Glorious Holiday Decorating (Without Breaking the Bank or Losing Your Sanity) -

Home
>
Holiday
>
Glorious Holiday Decorating (Without Breaking the Bank or Losing Your Sanity)

Glorious Holiday Decorating (Without Breaking the Bank or Losing Your Sanity)

Decorating for the holidays can be both expensive and emotionally draining. But you can decorate your home beautifully--on a budget--by following just a few simple suggestions.

First, you can create a happy holiday impression on your guests by simply concentrating your decorating efforts on your front door. Surrounding the entrance to your home with colorful lights, interwoven with garlands of greenery, offers a cheery "Welcome Home" atmosphere, without the need for ladders and endless strings of lights.

If putting up all of your decorations has become more of a chore than a delight during the holiday season, consider dividing your collection in half and alternating them every other year. That will require only half the amount of work, and the decorations will have more meaning, since you'll be putting up different ones every year.

If you spend extra money on costly additives for keeping your Christmas tree from turning brown, you can take heart from the National Christmas Tree Association, which says that plain tap water is the best source of moisture for your tree. In fact, some commercial additives and home concoctions can actually be detrimental to a tree's moisture retention and increase needle loss, according to the NCTA.

You can save a considerable amount of money, and make your holidays more meaningful, by creating your own decorations, using your family's heritage as a guideline. You can incorporate family pictures or treasured mementos to create totally unique decorations, and it's a great way to honor your ancestors while helping your children feel more connected with their family's history.

And finally, you won't have to take down the old decorations and put up new ones for your New Year's Eve celebration, if you recycle your holiday wreaths and garlands after Christmas simply by spray painting them silver or gold.

The holidays can be a stressful period, but you can avoid the financial stress and the emotional burden by using these simple suggestions. Happy holidays!

Jeanette Fisher, Design Psychology Professor, is the author of "Joy to the Home" eNewsletter, interior design and real estate books. For Design Psychology information, visit http://www.designpsych.com/. Ask your holiday decorating questions here: http://holidaydecorating.blogspot.com/

In The News:

table border=0 width= valign=top cellpadding=2 cellspacing=7trtd valign=top class=jfont style=font-size:85%;font-family:arial,sans-serifbrdiv style=padding-top:0.8em;img alt= height=1 width=1/divdiv class=lha href=http://www.citywebshopper.net/articles/includes/redirect.php?url=http://callcenterinfo.tmcnet.com/analysis/articles/42547-seeing-black-instead-red-during-holidays-lesson-web.htmcid=1256188926ei=ChnwSPO4Hajk6gPqwui7Bwusg=AFQjCNHGcLcX3NuXu95yqk8fcAAyF8VJlwSeeing Black, Instead of Red During the bHolidays/b: A Lesson in Web b.../b/abrfont size=-1font color=#6f6f6fTMCnetnbsp;-/font nobr7 hours ago/nobr/fontbrfont size=-1By TMCnet Special Guest Many North American businesses acknowledge the bholiday/b spirit with various Web site images and statements, in an attempt to warm the b.../b/fontbrfont size=-1a href=http://www.citywebshopper.net/articles/includes/redirect.php?url=http://www.smh.com.au/news/travel/tips/timed-to-perfection/2008/10/08/1223145445660.htmlcid=1256188926ei=ChnwSPO4Hajk6gPqwui7Bwusg=AFQjCNFNY3Pjty_4zFSbfVTW1TeobzMkGwTimed to perfection/a font size=-1 color=#6f6f6fnobrSydney Morning Herald/nobr/font/fontbrfont class=p size=-1a class=p href=http://news.google.com/news?sourceid=navclientie=ISO-8859-1rls=GGLG,GGLG:2005-22,GGLG:enncl=1256188926hl=ennobrall 3 news articles/nobr/a/font/div/font/td/tr/table

