I've always LOVED decorating for the holidays as a child. When I got out on my own, I either didn't have the money or wasn't living in a place that was "mine" and that I could decorate. Now that I have kid(s), I want to start collecting a few things here and there on sale. We don't have much space and so I will keep it minimum. But I think that it's fun to do these things, especially with the kids in the house. I started buying door decorations/signs for each holiday by purchasing them AFTER the holiday marked down. I'll continue to do this so that I'll get most of my decorations for cheap. Like I said, space is limited so I'll just work with a few things for each holiday. One day, when we get a house or a bigger living space, I would like to get into it more. But, for now, I just wanted to do a little something to make the house extra cheery for the upcoming seasons.

So, do you decorate for the holidays? If you do, do you find frugal ways to do it?

God bless,

Julie

I LOVE to decorate for the holidays.  I also like to decorate for the different seasons.  I have different flower arrangements and decorative items for each one.  I also have a large grapevine wreath on the door to DH's shop that I decorate different for each holiday/season.  I save and reuse as much as I can.  I was just thinking about this earlier in the week.  It will soon be time to plan my decorations for fall and the winter holidays. 

My DH says that I have more Christmas stuff than anyone else he knows!! I won't tell you how much that is! LOL!  I have a box of Christmas ornaments for each of my son's to take with them when they leave home.  We started buying each of them a new one every year when they were both very young.  My parents have also purchased them Christmas ornaments in the past to add to their collection.

I do try to find frugal ways to do this.  I make some of the things that I use.  Right now I'm working on  some beautiful green beaded ornaments to use this year.  I always shop the sales after a holiday has passed.  I reuse/remake some of the things I already have. And I'm always on the look out for holiday themed items at the thrift store and yard sales.  The dollar store is another good place to find holiday decorating items.  I think you can decorate as much as you like and do it on a budget.

Shellia

For the fall, I keep it very simple with pumpkins. I bought several different types/styles/textures over the years on sale at Hobby Lobby. I use real pumpkins, too, but after we make jack-o-lanterns and I toast the seeds, they don't last much into Thanksgiving, lol. But pumpkins can start in the fall and work as decorations until Thanksgiving. I have a Halloween door hanging that I use just around Halloween and then I put back up my pumpkin door hanging. Alternating, of course, with my Nebraska Husker door hanging whenever the Volleyball or Football team has a game in the fall, LOL. I won't get into Christmas b/c it is so personal what people like to have as decorations. I have a little bit of everything, LOL.

I do like to keep it simple and make my decorations add to my decor rather than overwhelm. My favorite things are door hangings. I switch those out quite frequently. Right now, I have a big sunflower hanging on my front door. The boys have fun helping me get a new hanging out when the seasons/months change. I keep them inside the front hall closet. This is what I use right now:

January: Snowman

February: Heart

March: Depending on Easter, I have an Easter Bunny or use a big wooden pink and yellow painted flower

April: Same as above

May/June: Butterfly

July: American Flag

August: Sunflower

September: Husker Football decoration/Pumpkin

October: Pumpkin/Witch

November: Pumpkin

December: Oh, my, I have quite a few. I have a wreath, a Santa, a Star. I switch almost every week, LOL.

I use some items more than once, like my American Flag and the Husker decoration. I use the flag on Flag Day, Sept 11th, Veteran's Day, 4th of July, Labor Day and a few other days that I have on my calendar that are patriotic and I can't remember right now.

The holidays can take a cue from Mother Nature.  Now might be the time to be picking up pine cones to later put in pine cone wreaths or in bowls around the house.  You can boil them in hot water or put in a low oven for about 10 minutes to get rid of any bugs.  Picture frames can be wrapped like presents and hung on the wall, decorative and a space saver.  Themes like snowmen or snowflakes can be used successfully all winter long (well, in Ohio anyways) rather than just at Christmas.  Look for things you can use year after year, for example green or red plates can be dressed with holiday linens and peppermint "reindeer" having wiggle eyes and chenille antlers.  You can "dress" open shelves with a bit of white lace or "snow", put ribbons on existing canisters and show off peppermint candies in clear glass jars. 

