Affordable Christmas Decorations and Treats

If you ask someone what their favorite part of the holiday season is, they may answer enthusiastically it's all about good food and the decorations. Cookies, candies, and other sweet treats are at the top of most everyone's list, and everyone loves a festively decorated home to make Christmas even merrier. But you don't have to be a grinch worrying about how much all these treats and decorations will hurt your holiday budget. With some creativity and a quick inventory of what you already have at home it can really be a simple and fun task.

One of most affordable treats you can make are cookies made with homemade dough. Generally, it's usually pretty easy for even the most challenged of bakers to make. But if you're pressed for time and want to use the ready-made cookie dough from the grocery store, that doesn't mean you have to do without fun holiday-shaped cookies. It's simple to choose a design or two that you like, trace it onto wax paper or aluminum foil, cut it out and use as a pattern to trim your cookie dough.

If you're serving these cookies at a party with coffee or hot tea, try getting creative with some sugar cubes as a fun decoration nearby. Take the sugar cubes, stack in a pyramid-fashion, and place some small colored marshmallows on toothpicks and place carefully in the cubes, and you'll have a festive looking, snow-covered decorated outdoor Christmas tree. Then the cubes can be used for the tea and coffee, and the marshmallows can be used for the hot cocoa.

Focus your decorating around colors and themes you already have in your collection. Red and green are both bold colors that really pop once you add a golden or silvery accent to it. If you don't own many decorations, focus on decorating one particular area of a room, such as the corner the tree stands in, or the fireplace mantelpiece. To complement your decorating, don't overlook anything in your possession as something you can use. Perhaps you have a Christmas sweater that you don't wear. Put it on one of your child's teddy bears and set him in a corner chair, and the teddy bear could become a fun topic of conversation at your holiday party.

Votive candles are an, affordable decoration. Place a cluster of three on holiday plates, light them, and scatter them on coffee and end tables to add a soft glow. Floating votives in a fishbowl or other festive serving bowl made from clear or colored glass is an nice addition to your decorating scheme. Bouquets of candy canes tied with Christmas ribbon and placed in red- or green-colored drinking glasses add just a touch of Christmas cheer, and make a sweet treats to send home with your guests once your party is over.

But the most important ingredient at your holiday table or gathering is the Christmas spirit. Remember the reason for the season. Your guests will feel the same Christmas cheer once they arrive at your beautifully decorated and inviting home.