The holiday season is usually a fun opportunity to enjoy the festive spirit and all those precious moments with your family. But when it comes to decor for your house, it can be overwhelming and financially draining. Don't worry though, because there's a crafty solution for decking the halls on a budget. Here are pocket-friendly, unique ways to decorate with things you probably already have at home, and even easy enough for your kids to help with! Read on to take holiday decorating to the next level with these helpful hacks.
Repurpose Cardboard Boxes as a Christmas Tree Skirt
Usually, people have Christmas tree skirts to hide the stand and dress it up a bit. But what's the point in spending money on something with one purpose, which you'll only display once a year? Especially if you want a nice-looking skirt made of good quality, it could cost you up to hundreds of dollars. But there's a simple way to elevate your tree without spending too much and helping the environment!
Instead of a tree skirt, you can use a cardboard box! All you need to do is make a hole for the Christmas tree stand, decorate the box, and you're set!
Candles Inside Jars Elevate Any Space
Decorative jars and candles always upgrade any space, so why not embrace this interior design hack for the holidays? Plus, this is so easy, anyone can make this, and it's guaranteed to look good! You need to take a few glass jars and fill them with ornaments, and then place a candle on top. It doesn't matter if it's real or not, but it will definitely create a great ambiance.
The glass vases or jars with candles bring a festive atmosphere and make people think you went the extra mile to decorate your home.
DIY Garlands With Fabric Scraps
Garlands are a Christmas must-have, but there's a way to make them in the comfort of your own home! It's cheaper and more fun than just purchasing garlands from the store. All you need are fairy lights and some fabric! You can use burlap fabric and an old shirt, cut the fabric into strips, wrap them around the lights and tie them into bows. Boom- now you have instant DIY Christmas garlands.
This is a great way to jazz up any boring string of lights and make your decorations more fun. Not to mention, it immediately brings some holiday spirit into your house.
Transform Your Old Halloween Decorations
Who says pumpkins can only be used as decorations on Halloween and Thanksgiving? With the holidays all very close together, it's great to repurpose some of your decor for other occasions. It can save you money and could be a fun family activity. You can simply paint any pumpkins left over from the previous holidays in Christmas colors and then have unique handmade decorations that no one else will have.
Plus, who doesn't love an activity to keep your kids entertained? It's fun and affordable and a nice touch to the ambiance of your home.
Use Glass as Cheap and Easy Cookie Molds
When it comes to the holiday season, it can feel like the shopping list is endless. Between preparing food for parties, decorations, and gifts for others, the expenses can start to add up. So it might feel pointless or like a waste of money to buy specific molds only to use for baking cookies. But don't freak out, there's still a way to bring impressive cookies to your next holiday party, and the answer is cups.
All you need to do is find some glass cups around your home with engraved designs. Then, wash the cups and press them against the cookie dough to create an ornate cookie!
Add a Toilet Paper Roll to a Jar to Create a Centerpiece
A classic home decor piece is a glass jar adorned with various items like candy, flowers, marbles, and things of that nature. Here's a great idea to spruce up your space that takes a few minutes! Get a glass jar and extra ornaments to place inside. However, the hack is to add a layer of ornaments at the bottom and then place an empty toilet paper or paper towel roll on top. Why, you might be wondering?
Instead of filling up the entire jar, placing the toilet paper roll inside will take up space, so you don't need to buy and use as many ornaments.
Create Your Own Cupholder With Old Socks
For those of you who are crafty, here is the perfect DIY activity for you! While most people decorate walls, tables, and windows, this is an excellent and unique concept for decorating cups! You can take any old fabric you have, even a sock, and sew it into a cup holder. When you serve your guests coffee or hot chocolate, wrap the cups in these fantastic creations, and your party will instantly feel fancier.
You might not even need to sew a thing if you're lucky! If you can just cut a sock, and it fits around the cup, then you're golden.
A Pumpkin Can Be Used as a Serving Bowl
Pumpkins are great for the spooky season, but they could also provide that extra touch of holiday spirit during Thanksgiving and Christmas. Using a pumpkin as a serving bowl will ultimately elevate your hosting skills. It's perfectly safe and edible! All you need to do is carve the pumpkin, clean it out, and roast it. You can serve anything from soup to roasted veggies or even candy in the pumpkins!
Remember, if you have any leftover pumpkins from Halloween, save them! It's an affordable, fun, and tasty way to make your home more festive.