A tiny tree from Goodwill with "pearl" garland and dusky pink bows, little star "ornaments" graces the 1950's pink bathroom on a shelf unit above/behind the toilet.  I am hoping to find a nice set of winter soap dispenser -- hopefully pine cone theme -- this winter.  I have navy towels with silver/gold trees embroidered, and beige towels with the word JOY and red fingertips.  The blue ones came from an after Christmas sale at least 60% off, the rest from GW & SA. 

My younger sister has some cloth ornaments, stuffed with fiberfill, that a neighbor made her when she was first married -- shapes are cookie cutter shapes in a faux patchwork.  Every ornament she has been given, the kids made, etc. goes on the tree.  She used bottle caps to make ornaments that are picture frames, and there is a picture of each dog each holiday, family pictures too.  While those cardboard bottle caps are a bit hard to find, the starbucks caps from the store are the same size, and could be pressed into service in that way! 

I have a tiny tree that I take with me to dog events, decorated in dog theme, since I do a rescue event just before Christmas.  I use the battery-powered wreath lights on this for 2 days, since electric hookup would be several hundred $$$. 

Another small tree has only miniature wooden ornaments and very tiny cross-stitch ones.  A tiny tree in the kitchen could have cookie cutter decorations, star at the top, of course, and wood or real "cranberries" and artificial or real "popcorn", tiny candy canes could grace it. 

Involve the family in making or buying a keepsake ornament each year.  I always buy one for each niece/nephew -- gives them a start when they leave home. 

Hopefully these few ideas will help get you started!

I used to go all out on decorating for Christmas. Here are a couple of things I did for my kids . I made both boys a quilt made out of cheerful Christmas fabric to put on their beds. Any ornaments they made at school were saved and put on a tree or on display. My oldest son made a wooden Santa in 4th grade that looks like authentic rustic county craft. When they became adults I placed all these things in a large plastic bin. When I quit decorating, I divided up my decorations and put them with their other Christmas items. This bin also has binders with all their school certificates, pictures and report cards along with favorite movies, books, games, stuffed animals. I did this because I didn't have anything left from my childhood.

Watch the thrifts starting now for items for the holidays.  I already saw a red/white tablecloth with holly theme.  (Leaves is a year-round theme in my home so holly fits right in; red/white is my kitchen theme.)

Every year I find lots of little ornament kits for stitching as well as small round embroidery hoops in which to display it.  Sometimes you can luck out and find a cross-stitch switchplate cover -- one friend has done them for her entire house!  They are small and stack easily.  Ornament kits of plaster for painting, but without paints, with an area for a picture.  You can get them sometimes for as little as a quarter.

I neglected to mention that I put up a 7' pencil tree.  I've been giving myself an ornament each year too, but the glass ones are packed away.  I have any kind of unbreakable ornament on my tree -- the dogs rush by or they could jump.  When the glass ornaments are out, I put garland starting at the top and going left all the way down, then I take a 30' spool of dotted Swiss ribbon and go down and around from the right, twisting the ribbon as I go.  Of course, the decorator method is to bring it around the tree all on one level and snip it.  That's another story!

Each year I try to add a few small items to my collection.  My goal is to have the dining room table, the coffee table and the front window decorated for Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas each year.  We buy window clings for almost every holiday from the dollar store each year, reusing what we can from the previous year.  We find the window clings and many of our other decorations at the dollar tree, though I will pick stuff up from other stores if it's a good deal and I know we'll use it.

We buy fresh gourds for a centerpiece at Halloween and keep them as long as we can; they normally make it through to the end of turkey month.  We buy 2 pumpkins each year for Halloween; I go home early from work and we decorate them the day of and the next day they are sacrificed so we can have pumpkin pie muffins, etc. through the winter months!

This year I want to teach my daughter how to make turkeys from apples, construction paper, and toothpicks -- the way my grandma taught me when I was little.  We don't do as many decorations for Thanksgiving like we do at Halloween and Christmas b/c we eat at my grandma's or uncle's house and I put up the Christmas decorations the day after turkey and pie.

Each year we put up a Christmas tree, which I lovingly refer to as a Chanukah Christmas Tree b/c we use blue, silver, and white decorations!  Even though we are not big mall-goers we make a special trip each year to see Santa and go to the Hallmark store where DH and I help DD pick out a special ornament (priced no higher than $15!).  I am saving these to give her when she is all grown up so she'll have some special things for her own tree.  We have about 3 boxes of decorations to put out; I make the dining room table a centerpiece for the whole holiday and it's completed by as many tin cans of cookies and treats that I can possibly fill.  This year I'm going teach DD how to make paper chains and we are going to make paper chains to match our tree and hang them around the living room and maybe her bedroom, too!  I also put the teddy bear collection out -- spreading it throughout the house.

