Each year when the yuletide season arrives, I try to come up with a Christmas project.

When I was a kid, my parents didn’t spend on elaborate Christmas decorations and I got jealous of my classmates’ houses with their big trees, lighted gates and glamorous ornaments. My envy then pushed me to start creating my ornamentation.

I started with drawing, cutting and pasting. Soon it became mixing, crumpling and climbing. Year after year, I challenged myself with different concepts. And each year I find excitement in putting together simple arts to make one complex set-up.

Sad to say, I wasn’t able to document my yearly creations, except for a few.

This was Christmas 2008.

This was Christmas 2009.

This year, I have no budget allocation for home beautification so I challenged myself to come up with a fully decorated Christmas tree that costs nothing at all.

Despite my noble intentions, I got stumped with the primary need: the Christmas tree. Even if any tree would do, I forgot I was living in the desert and unlike my tropical country, cutting, getting or picking fallen branches may be a crime. All trees and tree-like vegetation belongs to the government (unless you planted them yourself inside the confines of your flat).

For 3 days, I scouted the area surrounding my house for a possible tree to ”steal” but all of them were firmly planted on solid ground. I resorted to cutting back on our grocery list to make way for a tree. Then it took me a week to convince my husband to buy one.

My new challenge now is to decorate my tree without spending at all.

To be continued…