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Christmas Decorating Ideas for The Budget-Minded

By Terri Rimmer

When decorating for the holidays it’s easy to get caught up in thinking that you have to have the next big thing.

But, with a little planning and creativity, you can make your home look as beautiful as a picture in a magazine, and maybe even more so.

Here’s some tips for making your house gorgeous for little or no money:

1. Use cotton balls on the tree branch tips.
2. Use costume jewelry necklaces you might own for garland
3. Scour yard sales and curbs for after yard sale throwaways for Christmas items. I have found boxes and boxes of stuff through the years that people get rid of.
4. If you can’t afford a tree and you have a Fica Tree, decorate it as you would a tree but lay off the heavy bulbs.
5. Use Christmas dish towels to put on the back of your toilet to cover the toilet tank.
6. Use Chinese restaurant miniature parasols you might get when going out to eat to snuggle in the branches of the tree.
7. Hang your Christmas cards received on a clothesline going across the room in an entryway.
8. Use ribbon to decorate mailbox.
9. Drape a red ribbon around trees in your front yard.
10. Spray paint old tins in red, blue, or green.
11. Use beads to decorate presents.
12. Print Christmas sayings or inspirational holiday stories off the internet and hang them around the house.
13. Hang up your old holiday photos around the house.
14. Put your Christmas cards received in your tree
15. Hang Christmas articles from the newspaper around your house
16. Use a red, green, white, or blue blanket around the bottom of your tree for a tree skirt. A sheet in these colors works fine, too.
17. If you have a baby tree in your front yard, decorate it with lights.
18. Save your company Christmas party plastic decorative serving dishes if they’re going to throw them out. Use them in your home.
19. Hang your greeting cards received around the outside of your breakfast bar to make a decorative awning.
20. Scour florists stores for any Christmas items they might be throwing out from the year before
21. Hang lyric sheets for Christmas music around the house.
22. Have a friend take pictures of you in your pets in holiday colors rather than pay a pet photographer
23. Use any items around the house that have holiday colors in them to accessorize your house
24. Use old holiday bandannas that your dog might have worn in the past from the groomer to decorate doorknobs
25. Put an unusual Christmas greeting on your voice mail or answering machine that isn’t traditional holiday music
26. Give the gift of time – offer to decorate someone’s home for them
27. Surprise a friend by putting her tree up for her
28. Make homemade coupons specific to Christmas and New Year’s for friends and family to cash in during the holidays.

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