Share & Win Holiday Decorations for the Home

One year for place setting cards I looked up "Merry Christmas" in different languages and everyone read theirs before we ate. It was fun.

Adding seasonal scents makes it work for me, a real wreath on the door and electric candles in the window.

My biggest tip is to just buy the pie shells and make your own filling. I am capable of making delicious pie shells but the time it consumes zaps all my joy from my pies. Enjoy!

Four years ago, when my children's father left us we started our own Christmas traditions. Every year my boys and I buy a special ornament to put on our tree. We pick it out together, and everyone must agree or we pick another. It is very special to us and we enjoy looking at it on our tree the whole season. Each boy also has a tree in their room which they get to decorate any way they like. Happy Holidays everyone!

My favorite holiday annual tradition from childhood is that we buy a new ornament every year! At this point, we'd need a tree as big as the one in Rockefeller Center to showcase all of the ornaments, or maybe multiple big trees in every room! A tree in the bathroom.....Hmmmmm.....LOL ;)

My favorite holiday scent is Cranberry Balsam. Pier 1 used to carry it years ago, but I don't know if they still do. I found a fragrance oil that smells very much like I remember it, though, and I make my own candles.

I fill our home with hand-crafted art from our little kiddos. There is nothing like looking around and seeing their creativity! I also love to use white lights and simple garland. Less is more in our eyes!

My holiday season secret (that I just discovered last year!) is using non-traditional holiday colors throughout the house. Every room has a different bold color scheme from lime green to robin's egg blue and fushia. After Christmas I look for the big sales in stores and buy decorations and ornaments that fit my color schemes. I also buy trees of different sizes when they are really discounted. The result is a small 3ft pink tree with silver and fushia ornaments in my 6 year olds bedroom. We picked out a pretty pink plaid table cloth for the tree skirt and a silver star. She loves the bright colors and it is the hightlight of her holiday decorating it together. I find that family and friends really like the non-traditional look. It makes the holiday even more fun and festive!

I used the open-stock decorative paper (for scrapbooking or other) at Michaels and I found coordinating holiday prints to put in a frame-array on my wall. (For example, I have one with snowmen, one with candy canes, one with snowflakes, etc... for the Christmas season.) I change out the paper for each season or holiday so it is always updated...

I don't try to decorate every room, but I put a touch in each room. Each child gets their own tabletop tree and I have one focal decoration, my christmas village. I put my time in on that because that is what my family enjoys. I find them staring at it at times and know that it is special to them also.

For Thanksgiving, I love lots of leaves and fruit. The autumn colors are so soothing. My daughter now helps me pull out the decorations. We start with pumpkins and squash on the porch along with a welcoming wreath. This is the time of year to bring the indoors in! As soon as Thanksgiving is over, we put these things up, and pull out the Christmas decorations. We have antique Santas everywhere. We have a Christmas village. We try to decorate everything.

I love to decorate for Christmas....but first, Thanksgiving! We put mini pumpkins everywhere and use Thanksgiving tea towels, napkins and other decorations. Those mini-pumpkins make great candleholders; you just hollow out a bit around the stem, then place your candlesticks into the hole. I also love to make mini-cornucopias from waffle cones. Simply heat water to boiling in your teakettle and then open the spout and place the waffle cone in, pointed side down of course! Leave it in for 30 seconds to a minute and it will soften up. Take the waffle cone out and bend the pointed tip up, then set to dry on waxed paper. You can fill your cornucopia with treats, salad or whatever you like. They look SO pretty!

My husband and I buy brass ornaments when we travel so every year decorating the tree is a stroll down memory lane.

One of my favorite things to do is to simmer my own potpourri on the stove cloves, cinnamon sticks, apples or oranges, and the house smells amazing. Yankee Candles have awesome Christmas scents too. We love to wake up in the morning, make coffee and hot chocolate have muffins or easy finger food, put Christmas music on and decorate the tree together as a family.

I ususally just watch tv shows and try to imitate what I like as long as its kid friendly. Smell is really important I love the holiday smells. I bake a ton during the holidays so that smell is integral in my house