ve grown chillis on the patio or in the greenhouse these can also look fantastic in natural garlands,” says Thomas.

A natural garland can look so much more colourful than any amount of beads, and is simple to make if you have a little patience.

Just thread suitable berries, such as rowan (sorbus) and cotoneaster, on to lengths of garden wire, adding chillis if you have them, and even perhaps cranberries that you may have left over after making cranberry sauce, and you will soon have a garland to hang in the house or even around a tree in the garden, where you can see it.

Although the berries will dry up indoors, they should last throughout the festive season. You could alternate them with the leaves of evergreens such as holly, ivy and euonymus for a fuller effect.

Small larch cones, conkers and nuts make a wonderful cluster and a great alternative to a plastic bauble. Make a tight ball of string as a base, about golf-ball size, with a loop for hanging. Put glue onto the base of each cone for a star effect and stick them to the ball of string until it's covered.

Of course, there are other natural decorations which will continue the theme. A large bunch of gypsophila from the florist or even your local supermarket can go a long way. Cut stems of it and place them evenly amid the branches of the tree, for a snow effect.

Your tree will soon look stunning – with not a garish bauble in sight.