Creative holiday decorating ideas for your home
Take a deep breath, the holidays are almost here!The rushing, the baking, the decorating, the spending...but, we look forward to it every year, don't we? It doesn't have to be expensive or time consuming. Let me share some ideas to transform your home in less than a day.
Outside decorating - make your own luminaries from paint cans painted white and then punched with a design of your choice using an awl or a large nail and hammer. Place a small pillar candle inside and line your walkway with them.
Go for a walk in the woods and cut some small branches or saplings to string with lights and stick in the ground around your home. Place some branches in your window boxes as well.
Window treatments are a great way to change the look of the room. Buy yards of tulle and sew or hot glue into a tube. Slide onto tension rods inside your window frame and lay lights inside the tube. Tie up the ends with ribbon to give yourself a beautiful cloud effect in the windows. Beautiful from outside and in.
Buy some great holiday placemats and napkins and hang on a rod using the cafe clips readily available. Fold the napkins into a V and clip to rod with placemats accordion pleated and hung onto the side to give length to the treatment. This is a fun way to change your kitchen windows and bring the holiday feeling into a room.
Greet your guests in the foyer with a tree decorated with small scrolls rolled up and tied with ribbon. Each one will have a personal sentiment inside or maybe a gift of your time, i.e. a night of babysitting, dinner out, etc.
Place potpourri envelope sachets down in your forced air registers to keep your home smelling wonderful. Every time the furnace kicks on, it will push the fragrance through your home.
A tree in every room...what an easy way to bring the holiday throughout the house. A kitchen tree decorated with cookie cutters, cinnamon sticks and dried fruit slices. Or, how about a dining room tree with a collection of teacups, sugar and creamers wired to its branches? Add some doilies, ribbon, baby's breath...viola, a beautiful tree.
Transform your lampshades for the holidays by making simple fabric tubes. The tubes should be one and half times wider than the bottom of the shade. Sew or hot glue a channel in the top and bottom so that you can string ribbon through, then pull down over the shade and pull the ribbons tight to cover the shade. A great new look for very little money!
Change the throw pillows in your living room/family room with your choice of holiday colors. Or take your existing pillows and tie on ribbon embellished with floral bows so your pillows look like gift packages sitting on your sofa.
Buy round, glass ball ornaments and remove the metal hanger on the top. Hot glue four ribbon streamers around the sides so you can hang the ornaments by the ribbons. Put some water inside and fill with small fresh flowers and baby's breath, then hang from your chandelier or Christmas tree. Miniature carnations work great - the size is perfect and the carnations last a long time.
10 Holiday accessory ideas
The simplest and nicest holiday decorations are the ones you make yourself. You don't have to spend hundreds of dollars on fancy wreaths and centerpieces. Look around your house at items you already have and consider using more natural materials you can find in your backyard in your decorating scheme. Thrift stores are also great sources for some fun holiday decorations.
1. Make a candy cane vase using an empty coffee can. Glue candy canes, curved side up, around the entire can. Fill this with red flowers for a spirited holiday table decoration.
2. For a children's holiday party, use a colorful woolen scarf as a table runner. Tuck silverware into matching mittens and fill hats with small bags of candy or cookies.
3. Group a collection of nutcrackers, teddy bears, or favorite ornaments together for a simple centerpiece.
4. Put some bare twigs in a vase and insert gumdrops or cranberries on the ends of the branches for an unusual tree centerpiece.
5. A nice natural centerpiece can be made by lining a wooden bowl with colorful leafy greens. Fill with a selection of winter fruit.
6. If you are handy with wrapping paper, wrap up some empty boxes with holiday wrapping and pile them in the center of your table.
7. Bread dough makes a beautiful wreath. Braid a long strand of your favorite bread dough and attach both ends. Add a ribbon at the top for an unusual wreath.
8. Spray pine cones and whole walnuts with gold or silver spray paint and scatter them around your house for a touch of shine.
9. Go beyond the traditional Christmas tree garlands of popcorn and cranberries and try stringing pasta or cinnamon sticks instead. You can also dry orange and apple slices and string them for a country holiday garland.
10. Make small bowls of potpourri and place them around the house. Mix together some cinnamon sticks, whole cloves and allspice, citrus peel and pine cones.