Your friends and family are probably providing you with plenty of decorations and you don’t realize it — in the form of greeting cards. Hang onto those and stand them up at the entry table. A small wreath hung on a mirror above the table ties the welcoming holiday vibe together. You can also place a few pine cones here, or even tree ornaments standing alone.
If you have a long mantel that runs along a wall in a main social room, just lie long garlands flat across the top of it. You can hold it down with a row of pinecones and for the final touch, string twinkle lights here too. This is another place to display greeting cards.
If your home has a staircase, adding a garland to the banister adds a lot of warmth to the entrance and looks really elegant. It’s a very simple touch: just wrap it along the banister or use twine to loop it on at various points. You can hang ornaments from the garland, too.
This could be whatever you like from miniature wreaths to jingle bells, stockings to ribbons. Adding a little holiday décor to the back of every dining chair brings the holiday spirit to every meal during the holiday months. To take it up a notch, consider getting a red plaid tablecloth for casual meals.
Those luxurious candles you received as an anniversary gift might be too fancy for the rest of the year, but they’re perfectly festive for the entire month of December — break those out, along with a runner across the table. Then collect foliage around your neighborhood and place it on top of the runner.
Pick up some seasonal vegetables like gourdes and winter squash, and place these in baskets along with pinecones and other seasonal foliage. Fill tall vases with branches or dry flowers and place them on wooden boxes so they’re elevated for passers-by to see them.
You can extend the holiday spirit out to the street by dressing up your lamppost. Wrap a garland around it, along with some festive ribbon and dried berries. If there’s an outlet nearby, you can wrap twinkle lights around the post.
The mailbox is another great place to show holiday cheer out in front of your house. Twist garland around its post, or tie a big ribbon around the middle of the entire box.
No holiday decorating would be complete without a wreath on your front door — it tells Christmas carollers and kids selling holiday cookies that they’re welcome to ring the doorbell.
Winter produce is so colorful; think pomegranates, figs, persimmons, and pears. Keep bowls of these on your kitchen counter. Add loose, raw cranberries to the bowls as filler.
