Holiday Decorating 101

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! And I love decorating for Christmas. If you do to, here are some tips for bringing that Holiday look and feel into your home this season on a budget.

1. Start saving your empty boxes of all shapes and sizes. Keep your eye out for some great wrapping paper. You can use colorful, fancy or fun. Wrap your boxes and stack them around the house (on the floor or atop the piano or mantle) like little Christmas trees-largest boxes on the bottom, smaller as you stack higher. This is an easy, pretty way to take up space and add a lot of color. If you have a covered porch, you can throw some heavy rocks in the bottom and stack them outside with a strand of lights.

2. Stock up on inexpensive Christmas balls. You can find cheap Christmas tree balls everywhere in pretty much every color. I love to take glass vases and pour in some cheap glass balls. Group several different size and shaped vases together (always group in odd numbers) to make it look like a completed decoration. Tie a ribbon around a few of them and you have an inexpensive and easy way to make your home look like Christmas. You can also throw a strand of white lights in with the balls to add a little shimmer.



3. Invest in a nice tree. If you dont' mind a fake tree, keep your eye out for something you absolutley love. I have two trees. A very unique spiral tree and a 12 foot tree. I put them both up each year. The best time to purchase a tree is after Christmas, when they are on clearance.



4. Get yourself some garland. Real or fake, garland can add so much to a mantle, an entertainment center, a piano, a shelf, above a doorway...Around the holidays most Costco locations carry real pine garlands that smell fabulous, are inexpensive and gigantic. I usually hang one around the front door with lights, cut one in half and drape it over the piano and on a shelf and use a third for the mantle. For the mantle, I attempt to copy something from an old Martha Stewart Magazine (see below-mine is not done yet this year). I bought a 2X6 board from Home Depot and had them cut it the same length as my mantle. Then I use a staple gun to staple on some branches and lay it on top of the mantle. You can use left over branches from a tree lot (which are usually free), or take apart a Costco garland attach the individual branches to your board.



5. Try to keep your decorations organized. If you have many decorations, try to keep them grouped together by color or style. If you have just a few, choose a great focal location to put all of your stuff. Holiday decorations seem much more impressive when they appear to be in larger numbers. If you put a couple of things in many different places, your guests will miss most of them. But if you keep them all in one place with some lights and some garland it looks much more impressive.



6. Get creative with your tree. Decorating a Christmas tree has never been so fun and easy. Nowadays, anything goes. Find inspiration in magazines, stores, on-line, from your neighbors, the outdoors, your favorite colors, pictures...it's everywhere! Start with a color or a theme and go from there. Last year I started using fabrics on my tree. I decided on a color and bought about 15 yards of 60" wide fabric at a discount store and cut it into 6 10" strips. I bundled them all at the top in sort of a bow and then bunched and tucked them into the branches all the way down the tree. It added a TON of color and texture and took up a lot of space that I didn't need to fill in with expensive bulbs. I also add sprigs of flowers and leaves that I pick up throughout the year on clearance. If you collect Christmas items like dolls or nut-crackers, try putting them on your tree this year instead of your traditional stuff. I like to have 2 trees because one can be the pretty tree and one can be the kid-friendly tree. My kids love to have their own tree so I bought them a little 4 foot tree that they can decorate with their paper ornaments and popcorn garlands. My son even loves to keep it in his room.


7. If all else fails-fill your home with Christmas smells. Of our five sense, smell has the strongest memory and people will remember the smell of your home during the holidays if nothing else. Use wallflowers, potpourri, candles, oils, or make cookies and cider!