Holiday Decorations Don't Have to Be Expensive

It is officially November. In a few weeks, many people will start to decorate thier homes to get ready for the holiday season.  There is not reason to go over the top and purchase expensive decorations.  Here are some unique and expensive ideas to add some unique flair to your holiday decor:

Raid the toy box.  Use your children's teddy bears, toy trains and other small toys as decorations on chairs and tables.  Tie red ribbons around the teddy bears to dress them up a bit.  Add a small sprig of evergreen or some small ornaments in your trains box car.

Nix the Poinsettia.  Find a large glass bowl in your house and set a large pillar candle in the center.  Fill in the bowl around the candle with inexpensive glass ornaments or even greenery.  You can even pick up some cranberries when they are on sale around Thanksgiving and use those to add color and flair to your centerpiece.  We actually purchased plastic gum drop garland and broke it apart and use those to fill our container.  You can even spray paint some pine cones colors and place them in a pretty glass bowl.

Share family memories.  We take our children to get a picture with Santa every single year.  I always print those photos and put them into frames and use them to decorate our mantle and room.  It is so much fun to watch our children grow each holiday through pictures and it certainly is great to help start a conversation!

Deck the walls.  We have a very large piece of artwork hanging above our fireplace.  I take that down each year and wrap it, place a bow in the center and put it back on the wall.  It is fun to see packages decorating our walls as well as underneath our tree.  You can even do this to your front door to make it more inviting.

Mirrored candles.Find an inexpensive mirror at a thrift or dollar store. Set it on your coffee or side table and set various sized candles on it.  When lit, the candles will reflect the light in the mirror and cast an very festive glow.

Use your holiday well wishes as decoration.  Whenever we get cards from anyone, we tape them along our railings, on our basement door or even mantle.  The designs are all different and remind us of how blessed we are to have so many family and friends wishing us well over the holidays.

Place lights in your plants.  I love lights!  Take a small strand and dress up that ficus tree or plant in the corner of the room.  No reason that they can't look their best for the holidays.

There are hundreds of other great inexpensive decorating ideas out there.  Please share something that you do at your house for the holidays!