Reuse Old Chip Cans as Cookie Holders
What better way to decorate your home and get into the holiday spirit than to help the planet by repurposing old items? Not only is this hack budget-friendly and great for the environment, but it's also cool and will have your guests in awe. Instead of throwing away those Pringles cans, you can save them for the holidays! Clean them out and wrap them in decorative wrapping paper, and you suddenly have festive cookie holders!
Not only are these unique cookie holders, but they can also double as a lovely gift. A sweet gesture goes a long way, so give someone some cookies in one of these brilliant holders, and they'll be ecstatic.
Customize Your Glassware With Sharpies
Some people feel the need to have a separate set of glassware specifically for the holidays. Usually, it is decorated and in theme with whichever holiday they celebrate, but that can get expensive and take up a lot of storage room. An alternative is to take existing items you already have, and if you're a fan of arts and crafts, put your drawing skills to the test and decorate them with a sharpie!
It's a cheap way to decorate your extra glassware and could even be a fun holiday party activity! Simple, fun, and full of holiday spirit.
Turn Your Holiday Cards Into Decor
A typical Christmas tradition is to take photos, make custom cards and send them to your favorite people. Well, what are you supposed to do with all of those holiday cards year after year? Don't fret; there's a perfect way to put them to use. Display them and use them as festive home decor! A pro tip is to wrap ribbon around doors or cupboards and use clothespins to hang the holiday cards.
Here is a super easy way to instantly make your space feel more decorated and even requires minimal space or items that need to be purchased.
Make Snowflake Decorations With Colored Glue
Christmas time is usually associated with winter and freezing temperatures. So a fun way to express this season is to decorate with snowflakes! Most people use paper to make snowflake decorations, but here is a different way to create them. Did you know that you can use colored glue? That's right, draw snowflakes on a piece of paper, cover the drawings with glue, and wait until they dry to peel them right off.
This is a perfect activity to do with kids as well. Although it might get messy, who doesn't love some family bonding time?
Decorate Cookies With the Kids and Display Them as Decor
The holiday season is a perfect time to create new and exciting experiences with your kids. And what better way than cookies? Baking and decorating cookies are not only a fun activity, but it ends with a yummy treat too! You can bake some sugar cookies, make different colored frostings, and buy sprinkles, and you're all done! What better way to bring in the holiday spirit than with a plate of homemade festive cookies?
Now your home will be filled with the sweet smell of fresh baked goods, the sound of happy and entertained children, and the sight of amazing cookies!
Turn a Decorative Pumpkin Into a Flower Vase
Halloween is a time overabundant with pumpkins, and odds are you have one left over. Instead of throwing it away, you can save it and transform it into something extraordinary, like a flower vase! It's a simple way to decorate for Thanksgiving; even better, if it's fake, it will last until Christmas! You can carve it and place flowers inside or hot glue fake flowers on top, and now you have the perfect centerpiece.
It's a nifty way to reuse decorations and cycle them through different holidays. Although it seems simple, this decorative pumpkin will spice up your home.
Decorate With the Classic Paper Snowflakes
It can be difficult to think of different ways to decorate for the holidays, but here is a classic idea that will never fail you. It's simple, and you don't need many supplies; just grab some paper and scissors. You can draw snowflake shapes on any piece of paper, then cut them out and tape them around your house. Do this a few dozen times, and you'll have yourself a winter wonderland-themed home!
Though it will take some time to cut out each snowflake, it's relatively easy and doesn't require any additional items to purchase, which is a win!
Easily Hang Wreaths Anywhere With Adhesive Hooks
Wreaths are always a great addition to any home when preparing for the holidays. You can buy or make them yourself, and they're not just for Christmas! But hanging the wreaths can become tricky, requiring proper mounting. So here's a trick to hang them quickly; just use adhesive hooks! You can stick them anywhere around your home, and they won't ruin. They're convenient because there's no need to drill holes and hang them on a nail.
This way, you can easily dress up any room of your house with a simple adhesive hook and a wreath and be ready to take on the holidays in no time!
Hang Ornaments From Light Fixtures or the Ceiling
If you want to get in the holiday mood, you must try this genius do-it-yourself hack! You must be looking at the photo and thinking, how can I possibly do that? Well, it's a lot easier than you think. You need ornaments and ribbon, and that's all! Tie the ribbon onto the ornaments and then tie them onto light fixtures around your home, and you suddenly have beautiful hanging decor!
If you don't have light fixtures to hang the ribbon from, it's okay; there's still a way! Just grab a ladder or a very tall person and tape a part of the ribbon to the ceiling; it will look beautiful.
