Christmas Decorating
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Page 1 [Centerpieces] [Trees & Greenery] [Nativity Scenes] [Pine Cone Decor] |
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Page 2 Santa Hats & Stockings Lights & Candles Textiles Outdoor Decor This & That |
A fun and easy way to decorate your Christmas home is by having a theme throughout the house. This is perfect for collections. If you had a stocking collection, you could hang your favorites on the mantel, then hang some in the other rooms from window sills or on book cases or bedposts. In this way you can decorate quickly and lively. If a stocking has a large enough hanging loop, it could be hung on a doorknob or dresser handle. Santa hats are cute with stockings. To satisfy the curious, you could hide a little treasure in each stocking, such as Hershey's Kisses or coins or nuts in the shell. Other themes might include angels, nativity scenes, red bows, wise men and shepherds, Santas, Twelve Days of Christmas, etc. Snowmen could be displayed beyond Christmas since the snow does, too.
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Group a collection of nutcrackers, teddy bears, favorite ornaments or a Nativity scene together for a simple centerpiece. Add a couple candlesticks rising out of the middle.
Put some bare twigs in a vase and insert gumdrops or cranberries on the ends of the branches for an unusual 'tree' centerpiece.
A nice natural centerpiece can be made by lining a wooden bowl with colorful leafy greens. Fill with a selection of winter fruit like pomegranates and citrus fruits. Dark green and glossy magnolia or similar leaves would make a long-lasting liner for the fruit. If the oranges, lemons, etc, were studded with cloves, they'd create a wonderful, Christmasy scent.
For a really inexpensive but elegant centerpiece, wrap up some empty boxes with holiday foil wrap and pile them in the center of your table. A few of these 'presents' can function as elevating bases for dishes on a buffet table. Also, they look great on a wall grouping of photos. Just wrap one of the framed pictures like a gift and hang it back up.
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A sleek and contemporary centerpiece is any large glass bowl, punch bowl, jar, vase or other vessel filled with plain glass ball ornaments, all one color. An old-fashioned jar with many colors of balls is a traditional look. If you pick up the odd vase or jar at antique malls, yard sales, etc, just add the ornaments, then skip deconstructing it after Christmas. Box it up, and it'll be ready to display next year.
For a Musical Bird Centerpiece: gather 1 small Christmas bird, small amount of nesting material (either collected moss or buy spanish moss), small holly pick, small spruce cones or pine cones, 1 yard of 1/4" - 1/2" red ribbon, 4 empty paper towel rolls, 4 copies of Christmas Carol music sheets, hot glue. Now, glue sheet music to outside of each paper towel roll. Stuff the rolls with crumpled up newspaper and glue some moss at opened ends of rolls. Glue two rolls together side by side (use hot glue gun) Glue other two rolls on top of the first two, staggering them slightly so the unit is free standing and stable, or use 3 or 5 rolls. Glue length of ribbon around the four rolls in center, then glue nesting material in the center on top of rolls. Glue bird in place. Add holly, cones, berries or other small items for filler around the nest. Make a nice bow and glue to front of the nest. A music box collection just begs to be highlighted at Christmas time. Lay a pretty table cloth or lace runner on the display area, then arrange the music boxes by size, color, etc. Only have one or two? Borrow more from your sister or girlfriend. Tuck a couple glass balls and a sprig or two of live greens among the boxes for a prettier display.
Christmas Lights Potpourri Jar: Get a 1/2 gal. canning jar, a cotton doily, a 50-light string of miniature Christmas lights, bag of potpourri, and ribbon. Put the string of lights down in the jar, leaving the cord sticking out the top. Then you pour in the potpourri around the lights. Place the doily on top and tie with the ribbon. Plug in and enjoy! Note: light strings with fewer lights get more electricity per light than strings with more lights. If you don't want to worry about fire hazards, use strings with more lights since they don't heat up as much. If you can easily hold a lit bulb, you're probably okay. Test carefully before trusting this decor idea in your home. A basket can be used in place of the jar or bowl, but the cat will be attracted to the contents and play with it, and scatter it around.
A lovely, old fasioned centerpiece is a short stack of Christmas books such as Dicken's "A Christmas Carol", "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" by Barbara Robinson, and Dylan Thomas' "A Child's Christmas in Wales". Next to the books put a footed jar full of candy canes of all colors and flavors, and a pretty votive candle and holder.
Consider painting (or purchasing) a holiday picture. Using acrylic paints, even craft paints, and a canvas from the craft store, create a contemporary look with abstract Christmas trees, pointsettias or snowmen in colors that will look great with the rest of your Christmas decor. Go online and look at images for inspiration. A 16" x 20" canvas is a good size to start with.
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Modify your artificial tree to hold more ornaments and display them better. Install every other row of tree branches
the usual way, then lay the unused ones on each row at center of the tree, creating a shadowy background for the ornaments. You think
it's going to look too sparse, but by the time you have garland, lights and ornaments on it, it looks great.
