Are you always out of time or too busy? Have the holidays just caught up with you? Here are five simple, quick and easy holiday ideas you can do in no time at all to make your home welcome and festive for you and your guests, plus five simple decorating resolutions to help make your New Year stress free.

Holiday Idea #1 – BRING OUT YOUR BOWLS.

Treat your senses by adding color, sparkle, treats and sweet scents by filling any bowls or baskets in your house with fun holiday items. You can fill them with candy ribbon, candy canes, holiday potpourri, glass ornaments, pinecones, gingerbread cookies, holiday cards or pictures. Place them in your foyer, living room, kitchen, and don’t forget those unexpected places, like the upstairs hall, guest bath and wall niches.

Holiday Idea #2 – WRAP IT UP.

Buy extra wrapping paper and bring out any holiday fabric you have. Wrap empty boxes with paper and decorate throughout the house. Gift wrap your plants with decorative holiday fabric around plant and tree containers. Wrap the backs of your dining and nook chairs with fabric chair bows. Gift wrap your doors and mirrors. Wrap your accent pillows in fabric. Use a small piece of fabric as a table topper or gather it in the middle and decorate with a tabletop tree and your small gift wrapped boxes.

Holiday Idea #3 – TIE A BOW.

Buy several bolts of holiday ribbon and add bows throughout the house. You can add them on door knobs, candlesticks, banisters, drapery tie-backs and rods, chair backs, picture frames, wreaths, garlands, baskets, mirrors, vases, towels and towel bars and plant and tree containers.

Holiday Idea #4 – THEN THERE WAS LIGHT.

There is something about twinkling lights that always makes me think of the holidays. So turn off your bright table lights and light the room up with twinkles. Place them in your trees and pot shelves, warp the banister, drape over curtain rods, around doors, mirrors, frames, fireplaces and the inside windows. Have one or two areas with the twinkles and then the rest with regular little lights. Turn on your fireplace and your holiday lights for a soft festive glow.

Holiday Idea #5 – THE NATURAL TOUCH.

Nothing is more welcoming than the sights and smell of the season: fresh pine, evergreen, poinsettias, gingerbread, and cinnamon. Make quick arrangements of a bowl of pinecones with cinnamon sticks and a sprig of pine. Place a poinsettia in your guest bath, at the front door or on your kitchen counter. Fill a tray with gingerbread cookies and place in your entry as a treat for your guests. Place wreaths on your interior doors as well as your front door. Wrap garland around banisters, doorways, windows, mirrors and mantels.

Next > New Year’s Decorating Resolutions

Gail is an Interior Designer and Arranger. She is the owner of GMJ Interiors and author of A Decorating 10! She can be reached at, 702-269-7001 or visit her web site and receive her FREE Decorating Newsletter.

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