Use what you have in decorating for the holidays. In your emergency stores, you might have candles and/or oil lamps. Pull them out for the holidays! You might have brass or glass candleholders, or old wooden spools which can act as candleholders. Craft stores usually have some wonderful ideas of how to make ornaments from natural materials, and instruction sheets are usually available. Dried flowers and potpourri have made appearances in trees. Doilies of paper can be folded in half and shaped into cones to hold "tusssie mussies".

No need to limit your tree to store-bought baubles. You can paint edges of pinecones with white to portray Christmas and/or apply a little glitter, fashion a hangar with a chenille stem.

Perhaps you can crochet "stars" or find them in thrifts. They are wonderful on trees, on tables, on mirrors. If you’re not handy with a crochet hook, you can fold paper and cut stars or snowflakes to achieve the same result.

Do you already decorate with red or green items? Highlight those items by grouping them in the most lived-in areas.

Are you drying apples? String the rings across a fireplace or perhaps on a wreath. Not drying them? Red and/or green apples in a crystal bowl. Don’t like apples? Use lemons and limes or oranges – you can make marmalade or curd later!

Craft shops like Michael’s usually have holiday themed toss pillows for as little as $5 new, while other stores have them double or more.

If you don’t have a tradition, you can always start one. You might read A Visit from St. Nicholas at 11 PM & the Christmas story from the Bible at midnight., earlier if you are going to a church service. Perhaps your town has a Holiday Walk or Tree Lighting ceremony. You can literally watch Christmas movies all month in December. It’s a time of year to have cocoa with marshmallows and peppermint sticks, time to bake cookies, make your own cards, and write letters to loved ones far away. Time to visit with friends and have meals together. Volunteer some time at a soup kitchen or animal shelter. Time to be thankful for those loved and cherished.

Besides finding supplies in thrift stores, look in the their book sections for old craft books and magazines. If you find ones pre-1970's there will be lots of good ideas about how to use ordinary things to make some colorful and fun ornaments. More modern craft books all seem to rely on fancy things bought from Michael's to make decorations and ornaments. The older books use basic household things like cardboard, fabric, paint, yarn, foil, glue, paper, etc. along with some purchased glitter. If you search back thru older threads here you will find lots of suggestions for holidays. Do a Google search for Homemade holiday crafts and you'll come up with so good ideas also. Edey

Our tree is done in tones of reds & golds.  The tree is actually a bit "slim" and it fits perfectly in our living room.  We might get a bigger room for the basement once we finish it off into a family room.  The rest of the living room matches the tones in the tree.  I need a new nativity, mine was left in MD with the ex-husband.  I used to sell Partylite, and I have several gingerbread house candle-holders that go in the kitchen, along with ornaments that look like gingerbread.  I'm thinking of making a garland that looks like candy and maybe some homemade gingerbread ornaments.  The kitchen has a holiday treat theme.  The guest bathroom off the kitchen (1/2 bath) is done in blues.  I have several blue blown-glass ornaments that sit on the sink on stands.  A holiday-scented candle goes on the toilet tank. We have blue guest towels with embroidered snowmen on them.

I'd like to get a Christmas quilt this year for our bed.  And maybe a small tree or some decorations for the office.  I'm also keeping my eye out for Christmas fabrics at yard sales to make some throw pillows, and some fleece to make a few easy throws, all for the couch.  I'd also like to make some table clothes, runners & napkins.  Easy things to practice my sewing skills on. If all else fails I'll get some at Walmart or JoAnne's.  (Heck if I do good I could give sets of napkins & runners are presents. My folks and neighbors would appreciate them!)

Every year we do go out together and pick one special ornament. Then we drive around with a hot chocolate and look at lights. We have a wreath for the door that I made. It needs some desparate reworking this year.  Because of all the snow & ice last year, all of our outside lights are non-working so we need to buy new ones this year. We've been doing blue & white lights, but maybe we'll stick with just white this year. I'm not sure yet.