Remove the bottom layer of branches from your artificial tree to make room for more gifts. Lay the spare branches
on a shelf, mantel, entertainment center or window sill and duct tape them so they won't fall. Attach glass balls or other favorite ornaments
for a beautiful horizontal display. It's a good bang for the buck in that it's so quick and has a high visual impact. These branches make
a nice backdrop for a Nativity scene on a table or chest, as well.
In the living room I drape a beautiful, real-looking faux pine swag over a snow landscape painting. It makes a great
focal point for the room. Tuck greenery or other drapeable things over other pictures, paintings, wall objects or curtain rods.
Most geographic areas have some kind of native evergreen that would be great for decorating. In the midwest there are
red cedars, in the northwest many different kinds of pines and spruces, etc. Go on an excursion for some roadside clippings to use for
wreaths and garlands. Our property has cedars, and a nice swag of cedar with red bows and bells looks good on the front door, and smells
wonderful just before you step into the house.
Check to make sure all the electric cords are modern and safely plugged into properly working outlets. Old homes
may feel the strain on its electrical system when you start plugging things in. Ease the load on single outlets by using power strips, like
the ones you use with your computer hardware. See that no cords are tangled up against the outlets. You can now buy on/off floor switches
that you turn on or off by stepping on them. An ideal situation is if more than one outlet is within reach of the tree, so the power is
divided. If you're unsure of the safety of your Christmas lights, bulbs, extension cords, power strips or adapters, don't plug anything in until
you get help and are confident that they're safe. Teach children how to safely turn the lights on, and teach them to respect electricity.
Turn the lights off at night or when no one is home. Don't let the lights touch anything burnable, especially C7 or C9 bulbs. Notice if
there are some burned out bulbs even if the rest are lit. This causes each working bulb to have to use more electricity than it was
designed for, so replace burned out or defective bulbs when you see them, and unplug the string while you replace bulbs.
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I put stuffed animals and larger vintage toys under the family room tree instead of wrapped presents. (Ice skates, a tea set, pull toy, dolls, stuffed animals and the like.) You just can't look there without feeling nostalgic.
My sister hangs a large green wreath with white lights. She uses themed ornaments collected over
the years such as angels, children, all blue, etc. A variation on this idea is to put a greenery garland, with or without lights,
over a doorway or large mirror, that is densely decorated with the theme ornaments.
At yard sales, Aunt Tizzy's attic, antique malls, etc, collect small vintage toys. Use discreet, thin wire to
attach them to a greenery wreath. Add some way-back-when Christmas card cutouts and some scuffed old glass ornament balls for
a great, old fashioned look.
My bedroom decor is blue and I wanted to make it Christmasy, too. I got a 3 ft artificial tree and anchored it in a coffee can with plaster of Paris. I decorated it with all kinds of blue and silver ornaments, including a blue metallic garland. I attached everything pretty securely with wire so it would last several years. All the lights are blue, and there's a pretty blue tree skirt at the base. We leave it on all night, as the blue lights create a mysterious-like glow. Lying in bed gazing at the pine needle shadows in blue on the ceiling is a very peaceful way to fall asleep. When Christmas is over, I just put the whole thing in a plastic trash bag and twisty-tie the top closed until next year.
For a cookie-cutter garland, take a screwdriver or hammer and nail and carefully poke holes into the sides of cookie cutters. String them onto twine, use color beads for decoration and as spacers between cookie-cutters. Tie ends of twine to keep beads and cookie cutters to stay put.
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My sister puts out an awesome ceramic Holy Land village. In addition to the nativity stable and occupants, she
has several other buildings, plus palm trees, water vessels, hay cribs, bundles of firewood, etc. What is so cool is that underneath
the village is a cloth that has been painted with roads, fields, landmarks, etc. She has lots of accessories that make it seem almost
real. At night the lights inside each 'building' come on and go off by a timer, making it unnecessary to almost stand on her head to
reach the outlet. The wattage of the bulbs is low enough to seem like the houses are lit with candle light. It's magical.
Use polymer clay to make water jars, additional animals, lanterns, rocks, etc. They don't have to look factory
made to enhance your nativity. Everyday items help us relate to the people who were there at the first Christmas.
Throughout the year I keep my eyes open for any figurines that are to the same scale (more or less) as my
main large Nativity scene. There's a little Chinese man sitting cross-legged writing on a scroll, a small wolf howling at the moon,
a plastic cat, an extra camel, shepherd or wise man from other creches, etc. I touch up any paint problems, then coat them with the same shade of
'antiquing' as the rest of the set, then they fit right in.
Put an uplight behind your nativity 'barn' for more drama, and you can add small to medium potted houseplants for a natural
element when tucked near the nativity shelter.
Try displaying the nativity scene some way other than on a flat table or shelf. Get a basket and fill the bottom
with something that takes up a lot of space in the basket, plus a flat surface on top. A throw-pillow with a book on top would be just
right. Hide the book under a sheet of dried moss, excelsior, cotton batting, fiberglass 'angel hair', or even tea-dyed shredded paper.