table border=0 width= valign=top cellpadding=2 cellspacing=7trtd valign=top class=jfont style=font-size:85%;font-family:arial,sans-serifbrdiv style=padding-top:0.8em;img alt= height=1 width=1/divdiv class=lha href=http://www.citywebshopper.net/articles/includes/redirect.php?url=http://bntest.beliefnet.com/Love-Family/Relationships/2004/11/Single-During-The-Holidays.aspxcid=1256295858ei=ChnwSPO4Hajk6gPqwui7Bwusg=AFQjCNHnysKmVYjKqEDaePbLL12C8LO-7ASingle During the bHolidays/b/abrfont size=-1font color=#6f6f6fBeliefnet.com,nbsp;NYnbsp;-/font nobr1 hour ago/nobr/fontbrfont size=-1quot;#39;Tis the season to be jollyquot;-but suppose you can#39;t find anything to be jolly about this bholiday/b season? What if you#39;re single, and the one significant b.../b/fontbrfont size=-1a href=http://www.citywebshopper.net/articles/includes/redirect.php?url=http://cornellsun.com/node/32585cid=1256295858ei=ChnwSPO4Hajk6gPqwui7Bwusg=AFQjCNHMzDlQ_TgrbEnauTalw6FBD_2mUwMerry Columbus Hashanah/a font size=-1 color=#6f6f6fnobrCornell University The Cornell Daily Sun/nobr/font/fontbrfont class=p size=-1a class=p href=http://news.google.com/news?sourceid=navclientie=ISO-8859-1rls=GGLG,GGLG:2005-22,GGLG:enncl=1256295858hl=ennobrall 2 news articles/nobr/a/font/div/font/td/tr/table

table border=0 width= valign=top cellpadding=2 cellspacing=7trtd width=80 align=center valign=topfont style=font-size:85%;font-family:arial,sans-serifa href=http://www.citywebshopper.net/articles/includes/redirect.php?url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/travel/winter_sports/article4915802.ececid=0ei=ChnwSPO4Hajk6gPqwui7Bwusg=AFQjCNENHuDfKJ5uyTIW1UTop9waSGxhwgimg src=http://news.google.com/news?imgefp=3ubSpycNvNUJimgurl=www.timesonline.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00405/skiing-385_405114b.jpg width=70 height=70 alt= border=1brfont size=-2Times Online/font/a/font/tdtd valign=top class=jfont style=font-size:85%;font-family:arial,sans-serifbrdiv style=padding-top:0.8em;img alt= height=1 width=1/divdiv class=lha href=http://www.citywebshopper.net/articles/includes/redirect.php?url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/travel/winter_sports/article4915802.ececid=0ei=ChnwSPO4Hajk6gPqwui7Bwusg=AFQjCNENHuDfKJ5uyTIW1UTop9waSGxhwg6 ski bholidays/b for less/abrfont size=-1font color=#6f6f6fTimes Online,nbsp;UKnbsp;-/font nobr10 hours ago/nobr/fontbrfont size=-1Sean Newsom knows how to sneak you in the back way No that#39;s not a misprint, we are recommending you take a bholiday/b in exactly the same week in the same b.../b/font/div/font/td/tr/table

table border=0 width= valign=top cellpadding=2 cellspacing=7trtd width=80 align=center valign=topfont style=font-size:85%;font-family:arial,sans-serifa href=http://www.citywebshopper.net/articles/includes/redirect.php?url=http://www.boxofficeprophets.com/column/index.cfm%3FcolumnID%3D11015cid=1255987710ei=ChnwSPO4Hajk6gPqwui7Bwusg=AFQjCNENlxUKEvwc66hgUTqGCkRZ1NmElwimg src=http://news.google.com/news?imgefp=SxmKeahK3EsJimgurl=www.boxofficeprophets.com/images2/wrestler100808.jpg width=80 height=53 alt= border=1brfont size=-2Box Office Prophets/font/a/font/tdtd valign=top class=jfont style=font-size:85%;font-family:arial,sans-serifbrdiv style=padding-top:0.8em;img alt= height=1 width=1/divdiv class=lha href=http://www.citywebshopper.net/articles/includes/redirect.php?url=http://www.boxofficeprophets.com/column/index.cfm%3FcolumnID%3D11015cid=1255987710ei=ChnwSPO4Hajk6gPqwui7Bwusg=AFQjCNENlxUKEvwc66hgUTqGCkRZ1NmElwBOP 25 of the bHolidays/b 2008: 5-1/abrfont size=-1font color=#6f6f6fBox Office Prophetsnbsp;-/font nobr12 hours ago/nobr/fontbrfont size=-1By BOP Staff quot;You#39;re a really great actor, and you#39;ve just fucked up your career for 15 years and nobody wants to hire you.quot; These are the words of brutal b.../b/font/div/font/td/tr/table

