Free, Unique Holiday Decorating with Paper Snowflakes

Are homemade paper snowflakes one of your family's decorating traditions? If not, you're missing out on a free and simple craft that has all sorts of decorative uses during the holiday season.

Paper snowflakes are made by folding a sheet of paper into six equal sections and then cutting out a design with a pair of sharp scissors. (check out this clip at youtube.com if you have forgotten how to make a paper snowflake.) To flatten out the snowflake, it can either be pressed between the pages of a large book or ironed with a regular clothes iron. Make sure the steam setting is "off" of course!

Our family makes dozens of these pretty snowflakes during the holidays and use them to decorate the house in some rather unique ways. Here's some ideas to get you started:

Frame a picture window. Our Christmas tree is usually set up in front of our massive picture window. To add to the holiday magic, we'll frame the picture window with a collection of 20 paper snowflakes or more. "Framing" means to place snowflakes around the edges of the window pane and leaving the center open.

To decorate wrapped presents. Pressed snowflakes add a unique touch of elegance to wrapped presents. One year, I was able to recycle leftover silver wedding gift wrap into Christmas gift wrap by merely by covering it with some 6-inch snowflakes. Paper snowflakes can be used to turn any color of gift wrap into holiday gift wrap.

As a substitute for paper doilies. To protect my tables from candle wax, I'll slip a paper snowflake beneath the candle holder. These free, homemade snowflakes can also be used beneath holiday table top decorations, to accent a holiday dinner table, or even beneath a plate of your favorite holiday cookies.

As a garland for the fireplace. Another fun decorating idea is to tape the backs of the snowflakes to a long piece of string to create a garland. A short garland of snowflakes look fantastic when hung beneath the mantel. Longer garlands can be used to decorate an archway, along the stair rail, or beneath a covered porch.

To decorate the Christmas tree. If the economy leaves you short of money this year, handmade paper snowflakes are a free and elegant way to decorate a Christmas tree. To use as tree decorations, scale down the size of your homemade snowflakes to three-to-four inches in size, Iron, then tuck in and around the branches of your Christmas tree.