Decorating at Christmas time can be expensive. However, here are a dozen everyday items you can use to decorate your home in inexpensive ways. There are several ideas for each item, so there’s loads of great tips to explore.
Ribbons
Ribbons really are a great way to compliment anything during the Christmas season. Red and green ribbon especially say Christmas, or you can also get ribbon that has Christmas print on it. Here are some ways you can use it:
Tie it around all of your plants in the house
Tie it around the backs of chairs
Use ribbon like garland around your tree
Tie it around candles
Tie it on door handles
Tie it on banisters
Wreaths
Wreaths are fun at Christmas because there is such a variety to choose from. They also aren’t just to hang on your front door. Here are some other places that you can hang wreaths:
On the outside and inside of the front and back doors
Above the mantel
In all of your windows
On your Christmas tree (miniature ones)
Foil
You can do many things with foil to make your home look more festive at Christmas. Here are some ideas:
Cover cardboard cut out stars
Cover your goodie plates
Use foil as wrapping paper
Wrap your plant pots in foil
Christmas Cards
There are lots of fun ways to display your Christmas cards. Here are a few:
Hang a ribbon from one corner of your room to the other and tape your cards to it
Form a Christmas tree with your cards on your front door
Buy a piece of glass to go on top of your coffee table and display your cards under it.
You can also recycle your old Christmas cards and make great ornaments out of them. Here are some ideas:
Cut out the pictures on them and make a Christmas collage
Buy a cheap Christmas photo album and place cutout pictures from your cards in it and display it.
Use the cutout images to make gift labels
Glue pictures from the cards to magnets and display them on your fridge
Pinecones
Pinecones can be fun to decorate with during the Christmas season. Here are a few things that you can do with them:
Spray paint them with silver or gold paint and display them on your tree Use glue and glitter to decorate them and display them in a Christmas basket
Dip them in cinnamon scent and place them all over your home for a great Christmas aroma
Candy Canes
Candy canes aren’t just for eating; they make great Christmas decorations. Here are some ideas:
Hang them on your tree
Use them to decorate gifts
Place a bunch in a slim vase with a bow around it
Place one or two in the dirt of all of your house plants
Christmas Stockings
Christmas stockings aren’t just for the mantel. Here are some other places that you can display them:
On your tree (miniature ones)
On gifts (again miniature ones)
In the kitchen as utensil holders
In the bathroom (put spare toilet paper in them)
On your stair banister
Christmas Bulbs
Christmas bulbs aren’t just for the tree anymore. You can hang them all over your house. Here are some ideas:
Hang them on your mug hooks in the kitchen
Hang them on doorknobs
Attach smaller ones to gifts
Glass Bowls
You’d be surprised at the decorations that you can make with just a simple glass bowl. Here are some great ideas:
Put some colorful candy or nuts in it and tie a bow around the bowl
Put your favorite Christmas bulbs in it
Put miniature bows in it
Put a bundle of cinnamon sticks wrapped in a bow in it
Cookie Cutters
Metal Christmas cookie cutters aren’t just for making cookies. Here are a few things that you can do with them after you’re finished baking:
Tie a ribbon around them and hang them on your tree and other places Use them to make foil cutouts
Glue or tie 4 alike cookie cutters together in a circle to make a wreath
Candles
What’s Christmas without candles? Candles make your home warm and inviting, especially during the Christmas season. Here are some ideas:
Decorate your candles with fabric paint
Tie Christmas ribbons around them
Place several small votive candles across your mantel – this looks great at night when they’re all lit
Use clip-on candles on your Christmas tree (don’t light them though as this is a fire hazard)
Christmas Books
Displaying Christmas books is a great way to decorate. You can:
Put them on your coffee table, in your kitchen, or even in your bathroom. Get a children’s Christmas board book or pop-up book and stand it up open on the coffee table or mantel.
One of the things we really looked forward to was getting the Christmas catalogs in the mail. Here in Canada we got both a Sears and an Eaton’s catalog. In the States, companies such as Sears, J. C. Penney, and a few other large department stores mailed out their special holiday catalogs a month or two before the Christmas holidays. We loved it when these arrived and we’d spend hours and hours combing the pages of the toy section in these catalogs.
After Christmas the catalogs still had several uses. Pictures could be cut from them to create collages and do other crafts. When I was young, we used to spend hours cutting out the women, men and children from the catalog and then using them to play paper dolls. We’d have whole families of these dolls and sometimes we played with them for weeks on end before they finally got torn or we moved on to something new to do.
Unfortunately, catalogs aren’t as prevalent these days with the introduction of computers, the Internet, and online ordering. However, some larger toy stores still send out a Christmas catalog through the mail. These catalogs delight children of all ages when they arrive at their houses. Most catalogs today still have many dog eared pages from kids leafing through them. Just like their parents or grandparents, kids will also mark pages containing presents that they would like to see under the tree on Christmas morning bearing their names.
Today we still get a Sears Christmas Wish Book and I still spend time looking through its pages. Nowadays I’m looking for gifts for the people in my life and not for what I want. I no longer purchase much from the catalog, though, as I must admit I do some of my shopping right here on the Internet and the rest in stores. However, I still get a thrill when I pick my Christmas catalog up from Sears and I get to spend a couple of hours browsing its pages.
Writing to Santa
Remember when you were just a little child and how exciting it was to write a letter to Santa? Wasn’t it fun to decide what you’d ask him for in your letter? Well, your own children and/or grandkids will get just as much pleasure from writing Santa a letter as you did, so why not create a family evening where the kids can write Santa a letter and you can share in the fun with them?
Of course their requests will differ from what ours did. When I was a kid we asked for dolls, coloring books and books…always books. Nowadays children will be more likely to ask for computer-type toys or Zhu Zhu pets and accessories or an Elmo live encore stuffie. Regardless of the requests, those letters hold our children’s current dreams. So your kids can send Santa a letter in the old-fashioned way, I’ve provided some addresses for Santa below.
POST OFFICES
AUSTRALIA
Santa Claus
North Pole 9999
Australia
CANADA
Santa Claus
North Pole HOH OHO
Canada
GREAT BRITAIN
Father Christmas
Santa’s Grotto, REINDEERLAND
SAN TA1
UNITED STATES
SANTA CLAUS
Local City, State
ZIP Code
So pour everyone a cup of hot chocolate, share a cookie or two and write those letters to Santa. You’ll be creating memories for your child that will last a lifetime.
When I was a young child singing was a big part of our Christmas celebrations. We’d gather around my brother as he played the old pump organ and sing all the old Christmas tunes…Rudolph, Frosty, and of course all the carols as well. We’d also go out carolling…visiting the neighbors and singing under their windows.
Then of course, there was the Christmas pagent where we sang all the carols and the school Christmas play where we sang all kinds of kids Christmas songs. Singing is still a big part of our Christmas.
For years I looked for a Christmas song book that had all my old favorite songs and carols in it but never found one I really liked. Then I had a brilliant idea…why not compile one myself? So I did. And I’d like to share it with you.
If you’d like to have a free copy of it, you can get one by sending me an email at marg@santaschristmascountdown.com and I’ll be glad to email you a copy.
What fond memories do you have of Christmases past? Feel free to share them in the comment section below.
Christmas is such a busy time of year and one of the things I always wanted was someplace where I could get all the information I needed on Christmas…songs, graphics, gift ideas, and on and on. I never did find such a place, so I decided to create one – and this is it.
Enjoy your visit and come back often, I’ll be adding new things every day.