Christmas: Decor Made Easy

Avoiding the high cost of pre-made decorations and the endless hours of making displays yourself can be avoided by adding simple festive touches to things you already have. My favorite bowl of seashells changes with the seasons - apples in September, pumpkins and gourds in October and November and ornaments in December. This year they were white and gold. Last year they were eye-popping red.

The homemade table at the edge of my porch is one of my most useful items. During Winter, it gets turned upside down to hold our firewood. A wad of colored lights draped over the top of the wood is nearly invisible by day but looks dazzling at night. The large ornaments are hung by mono-filament line which has coin-sized mirrors attached using double-stick foam pads. In the spring the table holds a basket of garden tools, plants and a candle or two. For a recent baby shower, we covered it with a table cloth and filled it with colorful toddler toys with streamers and a decorative, shower umbrella suspended above. In the Fall, it provides a display surface for pumpkins and fall mums. (Some of these photos are available elsewhere on the blog)

Mantle decoration, this year, was another instance of simply adding small touches to items already in use.

The little blackboard I made for Fall made a Christmastime statement as it was hung in front of an existing mirror. Silvery twigs were added to the existing vase of natural twigs and a round, crackle-glass vase was filled with a string of clear lights to provide illumination for a dark corner.

The total cost for me was nothing because I had the ball-ornaments from previous years but even if they needed to be purchased, they are the least expensive of all decorations and the time to decorate (and un-decorate) was very, very minimal.