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How to Give Your Christmas Home Decorating a Festive Look on a Budget

Are you ready to decorate your home for Christmas but can’t figure out where to start? Many people feel paralyzed by diving into Christmas’s decorating. With these tips, you can simplify the process and produce a spectacular, festive home. While some people decorate  for the holiday season the minute the Halloween decorations come down, other people choose to wait until the week or two before Christmas when they can put up a live  Christmas tree. Decorating doesn’t have to be expensive either. There are many ways you can give your Christmas home decorating a festive look even on a budget.

Christmas living room with unconventional decorating. Black wall with wood fireplace. Tree with golden ornaments, and vintage MCM art with bottlebrush trees and brass deer and eucalytpus in a vase on a coffee table

Add mini-trees around the house

One way to add some holiday cheer to your home is to add tabletop trees around your home. Mini-grocery store trees in milk glass are a fun way to add a bit of greenery.

mini trees in a crate for easy holiday decor
If you happen to have an evergreen tree to two in your yard, you can also clip branches and add to wet floral foam in a tea cup or another container to make a tiny tree. If you have a collection of them you can also add bottle brush trees around the house as well.

How to make a cute tea cup topiary

Repurpose Christmas Ornaments

Using what you already have like old Christmas ornaments is a great way to add color to your holiday decorating. A bowl of ornaments on a coffee table. Layering the bowl in holiday greens not only cushions the ornaments in the bowl, but adds a nice contrast.

Vintage ornaments in mercury glass bowl
You can also add a container of ornaments in a closed jar in the kitchen as well in a pretty glass cookie jar.

ornaments in cookie jar

Swap out pillows or add pillow covers

Add some Christmas cheer to your living room with new throw pillows.  Pillow covers can cost less than $10 and easily go over pillows you already own.

Christmas decor deer pillow by Jennifer Rizzo

An old stocking can also be turned into a cheerful Christmas pillow and serve as holiday decor or preserve an heirloom. If you are handy at sewing, turn an old sweater into a pillow by using the center square section.

 

DIY Christmas Stocking Pillow

Add Handmade Wreaths and Yarn Decor

Speaking of sweaters, using an old sweater to create a wreath can add interest and texture to your holiday decor. These are sweet to hang on a mirror or on the front door.

Use an upcycled sweater to make a wreath with a green embellishment

Extra yarn can make pom pom wreaths that are cute hanging from the back of chairs.

DIY pom pom wreath

Extra yarn and cereal boxes can make  and easy DIY with fun yarn trees that you can make with a custom color palette and can be used year after year.

Yarn wrapped Cardboard cone trees as holiday decor

Old sweaters can also be used to cover vases with handmade tags and  embellishments to hold fresh greenery.

easy sweater vase with handmade tags and holly springs

Use wrapping paper is more for than just gifts. Use double stick tape and wrapping paper to temporarily add some fun color and  to ta small part of the walls.

Using wrapping paper as wallpaper Jennifer Rizzo
Wrap empty boxes with left over wrapping paper and use it to create little decor areas of holiday cheer for an accent.

Mantel display with ceramic deer head and wrapped presents

Dress up your Fireplace Mantel

Paint over an old canvas with black and white paint to create a back drop for Christmas decor you already own. Keep the shapes simple like start and trees . Black and white goes with almost any color schemes from bright and merry to neutral colors.

Woodland snowy scene with hand painted picture Jennifer Rizzo

Add a bowl of mercury glass or shiny  ornaments to your Christmas mantel for some holiday sparkle. To add a festive touch, upcycle your ornaments with glitter.

Rustic wood bowl full of mercury glass ornaments

Add Swags and Evergreen Around the Home

If you have a yard or a few pine trees or live around some nature, you can shop your own backyard (and front yard!) to gather foliage (collect responsibly and know what you are collecting!) add garlands,  wreaths, berries, pine cones and swags of greenery to your home. Spruce, white pine, boxwood and tiny crab apple branches are some items you can forage for. If you want to create a winter cutting garden, see this post. A few bunches of eucalyptus also add a nice scent and pretty bit of greenery.

Real greenery tucked into faux greenery

Mantelscape idea with ornaments and eucalyptus

A  swag can be hung on a mantel, a banister, staircase, a front porch railing or even a fence. Fresh clippings can be clustered on a faux mantel and can last a week or two in the holiday season. Discard when dried out. Use battery operated candles when using faux or real greenery on your mantel.

Cedar on mantel with stockings and candle sticks

Add Baskets to Your Holiday Decor

Baskets can be a great addition filled with pine cones, ornaments or around the bottom of a tree instead of a tree skirt.

 basket around a tree base

Upcycle Old Holiday Ceramics

Old ceramic Santa’s, houses and trees can be found at the thrift store for a few dollars. Paint them with white paint and sprinkle with glitter for a frosty, sugar snow look.

Thrift store santa painted white and glittered with white bottlebrush trees and brass reindeer

Or create a colorful rainbow village.

Glittery sparkely painted Christmas ceramic thrift store upcycle with rainbow colors

Or use baking soda paint to create a faux terra cotta look on ceramic trees.

painted upcycled ceramic Christmas trees

Decorate with Some of Your Favorite Christmas Decor

Really deck your Christmas season by decorating with what your truly love. Whether it’s the kids handmade Christmas ornaments, or vintage Santa mugs, let those collections take stage front and center.

Stacked Santa mug collection

Create vignettes with layers of loved items. The charm of using things you love and have collected really create a finishing touch and can delight your holiday guests as you tell the story behind them.

Vintage Christmas decor display

Use Recycled Items like Paper and cardboard to Make Handmade Christmas Decor

Paper bag stars and snowflakes are a throw back from earlier times,are easy to make, have big impact and are inexpensive to make.

Different size paper bag snowflakes made from brown kraft bags on a wall

Cardboard from all of those boxes that items are getting delivered to at your home or your neighbors is can be made into stars and repurposed as  gift tags or ornaments.

really clever hadn-drawn recycled card board stars made from ordinary boxes!

Or you can even collect empty paper towel rolls or tp rolls and make a pretty paper-quilled inspired garland to create a focal point.

Paper quill inspired garland made with toilet paper rolls

I hope some of these Christmas decoration ideas have given you inspiration  to a festive touch to your holiday decorating even if you’re on a budget. A little bit of greenery and sparkle can go along way!

Jen signature

2 Comments

  1. Great ideas here!
    There are a few that will work this year year.
    The holiday pillows brighten up the room like no other. There’s just something about holiday pillows that makes smiles sparkle.
    Happy Holidays!

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