~Decorating~

~Holiday Decorating~

Every year I eagerly anticipate decorating our home for the holidays. We begin the end of November and don't stop until all the halls are decked! I hope you enjoy these ideas and that you find something new to take away and try at your house! Happy Holidays and Happy Decorating!

~A Potpourri of Decorating Ideas~

Choose 3 colours for each room, they may be the same colours throughout the house or 3 different colours for each room. Choose a variety of decorations in each colour.

Add cozy and inviting touches to your home. A fringed holiday blanket/quilt/throw look great over a chair, an open door, on the couch, or on display in a cabinet.

Use holiday blooms in your decorating. Poinsettias, holly and narcissus are all yuletide flowers that add a nice touch to any room. They also provide a nice scent.

A bunch of glass ornaments look great grouped together in a bowl or basket. I like to put them in a pedestal bowl and tie a ribbon around the stem, made from Christmas fabric or Christmas wired ribbon.

Pinecones also look nice in a bowl or basket, especially by the fireplace. You may even spray paint the pinecones, if you like to add a little colour.

If you have a basket with rag balls in it, replace them during the holidays with Christmas themed rag balls. If you would like to know how to make your own rag balls, please, visit our Country Crafts page.

Add a holiday touch to your dining room chairs by folding a rectangular piece of fabric over the back. Cinch the centre with cord and trim with a holiday flower. Poinsettias look great..

Great places to display a yuletide collection are a stairway landing, a different piece on each step between the spindles, a bathroom vanity, or a bedside table.

If you are in need of some garland or pine boughs, go to your local Christmas tree lot and ask to purchase some of their scraps. Some lots will even give them to you free of charge!

Tie a small bunch of evergreen branches together with a large red ribbon and hang it on your entry door. Attach a few pinecones or glass balls to your arrangement using florist wire.

~The Christmas Tree~

The Christmas tree is one of my favourite things that the holidays bring. One Christmas tree is just not enought for our house. We have several, some real, some artifical. both are great fun to decorate.

You may choose to decorate your tree(s) using a theme. Here are some theme ideas; Disney tree, Sports tree, a tree that has only homemade decorations on it, Teddy Bear tree, Gingerbread tree ( you could use Cinnamom-Applesauce ornaments to decorate this tree), Hearts and Bows tree, Cats/Dogs tree, Country Chritmas tree. The possibilites only end where your imagination does!

You can use fresh flowers to decorate your tree too. Insert cut flower stems into plastic water vials, that are available from craft and floral stores. Mix a solution of part water, part regular 7-Up in a pitcher, use this solution to fill your vials, insert the flowers in the vials and add to your tree. The water and 7-Up mixture will help to extend the life of your flowers.

In our kitchen, we do a small artifical tree in Hearts and Gingerbread, all of these ornaments are made from Cinnamon-Applesauce and the kitchen smells scrumptious throughout the holidays.I also add some red or burgundy bows to this tree to complete the look. Since this tree is fairly small, I use smaller cookie cutters when making these ornaments, just so they don't overwhelm the tree. I also use red or burgundy ribbon to hang the ornaments on the tree to compliment the red/burgundy bows.

If you are using small artifical trees, you might like to try decorating a container to hold them. You may use a small galvanized or aluminum bucket. Insert the tree, fill the bucket with sand or another type of weight and decorate the bucket. You could simply tie a large bow around the bucket, sponge paint the bucket in Christmas colours, stencil a Christmas design on the bucket, cut Christmas items from Christmas themed fabric and glue to the bucket, wrap the bucket in burlap and tie a bow around it, wrap the bucket in Christmas themed fabric and secure with a bow

~Garland~

Garland is a great decorating medium and is available in so many different forms. You may purchase live evergreen garland or artifical garland, both come in many varieties such as pine or Blue Spruce.

Wrap garland around your staircase/porch railing. The little white lights look great wrapped around the garland too!

Drap garland around a doorway. Again the white lights are a nice added touch.

Attach garland to your mantel and add lights, ornaments, figurines, etc to complete the look. Don't forget to hang the stockings too!

Wrap your garland with ribbon to add a little extra umph to it! You may also spray it with glitter.

Use florist wire to attach various ornaments to your garland. We use Cinnamon-Applesauce ornaments on the garland that goes around our kitchen doorway.The thin strings of beads that you may purchase in craft stores, look great wrapped around garland as well. and, again, they look even nicer with a few white lights. What can I tell you? I am white light crazy! *S*

~Candles~

I adore candles all year long but especially at Christmas! My favourite scents to burn at this time of year are; Cinnamon, Gingerbread, Vanilla and Cranberry Garland. Party Lite Candles, make 2 great scents called "Holiday Spices" and "Spiced Cookies". Country Home Candles, also have 2 great scents called; "Christmas Morning" and "Home For The Holidays".

Group a variety of sizes of pillar candles together to form a centrepiece. Put a wreath around them for some greenery. You may set the pillars on a mirror, if you like.

Candles look great on the mantel spread out amongst your garland.

Visit our luminary page to learn how to make your own versions of these great candle holders.

~The Mantel~

The mantel is a great place to decorate, not only at Christmas time but as each season changes.

Make a pretty swag for your mantel by tying ribbons 20 inches from each end of a twin sized sheet. Tack to mantel.

Use a multi level display on your mantel. Hang a wreath over your mantel or attach a small wreath to a painting or other tall object above the mantel.Display a collection on your mantel, such as Santas and Snowmen. Remember, to place taller items close to the wall and shorter items at the front.

Purchase 4-5 inexpensive wreaths (Size of wreath and number depend on your mantel) decorate the wreaths to your liking (or purchase already decorated wreaths). Hang the wreaths from the edge of the mantel. Loop sparley ribbon through the bottom of the wreaths to complete the look.

Special thanks to,

	Grace, Countryside Haven
	Olli, Country Patch Collections