Christmas Decorating on a Budget
If you are like many other people, your entire household budget
needs to be adjusted to accommodate the expense of Christmas. Not
only are there gifts to buy, but decorations have become
incredibly expensive. Here are a few ideas to add some new
touches to your holiday decorating without the expense of
purchasing new ones.
If you can decide on a Christmas decorating theme, it will save
you money in the long run. You will have a purpose in your
decorating and by doing so will eliminate several choices that
simply won’t match your ideas. There will be no more picking up
the cute snowman or Santa plush that is irresistible. As of now,
it is irresistible because does not fit into your theme. Some
decorating theme ideas include a country Christmas, Christmas toy
land, old-fashioned Christmas, Victorian Christmas and any other
possible theme you can think of. The more thought you put into
your Christmas theme, the more likely you are to come up with the
perfect one for your home- and it didn’t cost you a penny.
Whatever your theme might be, when you are getting ready to
decorate go for a walk and collect evergreen branches and limbs
to decorate around your home. The smell is perfect for the
holidays and the evergreen will look gorgeous on the front door,
mantle, stairs or wherever you decide to place it.
If you find the opportunity while you are collecting your
evergreen or another time, collect several large pinecones. If
you attach three or your desired number of pinecones together
with a ribbon, they will look very festive hanging from windows,
doorknobs or other locations. If you are feeling particularly
creative, drizzle the pinecones with glue and disperse silver or
gold sparkles over them. They will reflect light beautifully and
look as though you spent quite a bit of time on them.
Place small groups of cinnamon sticks with decorative ribbon tied
around them all over your home. Potpourri is quite expensive for
a full and delightful scent. Cheat this year and enjoy a scent
straight from Mother Nature.
Just about every ‘dollar’ store chain offers an assortment of
baskets. Get a can of spray paint and paint those baskets gold,
red or green and fill then with pinecones or another festive
filler. Evergreen boughs work as well and can be found at no cost
in every city.
Felt scraps can be very inexpensive and you just might have some
lying around your home. Use that felt to make a unique Christmas
garland. You can cut the felt into shapes that will fit your
theme or simply cut them into strips and braid them together.
Remember to tie each end to the next when creating your original
garland.
Finally, if you add a teaspoon (maybe a little more) to acrylic
paint you can make sponge shapes on your windows. You can even
cut a sponge to suit your decorating theme. By adding the soap,
the paint should wash off when you are ready to remove it. Use
any non-scratching sponge if you come across a difficult spot.
Christmas is such a joyous yet stressful time of year for most of
us. May these ideas lessen your tension and bring you the joy of
creating your own, originally decorated home.
NOTE: This article first appeared in the 2004 issue of
'Celebrating Christmas PDF Magazine'. To download the complete
2004 issue fre*e of cost, visit
http://www.celebrating-christmas.com/magazine.shtml