Share & Win Holiday Decorations for the Home

I like to put lights up in our windows. This was great when the kids were little and they would help put them up. I really liked their reaction when we would pull in the driveway and they would marvel at what they had helped to create.

My favorite holiday tip is to avoid the candles....(they say they aren't good for you). In place of them I put a small pan on the stove with water add some vanilla or almond extract and cinnamon let it simmer. Makes the house smell delighful!

I remember as a kid sitting down with my brothers, sister, and mom and coloring Christmas pages. When we were done coloring them, my mom would then laminate them and we hung them on the kitchen cabinet doors and in the windows. Makes for cheap, fun decorations! And the memories stay with me to this day! My son (now 2 1/2) and I will be making some this year. Another fun decoration to make is Santa jars! Clean out baby food jars, take the labels off, cover the jar with glue and lay red tissue paper on it. Draw a face on one side with a permanant marker. Pull a cotton ball apart and glue a beard on!! And Voila!!! As a bonus, wrap red material along the edge of the lid and add a little pom pom ball on the end and you have Santa's hat! Put a votive candle in and watch him glow!!!

I am always browsing the Internet for ideas - this year Pinterest is the newest "fad" site for fun creative ideas. I make wreaths for the front door and family members. We put cinnamon and cloves on the stove to make the house smell yummy and the kids start drawing and decorating. I love framing their art work and displaying it over the holidays. Then we give it away as gifts - always a big hit and a fun way to get them involved in celebrating Christmas!

Pinecones are a wonderful addition to any table or counter top. They are the cheapest decoration because they are usually laying on the ground and can be picked up in handfuls. Add them to any centerpiece or just lay them out on the table. Spray them with some glittered hairspray if you really want to get festive.

My family and I enjoy the holidays greatly. One of our favorite things to do is make wreaths and flower garland out of paper. Yes, it's all made out of paper. It brings an entirely different feel. Love it!! We use the greens, reds, yellows. All the colors of the holiday season! Brings us closer together as a family and makes the holidays more enjoying sitting around and what we each created.

We have three daughters. Each year we have a handful of their friends come over on a weekend afternoon to decorate gingerbread houses. We have all sorts of decorative goodies for the girls to choose from like Necco wafers, M&M's, sprinkles, gingerbread people, etc. They have so much fun and each year, their creative approaches to this project simply grow. After the houses are decorated, we prepare some peppermint hot cocoa and all the girls sit around for a special holiday reading. The readings vary - but always have to do something with either a gingerbread person or the holidays. We feature the gingerbread houses as the centerpieces of our Christmas dinner. But best yet, this event brings EVERYBODY into the holiday spirit and holiday cheer abounds, which I believe is the best holiday decor around.

One way we transform our house to give it a holiday feel is by wrapping each of our hanging pictures with wrapping paper and bows. It makes it look like presents are all around, really getting us excited for the holidays!

The simplest thing I do to decorate for ANY holiday is to drape a string of colored lights around my kitchen window that is above my sink. I use red for V day, green for St. Paddy's day, purple and orange for Halloween, red and green for X-mas....you get the idea. People don't expect to see the lights and it is very festive (and cheap)!!

We place fiberoptic Christmas trees in the kids' rooms. For my table, I love to make fresh centerpieces using fruit, pine boughs, pinecones, and holly sprigs. Every year, I apply non-toxic paint to my children's hands and place them on a large ornament. Great at tracking growth every year, plus adds a personal/sentimental touch to the tree. I've also used this at family get-to-gethers - fun craft for all the kids, plus they get to take the ornaments home! My tree is decorated with pieces made by my children, along with other pieces that are special . My tree would never accused of being professionally done, however, It reflects the family sentiment that Christmas inspires in me.

Our holiday decorating begins with Halloween with table runners I made myself. One side is the Halloween themed with Pumpkins and ghosts and the other side has fall leaves for Thanksgiving. My 3 girls love decorating in each room for each holiday. Next is Thanksgiving, in which we use sprays around the windows and on the mantle of fall leaves. The most favorite holiday would be Christmas for my family. It is a family tradition to go and cut down a Christmas tree in which the girls get to decorate it with all their ornaments they have made and all the ones I made as a child. The we use a platform to put the Christmas tree on that has a train track that circles the tree and houses with stone roads. We have so much fun watching the train encircle the tree. Also every year my theme changes, from gold and burgundy, the next year silver and blue, then red and green. It adds change so the girls and I get excited as to how the house will be colored that year.

I use holiday cards I get in the mail for decorations. I hang them up along doorways to add holiday cheer.

I LOVE decorating for Christmas more than any other time of year! I change my tree colors/ ornaments anually. I shop clearance sales at WalMart, Macy's and Target and also collect ornaments throughout the year using an unconventional method at times to create one of a kind pieces! This year for example, I have decided upon a White and Gold Tree. I have collected ornaments from Goodwill, Ross and am making several including: gold sea shell ornaments by spray painting my finds at the beach from family vacation. This will make the tree more intimate. I will also place gold shells around the dinner table and maybe some even in the bathroom. You can also spray paint last years ornaments to match your current theme. This is easy and no one will know! Good luck and Happy Holidays!!

I saw this great idea on pinterest not long ago. Take a tall glass vase and place an empty paper towel roll inside the middle ot the vase to take up the extra space, now fill with anything festive. Glass Christmas balls work beautifully and you can match them to your decor. You can use flowers, bows, bells, apples or pomegranites, pine cones, all of these items a the perfectly simple centerpiece.

What we love is having a big turkey dinner with the kids and grandkids, then as you all know, the after turkey nap! When it starts becoming dark, it's time to get out the lights, replace the ones that aren't working and have finger foods and hot chocolate. We play Christmas music and make popcorn. Sometimes it will take quite a while, but when it's all done, it was well worth it! Lighted deer, santas, angels fill the front yoard, lights trim the porches and windows, candles are lit, and we are Blessed one more year.