If I could only have one thing to use to decorate for Christmas, it would have to be candles. Candles give you the very biggest bang for your buck. They're attractive to look at, inexpensive, and they create instant atmosphere. When lit, they are wonderful, whether plain or fancy. They can be displayed with gorgeous pomp and circumstance, or just plunked on a plate with a ribbon around it. Instant beauty. And the best thing: everyone is beautiful in candlelight.

Candles are said to burn longer if stored in the freezer. When lighting a new candle, always let it burn about an hour, for a pillar, and 1/2 an hour for tapers. This 'sets' the amount of wax burned for the rest of that candle's life. If you burn a new pillar candle for only 15 minutes, and the wax melted 1/4" from the wick, then it will keep burning at that same rate permanently, making most of the wax unburnable and wasted.

Elegant White Light Garland: Use an old sheer curtain or buy a couple yards of cheapy sheer fabric in your desired color, and make long, open-ended sleeves into which you put white or colored lights. Twist a greenery garland with the light-sleeves into a gentle spiral to put across the piano, bookshelf, front porch bench, etc. Another pretty look I saw is to arrange white lights like a curtain in front of a seldom-used sliding glass door, then hang sheer curtains in front of the lights. This is really beautiful with the room lights turned off.

A common decoration that might not seem too exciting is the ubiquitous plastic electric candles that sit on windowsills. I put them up for the first time just last year; the triple kind, in each window of the house. They had the flame-shaped bulbs. I kept them on day and night. The bulbs lasted through the whole season and none burned out. When coming home from town, we'd come around the curve in the drive and see all those candles glowing. It gave us a satisfying lift of contentment every time. I placed nativity figures with the candles, and put some sprigs of cedar greenery here and there. A simple, comforting sight.

I hung a star light display at the top of a Christmas quilt hanging in my entryway (see above right), along with a greenery garland. I tested the temperature of the lights, and found them to be constantly cool to the touch, so I know it wasn't harming the quilt with heat. It has a beautiful impact, but quick and easy. I liked it so well I wired it all together to save time putting it into place next year.

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Textiles

Being a quilter, I put special Christmas quilts on each bed in the house. A large Swedish-inspired Christmas quilt hangs in the entry way, and a smaller one hangs from a quilt rack in the living room. Draped on the sofas are some Christmas-only throws. Quilts make a large impact, are the easiest decorations to display, and the easiest to put away after Christmas.

Sew Christmas throw pillow covers that can be placed over your year-around sofa pillows. Just measure the sides of the pillow, then make a simple cover the same dimensions, adding a zipper on one side for easy removal to wash or change. Or, skip the zipper and make the backs overlap in the center, making an envelope to put the pillow into.

Use Christmas fabric to make sleeves that pull down over your kitchen or dining room chair backs. If you have the time and inclination, make matching chair pads that tie onto the seats.

Since the dining or kitchen table is often the star of the show during the holidays, lay in a supply of table cloths, table runners, placemats, etc, in Christmas prints and colors. I keep a shelf in my pantry full of centerpieces, tablecloths, cloth napkins, and special serving dishes. I keep these items handy, and can change the look and feel of the room in a moment's notice.

On the night of your party tie a square of fabric, bandana-style, loosely around the dog's neck. There's no need to hem it, just remove any loose threads. The cat just might be in a cooperative mood, too. Almost any fabric will work, from gold lame to calico-- just Christmasy looking. A big bow would look good, too.

Make Christmas fabric cloth napkins to use during the holidays. I believe in generously-sized napkins, about 22" square. My 'set' of 16 napkins are made up of 16 different prints, so I don't have to worry about not having enough that match. This is the way I do it: cut large squares (at least 18" X 18", to which you can cut 4 from 1 yard of cloth). Run a line of stitching around the 4 sides, indented an inch (don't fold the edges and hem them, just stitch onto the single layer). Start pulling and unravelling the woven threads up to the stitching line to make fringe. One hundred percent cotton fabric is more absorbent and un-stainable than fabric that contains polyester.

If you don't go all out putting up decorations in your front yard, you can still treat your porch as an outdoor 'room'. I put the (empty) concrete bird bath up on the porch and filled it with big sugar pine cones and C9 lights. It turns on when I flip the porch light switch. To do this, take out the porch light bulb and replace it with a socket adapter that changes it to an outlet. Plug the Christmas lights into it. Make sure the lightswitch is turned off, then secure the cord out of the way with brads or staples.

An alternate idea is to put a large candle on the birdbath with a hurricane glass shade around it and some greenery and small string of clear lights. Somehow, the candle flame and electric lights enhance each other.

