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 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 it 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 a 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) of soap 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. We hope these ideas will lessen your tension and bring you the joy of creating your own, originally decorated home.