Arrange the nativity figures in an inviting way, and put a bow on the basket handle, like the basket at the top of this page. You could
also tuck in a string of white lights. Glowing light is a mood-booster. Nestle figures among the foliage of your favorite houseplants for
people to enjoy in an unusual setting.
A clever and earthy nativity shelter is 5 appropriately-sized slabs of slate or similar rock: one for the floor,
3 for walls and one for a roof. Build it as you would a "house of cards": Put down the floor, then stand the walls in place. Lay the
roof on top. It can stand fine on its own, depending on the individual slabs. You could use an adhesive like "Liquid Nails", or even
discreet, small pieces of duct tape if you think it needs help. Five mirrors would be interesting, and perhaps driftwood or slices of a small log would be good,
too. The point is to use natural materials with the ceramic, wood, metal or cloth manger scene.
A wonderful addition to your nativity scene would be a star-shaped paper lantern or lamp that could be
hung above it. An angel could hang from the light with fishing line as if it were hovering over the scene.
You can make a backdrop for your nativity scene that looks great and folds up for storage. Purchase a folding
science fair display (Hobby Lobby, etc). A small one is roughly 24" x 36", and is made of cardboard and smooth paper. It folds in thirds.
Paint some scenery on it, depicting buildings in the distance, or an easy landscape like gentle, green hills, or even just a midnight
blue sky with stars. (Remember the Crayola Crayon color "Midnight Blue"? It's still my favorite color.) To do this, first decide what
you want the shape to be. If you cut the boards so that they create 3 gothic arches at the top, it will immediately look dramatic.
Then paint the dark sky color, being careful not to leave thick brushmarks. Use another, stiffer brush for the stars. Load white paint
onto the brush and flick it onto the sky. You MUST try it out on a scrap surface first to get the feel for it. Flicking the white
will give you the look of a very, very starry sky, but you don't want it to look misty or blotchy. I think it would look even better
with something like Swarovski crystals glued to some of the larger stars. Metallic paints could be used, too. If you don't like the result,
turn the whole thing around and try again on the other side. It's better to do something simple that can be improved on next year than
it is to go in over your head and throw it away in frustration.
Glue the smallest glass balls between the 'petals' of big pine cones. Use with greenery garlands, or stand 3 of
them together on a tray lined with evergreen foliage.
If you're blessed with access to large pinecones, pick one
that can stand firmly (or scrape the bottom of it until it stands on its own). Hollow out a little 'cave' at the front bottom and glue
into place a tiny plastic Nativity scene or tiny tree and deer or other scene. Paint the tips of the petals with white paint or texturized
snow paint.
Scatter several smaller cones on a plate or tray along with some living or dried moss, then place ceramic animals or
Nativity figures among them.
For a hanging pinecone display, attach a piece of thin wire to the fat end of the
cone for the hanger, then on top of this, hot glue some greenery, bird in nest, and a bow, taking care to leave the hanger free. This
would make a nice hostess gift for those many Christmas parties.
Smaller pinecones look great en masse in a wooden
bucket, basket, tub, wheelbarrow-- just about any container. A large basket full of pinecones of any size with a red bow on the handle
would look good just outside the front door of the house. Add sprigs of evergreens, holly, etc. for a little more oomph.
Spray pine cones and whole walnuts with gold or silver spray paint and place in special bowls, trays, baskets,
etc. The shinier the paint, the better. In some regions, the gold pinecones are a traditional tree ornament.
Glue or wire tiny pine cones and sprigs of mistletoe around the surface of a styrofoam ball for a hanging
'kissing ball'. Tie it up with a long red ribbon with a bow on the bottom and a hanging loop on top. Tack it to the ceiling and pucker
up! Another Kissing Ball: Collect a BUNCH of acorns with their caps. Hot glue sheet moss over a 3" Styrofoam ball. Hold an acorn by
the nut end. Cover the stem with hot glue and quickly press it onto the ball. Keep going till the whole ball is covered. Add a piece of
real or artificial mistletoe at the bottom. To hang, make a loop with ribbon, and poke the ends of the ribbon into the styrofoam ball
(where there are no acorns), opposite the mistletoe. Glue into place. Try this with walnuts, hazelnuts, or pistachios too.
Display scented pinecones in a decorative dish or basket. Mix ground or crushed cinnamon, cloves,
nutmeg and allspice in dish, using any ratio that smells good to you. Apply glue to the petals of the cones, then roll in the spices.
To make it into an ornament, tap off excess spices and attach a bow and hanging loop.
A more time-consuming but longer-lasting method of making scented pinecones: Into a large zip-closure plastic
bag, or a plastic container with sealable lid, put the pinecones with some essential oils like cinnamon and pine. Leave them sealed in
the bag or bowl for a couple weeks, then place into pretty bowls, plates or baskets.
A simple ornament that little kids can make is to brush a little glue on the tips of the petals, then roll in
or sprinkle on glitter. Glue or wire on a hanger and bow.
Copyright 2008. All Rights Reserved. Updated 1/5/2008.
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