table border=0 width= valign=top cellpadding=2 cellspacing=7trtd valign=top class=jfont style=font-size:85%;font-family:arial,sans-serifbrdiv style=padding-top:0.8em;img alt= height=1 width=1/divdiv class=lha href=http://www.citywebshopper.net/articles/includes/redirect.php?url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/pvholidays/1cid=1256075097ei=ChnwSPO4Hajk6gPqwui7Bwusg=AFQjCNErLZRj-SR7pO2dtOqXaQF8RktoXg10 expert tips for booking the perfect ski bholiday/b/abrfont size=-1font color=#6f6f6fguardian.co.uk,nbsp;UKnbsp;-/font nobr15 hours ago/nobr/fontbrfont size=-1Anyone who has ever headed to the mountains in winter knows that ski bholidays/b don#39;t come cheap, especially when the basic bholiday/b cost – as well as all b.../b/fontbrfont size=-1a href=http://www.citywebshopper.net/articles/includes/redirect.php?url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/travel/news/article4915479.ececid=1256075097ei=ChnwSPO4Hajk6gPqwui7Bwusg=AFQjCNH4fQbn0yNArxeg_KXZswkD-LGQkAScotland#39;s the place for recession skiing/a font size=-1 color=#6f6f6fnobrTimes Online/nobr/font/fontbrfont class=p size=-1a class=p href=http://news.google.com/news?sourceid=navclientie=ISO-8859-1rls=GGLG,GGLG:2005-22,GGLG:enncl=1256075097hl=ennobrall 2 news articles/nobr/a/font/div/font/td/tr/table

table border=0 width= valign=top cellpadding=2 cellspacing=7trtd width=80 align=center valign=topfont style=font-size:85%;font-family:arial,sans-serifa href=http://www.citywebshopper.net/articles/includes/redirect.php?url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/snowandski/3172101/100-top-ski-holidays-Weekend-breaks-and-powder-pigs.htmlcid=0ei=ChnwSPO4Hajk6gPqwui7Bwusg=AFQjCNEkIhuCau_lNUFp-ATxIS3uoR9ACwimg src=http://news.google.com/news?imgefp=vtd5F19_qsUJimgurl=www.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/01007/revelstoke_1007331c.jpg width=80 height=50 alt= border=1brfont size=-2Telegraph.co.uk/font/a/font/tdtd valign=top class=jfont style=font-size:85%;font-family:arial,sans-serifbrdiv style=padding-top:0.8em;img alt= height=1 width=1/divdiv class=lha href=http://www.citywebshopper.net/articles/includes/redirect.php?url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/snowandski/3172101/100-top-ski-holidays-Weekend-breaks-and-powder-pigs.htmlcid=0ei=ChnwSPO4Hajk6gPqwui7Bwusg=AFQjCNEkIhuCau_lNUFp-ATxIS3uoR9ACw100 top ski bholidays/b: Weekend breaks and powder pigs/abrfont size=-1font color=#6f6f6fTelegraph.co.uk,nbsp;United Kingdomnbsp;-/font nobr14 hours ago/nobr/fontbrfont size=-1Peter Hardy concludes his guide to the season#39;s top skiing breaks with the best weekend escapes and the ideal resorts for powder pigs. b.../b/font/div/font/td/tr/table

holidays - Google News