Make Your Front Door a Giant Present
A budget-friendly way to add some holiday zest to your home, classroom, or even office is to decorate the front door. Though most people hang wreaths, lights, or postcards on doors, here's a unique way to decorate that most people won't have. Wrap the front door like it's a big present! You can use ribbon or just colored paper to replicate a ribbon, and now everyone will know your house is decked out for festivities.
Keeping things simple or not having a huge budget to spend on holiday decorations doesn't mean you have to sacrifice things looking good!
Easy DIY Tree Ornaments
You are probably racking your brain on ways to get excited for Christmas while simultaneously saving money without completely cutting back on all fun. When decorating a Christmas tree, buying new ornaments every year can be tempting, but there is no need. You can make your own with salt dough! You can mold, paint, and draw on the dough. Plus, if you preserve your ornaments properly, they can last for years.
Now your ornaments will save you money year after year, and you can keep them in the family for generations, making a new special Christmas tradition.
Make Candy to Eat and Decorate With
Have you ever thought about decorating your Christmas tree with candy? The odds are probably not! Well, this peculiar idea serves many purposes. You won't need to buy fancy ornaments, the ingredients required for these are relatively affordable and accessible, and it's fun for kids to help out with! You just need a recipe for hard candy and get to candy-making! Then when they're done, you can put them all over your tree.
This is a fun way to get in the holiday mood and make your tree unique. You can also snack on the ornaments, making it much more worth it.
Use Regular Paper as Fun Gift Wrapping
Decorating for the holidays doesn't mean everything you buy and use has to be fancy and expensive. There are even ways you can get creative with wrapping gifts. Instead of purchasing a Christmas-themed gift wrap, you can opt for paper. With a little extra time and effort, the paper will be transformed into something magical. You can draw on it, add ribbon or even cut out shapes like a Christmas tree.
Even if you simply forgot to buy wrapping paper, the gifts you give will feel even more special because of the homemade element.
Use Wrapping Paper Leftovers to Make Decorations
If you decided to purchase gift wrap for your presents and have leftover paper, it may feel like a waste to throw it away. A great way to use up the paper is to use it to decorate! One fun example of this is to make these cool cone-shaped table adornments. You just need a quick trip to the crafts store and these table-toppers will be yours in no time.
All you have to do is buy a few foam cones and then roll them in the leftover gift wrap until they're fully covered.
Throw a Sustainable Christmas Party and Use Burlap Fabric
If being environmental-friendly is a high priority for you, then here is a great way to throw a holiday party and decorate your home while still being sustainable. You can make several bows using leftover fabric around your house, especially sustainable fabric like burlap. It's even a good idea to visit your local arts and crafts store, ask if they have extra fabric scraps they don't need, and use that.
This will definitely be a different decorative look than people are used too. Your holiday party will be one to remember, and who doesn't want to be unique?
Make Tabletop Trees With Beads
Tabletop trees are the answer to everything! Don't have a lot of space? Do you want to decorate your tables or shelves? Well, make these tabletop trees, and your decor dreams will come true. These decorations are supposed to resemble a tree, so you just need a cone-shaped object and some colorful beads! It's easy to find foam cones, bags of beads, and hot glue at any crafts store, and it should also be pretty cheap.
This simple activity requires gluing beads to the cones, and voila- you have beautiful homemade and unique decorations ready for the holiday season any year.
Spray Paint String Lights for Every Holiday
Christmas fairy lights are a must-have decoration that most people have but let's face it; they can be a bit boring. However, there's a fun way to change them a bit. So if you're ready to try something new and take on a DIY project, then this is the tip for you. Instead of buying new lights to match Christmas colors, you just need to buy some spray paint to make them any color you want.
This is a great idea to do year after year, so rather than buying new lights for each holiday, spray paint them a new color.
Glass Ornaments Will Make Your Christmas Tree Stand Out
Some of the most fun moments of the holiday season are decorating the Christmas tree with your family or friends. Many people like to go all out and make sure their tree is completely decked in ornaments. So how can you be creative with decorating your tree and save money by not purchasing pre-made fancy ornaments? This tip will make your tree look expensive and have your guests wondering how much you spent on it!
You can use glass from any crafts store to decorate your Christmas tree by taking small pieces and gluing a paper clip to them. Then they're ready to be hung and will make your tree glow.
