I have given out some of these ideas to people in financial distress, or families who just got snowed in and couldn't get out to buy Christmas Ornaments this year.  The younger you are, the more you may need "fillers" in the early years as you grow your collection of ornaments.

These are all very low cost ideas you can make between now and tonight using things you may have around the house.

The above is a simple hand made fan that you can sit right on the tree without a hook.  This one is many years old and is made from left over scraps of foil wrapping paper.  It's double sided with two pieces of paper glued together, so it is heavier and colored on both sides.

You can use any wrapping paper, or even copy paper that you paint green and red stripes on.  Get creative!

If you have plain ornaments that were economical, and the tree just looks a little to "plain", try painting a few stripes in different colors on the plain ornament.

This one was done on colored cross stitch cloth, but you can create the same affect pretty quickly with any colored cloth.  Great idea for people who like safe ornaments that won't break.

If you just opened your ornaments and find some that have peeled or as my Mom would say "have seen better days", you can usually wash off the color altogether and paint them.  Sometimes they will be clear underneath like this one.  Sometimes they will be silver underneath.  Either way, a little paint and glitter on the washed off ball will look better than one that with peeled off color.  Fun idea for the kids to get creative with as well.

These are really, really old.  My sister and I doctored these up with some glitter and paint twenty years ago, and they were at least 20 years old then! LOL.  On the right you can see the satin balls with sequins and pinned beads.  If you have plain satin balls, letting the children who are old enough to handle pins make their own special ball is something they will treasure years later.

I made this one from glass back when I was a teenager, but you can make something similar out of cardboard. I painted two different pictures (the paint is on the inside) and put a piece of tinfoil in the middle and glued them together.  Opague paint on the faces and background, stained glass paint where you want the foil to sparkle from the lights.  A wrapped present, a toy soldier, many different designs that don't involve face painting :).  I'm surprised these are still around after 30+ years.  A piece of gold brick-a-brac glued to the edge.

Andrea, who is now 20, made this in kindergarten.  A child's block with the initial of their first name and some felt and puffs glued on.  One of my most prized possessions :)  Could be a little too late to put this one together by tonight without the materials.  But I wish I had one for each of my children, so here's an idea for future Christmas craft.

This star is cut from thin styrofoam, but you can use cardboard and glitter.

Now the the Chunukah Bush ideas.  Easy.  Just make the fans out of Blue and Silver foil paper.  Make the Star a six-pointed star with blue glitter on the circle and gold or silver glitter for the star.  Or paint.  Whatever you have around.  The little felt man can be made of blue and gold or silver or blue and white.

My Mom was Jewish and we were all raised Catholic.  My Mom worked in a Pizza Parlor when we were kids and a man came to pick up his Pizza with his very young child who hadn't seen a Christmas Tree.  My Mom knew the man and knew he was Jewish.  The little boy pointed at the Christmas Tree my Mom had in the store and asked his father what it was.  He seemed a little stuck for an answer, so my Mom quickly said "It's a Chanukah Bush!" to the man's great relief. 

Never disappoint a child.  Make a Chanukah Bush.

Happy Holidays Everyone!