Hang a wreath on all the exterior doors. Go with your favorite style (Victorian, Space Age, Adirondack, floral, etc.), and not just an afterthought. A great indoor wreath would be one with a personal collection on it, such as metal cars, perfume bottles, or even small framed photos, and a generous bow on it. Small details make the difference between okay and smashing! Just a plain green wreath and red bow on each door and window makes for a traditional colonial look.

Another porch idea: Make or purchase a large Christmas stocking and fill it half way with wads of newspaper. Then add small wrapped fake gifts, packed in to look full to almost overflowing. Hang it near the door with a sprig or two of holly or evergreens.

For a long porch, put up an outdoor tree, or even one on each side of the door. Decorate it with red bows and big plastic ball ornaments (Wal Mart) or, raffia bows and nature elements like pine cones, nuts in the shell, etc.

If there is any kind of seating on the porch, put out a couple Christmas throw pillows, weather permitting. Use a Christmas doormat, too. Lean a real sled against the wall with a basket of pinecones at the base. Do anything that's easy but welcoming.

Should your Christmas have snow on the ground, try this fun idea: Adjust a spray bottle nozzle for a fine mist spray, and into it put water and food coloring. Spray the liquid over the snow in multicolor patches, or all one color. If the outdoor lights were blue, blue snow would be magical with it. You could outline walkways, driveways, etc.

Make a shelter for your electric nativity scene in the front yard: Stack up some bales of straw or hay in a semi-circle behind Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus. A wooden ladder made of branches lashed together, along with a bucket and a natural fiber rope nearby add a little authenticity to the scene.

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This and That

At the top of the previous page is my collection of snowglobes. It covers the top of a chest in the kitchen. I once made a special mat with silver metallic embroidery to go underneath the globes, but my collection has grown much too large for it. One of the things I like about placing them on the chest is that there's no room for other stuff, so it doesn't become a catch-all for mail, etc. This year my 3 year old grandson sat on my lap and shook each one, which made me love them all the more.

Spray 'snow' onto your picture window *before* you erect the tree in front of it! To make the snow look like it really drifted on the window panes, think of a circle inside a square. Spray the snow in the imaginary corners outside the circle of each pane. To make it look windswept, just spray in the 2 corners on the same side, or just one lower corner.

To display a round glass ball ornament upright and by itself, make a stand for it with a piece of polymer clay formed into a small ring. A candy Lifesaver works, too, unless there are little candy snitches around! A coffee cup rack is also great for displaying ornaments. The fancier the rack, the nicer the display.

Bathrooms can look Christmasy without much to-do. Have a nice candle arrangement, a vertical display (little tree) and a horizontal display (a special dish, or in my case, a snowman scene). Any appropriately sized centerpiece for another room would work in the bathroom. It takes 2 minutes to decorate with these items, and 2 minutes to take them down, yet they bring a smile.

If there's a dollhouse in your family, why not deck its halls with tiny little boughs of holly and display it in the living room or family room? This year I plan to electrify my miniature farm house with 'outdoor' Christmas lights, and will display it in the living room, maybe on the blanket chest. Teach your children or grandchildren how to play with it gently.

Glass Ball Place cards: Decorate clear or glass balls with dimensional paints, jewels, sequins, etc, and name of guest for take-home decoration. To display it on the table, standing upright, make a stand for it with the ubiquitous polymer clay or Life Saver candy.

Get some pretty or useful trinkets from a dollar store (like these).Wrap them and keep them in a decorated basket near the front door, handy for those unexpected visitors or impulse-gifts during the holiday season.

Tie bells of all kinds to decorative ropes or wreaths to hang on doorknobs or curtain rods. String a bunch of medium-sized jingle bells on a wire. Twist the wire onto itself to make a circle, large enough to hang on a doorknob. Depending on how you display it, add a bow or streamers. Every time the door is opened, you hear the jingley sound. A child could use it as a musical instrument, too. You can do the same with other kinds of bells, and add greenery, pinecones, red berries, etc.

If your walls (and fireplace, etc) are dark-colored, decorate with light-colored items so they'll stand out, such as a white wreath or silver trays. If they are a light color, put up decorations that are darker, like dark a green wreath and red candles. High contrast is exciting, low contrast is soothing. Too much either way can be jangling or boring, so experiment and tweak.

Simplicity is elegance. Over-decorating with too many different kinds of decorations could look tacky. One year, I put up C9 lights outside around the front door, on the fir tree in the front yard, and across the church pew on the porch. I also had the candoliers in each window, plus the lights on the tree in front of the picture window. What a conglomeration viewed from outside! On the other hand, Gaudy and Over The Top is okay because IT' S CHR ISTM AS!