I love decorating for holidays, Christmas being one of the most fun. The first thing that I look for in my Christmas decoration shopping are strings of vibrantly colorful lights.

White can be beautiful, but I prefer more whimsical light displays, utilizing colors one doesn’t see very often when looking at house Christmas lights, such as pink , orange or even these wonderful rainbow ones I found one year- not merely multicolored, they range the full spectrum and have at least 15 shades.

With such bright lights, I prefer to keep other outdoor decorations a bit more understated. I like a big wreath on the door and something in the window like electric candles.

Indoors, I like to keep one big artificial tree. Wound with more of those cute rainbow lights and a string of white ones for extra sparkle, I keep the ornaments to a minimum.

I have a big white star the goes atop my tree. Each point is a different primary color. Combined with the lights it looks very colorful and pretty.

My tablecloth usually reflects the current holiday and around Christmas time I use a lovely plaid cloth- green and red with metallic gold stripes in it. I get lots of compliments on this each year – I actually picked it up at a garage sale!

I prefer store brand lights and trees. My big tree came from Target and has held up very well over the years. I actually purchase Target brand items for most of my Christmas decoration needs.

Their prices and quality are very competitive and I have never once been disappointed by them. The few ornaments I do use are handcrafted- pine cones and glitter, or construction paper figures. I use dollar store craft items to accomplish this.

I don’t have to have big fancy brand items to have a lovely and fun Christmas – thrifty decorating helps me give my friends and family the extravagant gifts that I love to give. The best decoration of all is a big smile on a happy face!

Christmas in my family has always been a very special holiday. We usually start decorating and preparing for the holiday right after Thanksgiving day! Usually, the day after Thanksgiving, my family starts decorating the exterior of our home. Read More »

From the time I was a kid I’ve always preferred a more “childish” Christmas tree and sparse decorations. My mom was more of a formal tree and lots of decorations type of person. So at our house we had two trees, and my brother and I insisted that we put the presents under the “real” tree, and not the silly-looking pink Victorian thing she came up with!

Now that I have my own place and can do what I like, I opt for a tree with multi-colored lights and nostalgic and homemade ornaments. My husband and I bought a pre-lit artificial tree a few years back, as we often make the six hour drive to visit my parents for the holiday and cannot justify having a real tree.
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