Turn Tomato Cages Into Fancy Tree Decor
For some people, decorating for Christmas is the best part of their year. You'll love this hack if you're constantly looking for ways to outdo yourself and create the most amazing decked-out home. A dupe for buying fancy Christmas tree topiaries is to use a tomato cage flipped upside down! You need to secure a couple of rubber bands at the tips of the cages to create a tree point and then wrap them with string lights.
Make as many as you want, and suddenly your home is filled with classy and fun decor that you made yourself. It may seem complicated, but it's not; even your kids could help!
Removable Wallpaper Will Instantly Transform Any Room
Are you ever wondering how can I turn my home into a space that screams holidays? Maybe simple decorations aren't enough for you, and you want to go that extra step to show that you're dedicated to decorating. Removable wallpaper may be the answer for you. You can buy solid wallpaper in traditional Christmas colors like red and green or, if you're feeling more adventurous, themed wallpaper for Christmas, Chanukah, or Thanksgiving.
By adding wallpaper to your living room, you're instantly ready to host any holiday party that may come your way. People will be so impressed, and when the holidays are over, it comes right off.
Turn a Log Into a Cool Christmas Tree Base
Many people began opting for fake Christmas trees for reasons like preferring not to cut down a real tree or saving money each year by not having to repurchase one. In case you are one of those who has a fake tree, you might want to spruce it up with a cool tree stand. Instead of using a typical and boring tree skirt, you could use a log! How would you do this?
You just need a real natural log, then need to carve a hole in the middle of it, and it's ready to use as the base of your tree.
Fluff up Your Christmas Tree With Garlands
A great way to save money when it comes to Christmas time is to buy an artificial tree because you spend the money on it once and never have to purchase a tree again. But sometimes fake trees aren't as luscious as real ones or get a bit flat from sitting in storage all year. But there's an easy way to add volume to your tree by wrapping it in garlands.
Now all you have to do is take a few garlands and wrap them around your existing tree to fill the spaces that look flat. Now your tree will be fluffy and as beautiful as ever.
Skip the Tree and Opt for a Poster or Tapestry
Christmas trees might feel like the focal point of holiday decorating, but some people might prefer to skip out on a tree altogether. If that sounds like you, here's a great alternative: buy a tapestry or poster of a Christmas tree. You could put it in your living room and spruce it up by hanging string lights over it or even gluing ornaments to make it a bit more festive.
This is incredibly convenient for those who don't have a lot of space in their homes or a big budget. Plus, the setup and cleanup process is effortless.
Save Money and Space With a Mini Christmas Tree
If you don't have room for a giant Christmas tree or the money to buy one, it doesn't mean you have to miss out on all the tree-decorating fun. If you're thinking about how you could possibly fit a tree inside your home or if you should spend the extra cash on it, you can opt for a mini tree instead! They're incredibly cheap and require fewer ornaments as well.
These little trees can fit on any table in your kitchen, living room, or even in your bedroom on your nightstand. So don't be discouraged, a tabletop tree is the answer.
You Don't Need a Fancy Golden Star to Top Your Christmas Tree
Christmas is associated with a few traditions, like leaving cookies for Santa Claus, gingerbread houses, and Christmas trees with a golden star right on top. But you can get creative and decide to use something different as a tree topper. Some people are opting for fun words on top, and you can try it too. This easy do-it-yourself project requires bendable wire like a clothes hanger and pipe cleaners in the color of your choice.
Now you need to bend the wire into a spiral and wrap the wire in the colorful metallic pipe cleaners! Now add your beautiful craft to the top of your tree, and you're done.
An Easy Way to Clean the Wax off of a Chanukah Menorah
With all this talk about Christmas, a Chanukah tip is a must! If your menorah is looking a bit run down and covered in wax, there is a way to revive it, so it's ready to be put on display. It's pretty easy for the wax to build up, and most people opt for scraping it off, but that can scratch the metal and be time-consuming. Instead, you can bake your menorah.
Putting a menorah in the oven might sound crazy, but if you set the oven to a low temperature, the wax will melt right off, and the menorah will look brand new.
Make a Gingerbread House Out of Cardboard
Gingerbread is a holiday classic; everyone wants to eat gingerbread cookies and make gingerbread houses. Though sometimes, gingerbread house kits can be expensive and feel like such a waste of food. Is there an alternative? Yes, try making them with cardboard boxes! Rather than baking the gingerbread and buying edible candy, you can cut it out from cardboard and decorate it with beads from any craft store, some paint, and glue.
Now you'll be able to reuse the same gingerbread house every year as a holiday decoration and not have to worry about being wasteful or spending too much money.