Growing up, I remember our mother spending days taking down our everyday decor to put up special holiday pieces. We looked so forward to seeing these decorations- from the beautiful and expensive nativities she collected to our school made toilet paper tube Santa Clauses! All were a cherished part of the holiday. I enjoy continuing this tradition and decorating my own home for the holidays (and my kids now look forward to it too!). Here are a couple simple and inexpensive ideas to try.
Add your Heritage to the Season!
We have a lot of Scottish and Swedish ancestry in our family and we weave those two backgrounds into our holiday celebrations. Its a great way to remind and reminisce with children of their family, create ties to bond, and show pride in who we are. One way we do this is through our official plaid or tartan from Scotland. It is the red, green, and a white plaid pattern. I incorporate this plaid throughout our home, here are a couple examples:
We have table runners in our tartan plaid.
Our tree is trimmed with plaid ornaments and ribbon.
Our garland heading up our stairs is also trimmed with our tartan plaid. All are beautiful reminders of our heritage and make our decorations come together.
Use your Kids' Creations
We always loved to see our school made decorations go up on our walls growing up. Even our interesting "panty hose" made Santa Claus faces had a spot on our wall. It made me feel special growing up to have the things I made displayed. My kids enjoy this too, often making more pictures for me to hang up if they feel a sibling has more things up then them. I hang up our pictures and creations throughout our kitchen.
Use simple and cheap Pine Boughs
You can find pine boughs at any Christmas Tree lot around your town. Often, they are free as the lots will trim off extra branches when preparing trees- usually a pile in a corner. Or, you can check with Lowes or even buy a garland and break it apart. They bring fragrance into your home and look so beautiful. I incorporated mine in a couple of ways:
I have a vintage lead glass plated window that decorates my mantel through most of the year. I decided to keep it up this Christmas but add my boughs behind it. I thought it made for a picture like effect!
Pretty and easy and with a banner or stars it looks complete!
I have two pots that sit right outside my front door. My lovely flowers and greenery that filled them this summer are long gone but I enjoy using these pots still for the holidays. I added my pine boughs right into the soil along with some gold sticks and red berries that I got at Lowes to add some color and fun. I like my flowers and greenery a little "wild" in my garden so I enjoy the imperfect lines of the boughs in my pots. But, you can trim yours more severely or tighten your look more.
Happy Decorating!
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