If you haven't started decorating for the holidays, we've got you covered. Decorating your house or apartment is one of the best ways to get into the holiday spirit, but all those sparkly ornaments and tinsel can get a bit pricey.
However, you can still decorate without spending a crazy amount on Santa figurines or ornaments. This DIY decorating guide will get you prepared for the holidays on the cheap.
Christmas Tree Cheats
Buying a new, real Christmas tree every year may be a tradition, but if you are looking to save money, we suggest picking up a fake one that you can use for more than one year. Decorating your tree is arguably the best part of preparing your home for the holidays, but buying an arrangement of ornaments could get expensive. Making your Christmas ornaments at home this year is easy, it just requires some patience.
To make these festive Washi tape ornaments all you need is glass ornaments that you can pick up at a craft store and any ribbon, tape and garland you have around. Carefully place tape on the outside the ornament and put tinsel, garland or small jingle bells inside others. Get crafty!
Grand Entrance Staircase Accents
As guests enter your home you will want them to feel the presence of holiday cheer. Decorate the staircase in your home, or even the staircase leading to your apartment, with some greenery. Some staircase decorations include lights that may take some time to set up, but this grand entrance display will just take minutes. Drape the garland on the banister and add snowflakes and hang a pair of ice skates. On the stairs, wrap empty boxes to look like presents and add extra greenery into a tin bucket with some ornaments.
Silver and Blue Christmas/ Hanukkah Centerpiece
A centerpiece is the focal point of your holiday table and luckily you can make one yourself in about 15 minutes. This Silver and Blue centerpiece highlights the colors of the holidays and adds sparkle to make it pop. Use a serving tray as a base and empty containers. In one container, place tinsel, garland and blue and silver ornaments. In the other, collect a tree branch from outside and paint it white. Add silver sparkle stars (left over from your tree or pick some up at the 99 cent store) and inexpensive figurines like the majestic deer shown in the photo.
Holiday Dinner Decor
You can still decorate your dinner table without spending money on new holiday dishware and other table accessories. These free Holiday Dinner Decor printouts will make your dinner table merry and bright. All you will need is the nice paper you want to print on, a cutting board, scissors and glue or tape. Download and print place cards, napkin rings, circle toppers and menus. The project takes 15 minutes to assemble once printed and makes for an easy clean up after the holidays without adding clutter into your home.
Milk Jug Snowmen
Sure you may have the tree, but there are still other decorations you can put around the house to make it more inviting. Spark your holiday spirit with these adorable DIY Milk Jug Snowman. Save your empty milk cartons (the plastic jugs) and rinse them out. Using construction paper, cut out black eyes and a mouth to resemble coal and an orange carrot stick for the nose and glue them on. Put pipe cleaner or chenille stems around both sides of the eyes with pom-poms to recreate earmuffs. You can also place extra Christmas lights inside, just cut a hole in the back of the jugs so you can plug them in.
Make Your Own Mistletoe
No holiday is complete without the decoration that makes someone give you a smooch. Instead of going out and buying the plant, you can easily make one yourself by grabbing some art supplies you may already have at home. You will need green felt paper, a fabric pencil, a hot glue gun, red ribbon and other tiny decorations like glitter or tiny pearls. Using the template given from Stay-At-Home Artist, all you have to to is print out the template, trace it onto the felt paper, cut and decorate. Hang your mistletoe under a doorway or in the living room and get ready for some holiday kisses.
DIY Christmas Wreath
You may have noticed when picking up some holiday decorations that wreaths can cost a pretty penny. But you can make your own at home for less than $20 with this Christmas Wreath tutorial. By using left over ribbon and Christmas balls, the only thing you will need is the wreath itself, craft paint and a wooden letter for your family initial. Check out the craft store for both so you can keep the cost low. Paint your letter with red and green acrylic craft paint and let dry. Using ribbon, tie on tightly excess red and green Christmas balls, and attach green ribbon onto one side of the wreath. Add your letter and hang on the door.
Christmas Card Holder
You might send and receive e-cards this year, but chances are some family members and friends will still send traditional holiday cards. Arrange your season greetings in a festive display using this Christmas Card Holder inspiration. All you need is 50' 14-gauge wire, wire snips, red spray paint, and invisible tape. Cut off 12 30" lengths of wire. Working with one piece at a time, bend using pilers until you create a spiral. Then, cut 3 30" lengths and form a 6-point shape and one 80" length to wrap around the perimeter. Secure all wire parts using invisible tape and place cards in the spirals.
Mason Jar Snow Globes
Who doesn't love snow globes? Well, we don't when they cost more money than we are willing to spend. Snow globes are the perfect accent to lay on a coffee table, on top a book shelf or on end tables. All you need is some small trees, snowmen, reindeer or other trinkets from the craft store. Turn your mason jar upside down and glue the trinket to the inside of the lid and let dry for 24 hours. When its dry, fill the jar with water and add 3-4 drops of glycerin and glitter. Glue the lid to the metal band and inner edge and let dry. Place fake snow on top by using cotton balls or use polymer for non-toxic, realistic snow that lasts for days.
Toilet Roll Reindeer
Recycle your old toilet paper rolls and reuse them for this adorable DIY project. Creating these reindeer is so easy, and all you will need is the empty rolls and a painted cotton ball for a red nose. Flatten the roll and cut out the body using the red line seen here. Fold two flaps down, one on top of each other to make the back, and then twist to make the horns. Add a red nose and draw on a cute face. Place these on top of your toilet or on a kitchen counter next to Santa's cookies.
Happy crafting!
[Photo Credit: David Singleton/Flickr]
