I picked up these lovely decorations yesterday from the Cancer Research shop - all of this for £1! There were lots more, but I thought I would leave some for the other bargain hunters. The decorations are all made of wood and metal, which matches my objective this year of not buying anything plastic. (Unfortunately the decorations came in plastic wrappers). 
My other objective was to have some sort of mantlepiece - I've longed to have a proper fireplace since I moved to this house 18 years ago . We have an ugly old fashioned gas fire and a back boiler, which both need to be replaced but finances have not allowed - there are so many things that have taken priority over the years, but after seeing what wonderful decorations other people have blogged, I gave my self a kick up the proverbial and bought this beauty on EBay. Its basically just a wooden mantleshelf, purely cosmetic, but somewhere for me to put my candles and a bit of holly. (Yes I know that's not holly, it's laurel, but I will go out and see what I can pick at the weekend - maybe some berries too). When I have properly decorated my new mantlepiece I will proudly display a photo, watch this space.....
How's this for rustic decorations:
I made these from some twigs and scaps of knitting wool. I plan to make some more, maybe paint them or use gold paint.
Finally, here's a picture of our tree. Over the years we have had so many different colour schemes, but most of our favourite decorations are white, silver and gold, so the majority of the other colours I gave away on Freecycle. Many of these are wood, glass or metal (though I do still have some plastic ones). There are also a few hand knitted ones (stockings, candy canes and so on).
I'm off to do some Christmas shopping and to drive to the west country to deliver gifts and to pick up my daughter from University. 
