Decorate for Christmas Without Spending a Fortune!

Christmas is only a few weeks away, and many families this year are under an economic strain. One way to save some money is to use your creativity to come up with less expensive, but still beautiful, Christmas decorations. Here are some ideas to get you started.

1) If you want a striking centerpiece, but don't want to pay exorbitant prices, turn to nature for help. Evergreen boughs, magnolia or bay branches with leaves, pine cones, or other items of nature's bounty can provide natural beauty inside your home without costing a fortune. Center the items you find around a holiday candle (although if you intend to light the candle, be sure it is separated in some way from the outdoor material, such as by a hurricane glass, to prevent fire) and you have an elegant centerpiece with minimal outlay.

2) If it is a bowl, cup, or other clear object with a cavity inside it, fill it with those extra glass balls that always seem to be left over when you decorate the Christmas tree. You can go monochromatic or rainbow, whichever you prefer, but when the light shimmers over the glass balls inside and on top of your container of choice, you again have a Christmas decoration that looks sophisticated at huge cost savings.

3) Decorate your door with left-over Christmas paper, and glue a ribbon and/or bow on top of the paper, making your door look like a present waiting to be open.

4) Use candy canes copiously. Candy canes can add a great deal of oomph to your Christmas tree, mantelpiece, or other places. Wrapped candy canes can hang on your tree or you can take a clear glass, tie a ribbon around it, fill it with candy canes, and you have a beautiful Christmas accent.

5) Similarly, Christmas ribbons and bows can be used in many places to add Christmas flair to your house for minimal cost. Just some ideas include wrapping ribbons around throw pillows as if they are a present, placing a bow in the center of the pillow, using Christmas ribbon to tie back your curtains with a Christmas bow in the center of the tie back, or taking a basket, tying a Christmas bow on top of it and using the basket to display all of your Christmas cards as they come in.

The number of ways to decorate for Christmas is endless, and these are just a few ideas to get you started. With just a little bit of creativity, you can have a well-decorated house at a bargain basement price!