Finding Cheap Ways to Decorate Your Apartment for Christmas

Christmas is almost here and it's time to decorate your apartment to reflect the holiday. Decorating your apartment for Christmas is a great way to show your holiday spirit, but it can also help to cheer yourself up in today's tough economic climate. Depending on how you decorate your apartment, you may even cheer up your neighbors for Christmas too! With people's jobs being downsized and wages cut, it's more important than ever to use as little of the budget as possible for Christmas decorating. With money in mind, let's get started on finding cheap ways to decorate your apartment for Christmas.

The first thing to do is clear out the extra items in your apartment, especially the living room where you will most likely be celebrating Christmas. Look around, what can you pack away so you can make room for Christmas decorations? Put away most, if not all, of your knick knacks and any small area rugs that are not red or green.

Red, green, silver and gold are the traditional Christmas colors and will be the colors that are the easiest and cheapest to find for decorating your apartment with for Christmas.

Now, begin to layer the colors in your apartment. Start with the floor. If you can afford it, check out prices on small red and green area rugs such as the red Cannon kitchen rug that is 20 by 30 inches in size at Kmart.com for $12.99. Pick up a couple of these for the living room and maybe a couple for the bathroom, bedroom and kitchen too. You can buy red and green area rugs and have them around the room together or separately. Rugs like these added to the floor are a cheap way to add a splash of color for Christmas.

Once you have the floor decorated, it's time to turn your attention to the furniture. Look through your linen closet; do you have any sheets or blankets that are red or green? Do you have any of those colorful plaid lap blankets? If you already have red or green sheets or blankets, bring them into the living room. You can place them over the furniture. If the sheet or blanket won't cover the entire couch or chair, place it across one arm and half of a chair or perhaps the middle of the couch. Arrange it decoratively; it doesn't have to be perfect.

If you don't own any red or green sheets or blankets, it's time to hit your local thrift stores such as the Goodwill or Salvation Army. They usually sell things cheaper than you can buy them new. If you prefer, you can look in the fabric department at your local Wal-mart or at a fabric store to find cheap red or green (or both) fabric by the yard. Buy several yards and use it to drape across your furniture just like you would sheets or blankets except tuck in the edges that are not hemmed. If you can sew, you can always hem the edges but this isn't really necessary. A fabric store also sells a fleece fabric that is soft to the touch that doesn't unravel when it is cut. They sell Christmas prints or solid colors and you buy it by the yard too. This would also work to lie across the furniture to add another splash of color to your apartment.

Throw pillows are another cheap way to add Christmas cheer to your furniture. If you already have throw pillows, just wrap a piece of red or green fabric around them and tie it at the back for a cheap Christmas throw pillow make-over. If you don't own any throw pillows, you can purchase them cheaply at your local thrift store in any color. Throw them in the washer and dryer, then wrap them in fabric and set them out on your furniture.

Now that your floor and furniture have color, let's turn our attention to the windows. Most apartments come with neutral colored drapes or mini-blinds. You can add a splash of color to your windows across the top by using red or green fabric or sheets like you did for the furniture. Drape it any way you like with one color or use both red and green fabric and attach it above the window with tacks. You can even have fabric hanging on both sides of the window to look like curtains but it's hung up with tacks instead of a curtain rod. This method works best if you have mini-blinds. If you have drapes, you can drape your fabric or sheet across the top of the curtain rod though you won't be able to open them then. You can also tack the fabric directly above the curtain rod with it hanging over a little so it doesn't interfere with the opening and closing of the curtain.

Usually people like to add strings of Christmas lights to their windows, either inside or outside. If you live in an apartment, you will need to add your Christmas lights on the inside of your windows. Amazon.com has a huge selection of Christmas lights and some of their prices are reasonable. Or you can hit your local department store and check their prices to find the best and cheapest deals. Once you've added Christmas lights on the inside of your windows, you can think about adding Christmas lights to other parts of your apartment. Add a string or two to the bathroom window and your bedroom window as well. You can attach lights across the top of your doorways or the top of your entertainment center and bookshelves too.

If you have pictures hanging on your walls, as most of us do, take them down from the wall and use either fabric or Christmas wrapping paper to cover the front where the picture is. Add some ribbon and bows, maybe even a name tag, and then hang it back on the wall for an instant, beautiful and best of all, cheap, Christmas decoration.

It's time to turn our attention to the Christmas tree. An apartment is usually smaller than a house so you may not have room for a large Christmas tree. No problem, you can buy a small table top Christmas tree. Decorate is with miniature lights and small ornaments and ribbon. You can even use cheap bead necklaces such as the Mardi Gras type to decorate your Christmas tree. OrientalTrading.com sells a holiday assortment of 144 bead necklaces for $19.99. Obviously that's too many necklaces for one small tree but you can use the necklaces as garland around your apartment. Plus you might pick up a few extra small Christmas trees and put one in your bathroom, bedroom and kitchen as well. You can also create garlands by stringing popcorn and macaroni on fishing line or thread.

If you prefer a different type of Christmas "tree", you can cut a small limb off of a regular tree (get permission first) and decorate it with lights, beads, ribbons and ornaments. To get the branch to stand up and not fall over, place it in any bucket or pot with plaster of Paris (which can be purchased either online or an artist supply store).

Once you have your Christmas tree, you will need a tree skirt. Again, all you need to do is drape a piece of fabric around the bottom of your tree. It can be a pillow case, sheet, blanket or even an article of clothing. All it needs to do is cover the base of your Christmas tree.

If you find that you don't have enough Christmas decorations, you can definitely improvise. Use any item at all as long as it is in your red and green color palette. Go through your entire apartment and search for red and green items to use. If you have kids, use their red and green toys as Christmas decorations. If you still don't have enough decorations, check out your local thrift stores and Dollar Stores or ask your friends and family if they have any decorations to spare.

Buy a can of shiny red and green spray paint and paint some old items to make them look like new Christmas ornaments. It doesn't matter what it is, anything at all painted the right color will look like a Christmas decoration. Go out and collect pine cones and spray paint them red and green or leave them natural. You can lay them around the room, group them together in a beautiful red or green bowl or hang them from fishing line.

Silk flowers such as fake poinsettias from the Dollar Store or Wal-mart make very good cheap Christmas decorations. You can use any green or red vase or glass cup or even a clear one from thrift store to place your fake poinsettia in. If you add red or green or a mix of stones or marbles inside the vase, it will hold the plant in place as well as add more Christmas color. Place several vases around the living room and one in each other room of your apartment too. Of course you don't have to limit silk flowers to poinsettias, any red flower will work and you certainly don't have to confine them just to vases. Place your red silk flowers in among your garland and lights at your windows and at the tops of your shelves.

Your apartment can be a cheerful oasis of Christmas spirit for you and your family with very little money by following the ideas I've outlined in this article. You can even adapt these ideas to decorate for other holiday themes as well. For more help on how to handle Christmas as cheaply as possible, read my AC article "Ten Tips for Surviving Christmas During a Recession."