Get creative with Christmas decorations: Feature Article
Christmas decorations are a wonderful way to celebrate the holiday season. You can change simple things in your home to spruce it up for the holiday season. Your Christmas decorations can be as simple or elaborate as you would like. The key to creative Christmas decorations is to make them uplifting and eye-catching. When you are looking at new ways to spruce up your home, you need to always consider your budget. Determine exactly how much money you can spend on Christmas decorations and then you can decide what your theme will be. Many people like to pick a similar theme such as "Christmas Bells, Christmas Trees, Santa Claus, Snowmen, etc." Of course, you can easily stick with a color theme, anything that includes red, green, white, silver, or gold will work perfectly.
A simple Christmas decoration is a wreath that can be laid in the center of your table. Use a plain green wreath and begin decorating it with anything you desire such as snowmen, reindeer, or gingerbread men. Adorn the wreath with ribbons and bows and place a large candle at the center of the wreath. A unique way to add some creativity to the wreath is to use several small candles called tapers. The tapers look impressive when they are at different heights and scattered throughout the wreath. Of course you need to have a small glass plate under each taper or candle to catch the hot wax. Hot wax on a wreath can easily cause a fire.
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A simple way to liven the Christmas spirit in your home is to decorate your home with bows. Use large ribbon and tie bows on all the chairs in your home and on the hallway banisters. You can even use smaller ribbon and tie bows on your doorknobs and plants. While red and green bows look nice, try different color schemes such as gold and silver. Metallic red, green, silver, and gold also create a unique look.
Helpful Resources: Creating a Festive Look This web site provides great tips on creating a festive look in your home. It talks about how you can use ribbon and other cheap supplies to spruce up your home and provides instructions for other decorations. Holiday Wreath Upside- Down Christmas Tree Old Christmas Decorations Creating Your Own Holiday Stocking Festive Christmas Home Unique Christmas Tree Ornaments Creative Christmas Decorations |
If you have a mantle over your fireplace, you can decorate it with hurricane lanterns. Around the hurricane lanterns you can place beads, nuts, berries, glass marbles, and other holiday objects. If you have a Christmas theme, place the item in between each lantern. For example, if your holiday theme is snowmen, you can place fake snow on the entire mantle and then place small snowmen in between each lantern.
It is fun to create a Christmas mood in your home by using candles to light the home during dinnertime or just for a quiet evening. Adorn your table with candles and then carry out a Christmas theme with Christmas napkins and other tableware. Purchase different festive colored napkins and roll them together. Use some ribbon to tie the differently colored napkins together. If you have any dishes that look festive, use them during the holiday season. If you don't have any dishes, consider purchasing some cheap red or green plates from a discount store. Select different colors and arrange them on the table to add to the Christmas spirit. Over the years, you will begin to build up quite a collection of holiday dishes by adding a new piece each year.
The new craze of Christmas decorating is to have an upside down Christmas tree. Upside down Christmas trees are a unique way to add some holiday life into your home. You can find an upside down tree for about $300. An upside down Christmas tree first became popular during the middle ages when the Europeans used it to represent the trinity. They would hang the tree from the ceiling during Christmas time. Retailers have re-created this old tradition and many people are purchasing them because they realize they can hand more Christmas decorations from the tree and they are a definite attention-getter during a Christmas party. You will simply hang the upside down Christmas tree from the ceiling using a bracket or you can purchase a stand that will hold the tree. One of the best features to the upside down tree is that you can add more presents to it and your little kids wont try and climb the tree!
Holiday wreaths are another simple way to decorate your home for Christmas. With some ribbons, wire, garden shears, pine cones, scissors, and bows, you can create holiday wreaths to decorate each door in your home. Holiday wreaths can even be hung in each window with some Christmas lights to brighten up the neighborhood. In order to create a holiday wreath, you will need to purchase some trimmings for the wreath. Holly, pine, berries, fir, oak, cedar, redwood, magnolia, and pinecones are wonderful items for a wreath. Purchase a wire wreath frame or create one using a wire coat hanger. Take wire coat hanger and mold it into a circle, using the hook end to hand the wreath. Now, attach some floral wire to the wreath frame and unspool it around the wreath frame. Use some of the trimmings you purchased to begin creating the wreath. Bunch the stems at one and tie them together and place them on the frame. Hold the bundle together and use more wire to tie it onto the wreath frame. Once you have several bundles attached to the circle, start attaching other trimmings to the wreath. Pinecones, holly, berries, and bows can easily be added to the wreath with wire or with a hot glue gun. Once you have completed the wreath, use some wire to create a circle so you can hang the wreath. The wreath is now complete, use garden sheers to trim any excess wire that may be sticking out from the wreath. The best part about holiday wreaths is that they can be re-used year after year. You can even remove some of the trimmings from it and replace them with new trimmings. A fun thing to do is to add some Christmas lights to your wreath so it can be light up at night.
Another simple thing to do is to drape garland on railings, mirrors, across the mantle, and on top of dressers or armoires. You can easily decorate garland with lights, bows, and ribbon. Arrange some ornaments around the garland on areas where it will be noticed such as the hallway railing or mirrors. Tinsel can be added to the garland and is a fun way to create multiple colors in your home.
Homemade stocking make a great holiday gift and they are a perfect way to add a unique look to your home. Homemade stockings can easily be constructed with some soft wool and garnished with Santa Claus, snowmen, Christmas trees, or other holiday themes. If you know how to knit, you can easily knit together some small holiday stockings to be hung on the Christmas tree, on holiday wreaths, or anywhere in the home.
A simple way to give your Christmas tree a fresh look is to hang miniature silver picture frames with ribbons on the tree. You can easily add a picture of each member of your family to the picture frames. Don't forget to snap a picture of the family pet and include them on the tree as well.
Another easy way liven up the living room is to play holiday music for the entire month of December. Most radio stations will play Christmas music during this time of year and it's an easy way to get into the holiday spirit. In your living room, place a photo album of all the Christmas holidays from previous years. This is a fun way to share your memories of Christmas with friends and family. You can even leave a camera on the table next to the photo album and let people take new pictures to add to the photo album.
Christmas is a holiday that brings out festive treats too. Don't forget to place small candy dishes around your home to hold the holiday candy. Prepare a bowl of fresh fruit or a fresh plate of cookies and put it out in the kitchen just before your friends or family members come home. A fun way to visit your neighbors is to bake loaves of tea bread and wrap them in holiday wrapping and take them around the neighborhood to share in this festive time of year.
An easy way to add life to your home is to add sparkle to everything. Purchase some holiday snow and sprinkle it all over. Mantles, coffee tables, and dressers make wonderful places for fake snow. If you have a glass bowl, place shiny ornaments inside it and place it on the coffee table or as a centerpiece on the kitchen table. You can even place shiny ornaments on plants around the home.
Pine cone piles are another easy way to decorate your home and add a little gift of nature to your home. You can even find pine cones that have been washed and dipped in fresh cinnamon or peppermint to add a wonderful smell to your home. Add a few pinecones to your glass bowl that is holding the shiny ornaments for a new look to your centerpiece.
