Frugal Holiday Decoration Ideas for Inside and Out
This holiday season, many people are looking for frugal ways to decorate their homes and yards. It’s actually not too difficult if you remember that people have been decorating for the holidays for centuries – long before electric lights and color trends! Here are some ideas for frugal holiday decorating.
Think Accents
Plush red velvet and satin ribbon makes for a luxurious and cozy holiday feel, but reupholstering your furniture or buying new chairs for the holidays is quite expensive. Instead of redecorating the rooms, think in terms of accents instead. Red velvet throw pillows, for instance, or a green satin lamp shade, can go a long way toward a festive feel without the expense.
Your Own Look
It’s easy to spend a lot of money trying to keep up with decorating trends. So don’t! Develop your own individual look that reflects your taste and distinguishes your style year after year.
Recycle Cans and Bottles
The metallic shine of empty beverage cans -many of which are conveniently in red and green – and the green, red, or clear plastic of empty drink bottles can be utilized for all kinds of interesting decorating projects. With a little creativity, you can make a Christmas tree, small or large, by wiring or gluing cans into a cone shape.
The same principle could be applied to make a wreath out of empty cans. An empty plastic drink bottle could even be used as a tree topper – turned upside-down, a holiday bulb could be put into the bottle through the neck and the bottle slipped over the tip of the tree.
Decorate and Feed the Birds
String popcorn and cranberries onto upholstery thread, and drape the garlands all over your outdoor shrubs and trees. Birds will enjoy the offering and the look is festive. In keeping with this theme, make bird feeder ornaments out of pinecones and orange halves – spread peanut butter on the cone and roll it in seed, and fill orange halves with bird feed. Hang with colorful yarn or ribbon.
For festive sounds, attach small, inexpensive jingle bells to the bird feeders and garlands. When a bird lands, you’ll hear the sound of the holidays!
Old Ornaments
Do you have more ornaments than you know what to do with? Or do you just have a big collection of old ornaments that you really don’t want to hang on the tree again? Display them in creative ways around your home. Hot glue ornaments onto a foam ring to make a wreath, or glue them onto a foam cone to make a tree shape. You can also display old ornaments on a mantelpiece surrounded by a garland of greens, or in clear glass bowls.
Nature-Inspired Decorations
From pine cones to nuts, branches to seed pods, nature provides a wealth of decorating items. With a can a gold spray paint, you can transform pine cones and nuts into a mantelpiece-worthy display. Gold-sprayed pine cones and nuts can also be glued into a wreath or used in a centerpiece with greens and candles. Spray interesting branches gold and insert them into a pot of sand or gravel; hang ornaments and ribbons from the “tree.”