By Nancy

Each year, right around Thanksgiving, I begin thinking about unpacking all the Christmas decorations. Boxes and bags filled with wreaths, Santas, nativity sets, candles, beads, ornaments and strings of lights. I also wonder what I can do differently with my Christmas décor. I’m very sentimental and feel the need to put everything I own (that screams Christmas) out.

Whether it was a Santa statue you painted when you were 10 or a red felt stocking with your name written in glitter, it’s hard to let sentimental items go. Here are a handful of nifty and cost-effective ways to change things up a bit at your home this Christmas while holding on to some of your old-school decorations of yesteryear.

mail 2 Christmas Decorating Finds Right In Your Own HomeThemed Rooms

I decided to theme the entire dining room with Santa this year for my son. Santa ornaments and glass baubles are tied to the chandelier with ribbons. The buffet holds pictures of our son with Santa, as well as pictures of me and my husband as children sitting with Santa. Any random Santa ornament we had now hangs on the china cabinet door knobs. Santa candles and knick-knacks have become the centerpiece on the table. Needless to say, this room was a big hit with our toddler.

The guest bathroom is nothing but snowmen – which can stay out long after the 25th of December passes.

I have a small collection of nativity sets and am considering displaying all of them throughout the living room on end tables and beneath the tree.

Ribbonmail 3 Christmas Decorating Finds Right In Your Own Home

I love ribbon. I buy large spools of decorative wire ribbon every year after Christmas. I also save all the ribbons from gifts throughout the year. My husband had an old gold metallic-painted pine cone wreath. It wasn’t the prettiest wreath in the house, but it’s special to him and I put it out every year. This year, however, I decided to give that old gold wreath a facelift. A simple new ribbon bow at the top replaced the old velvet one. It’s now hanging on our kitchen door. My husband even noticed.

Ribbon can tie a lot of un-related Christmas items together, too. So if you have trees or wreaths that you like, but they just don’t look good together, consider re-threading them with some new ribbon.

mail4 Christmas Decorating Finds Right In Your Own HomeChristmas Cards

It seems nowadays many people are sending photograph Christmas cards. I hate stashing them all in a basket or pocket hanger because you can’t see the photos. I took an old wreath and tied ribbon in knots all over it. I then added some mini wooden clothes pins to each ribbon to attach cards. This particular wreath is hanging on my china cabinet in the “Santa” dining room, so the ribbon on the wreath coordinates with the ribbon on the chandelier. When I run out of room on the wreath, I swag ribbon on either side to hang additional cards.

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Ornamentsmail 4 Christmas Decorating Finds Right In Your Own Home

My husband and I collect ornaments. Whenever we go on vacation, we always bring home an ornament for the tree to remember our trip. We have quite a collection of police-related ornaments since my husband is a police officer. Our son loves trains and fire trucks. Well, you get the picture. We were running out of room on our tree for all the ornaments, so I decided to make a police tree. My husband’s old bachelor tree is now the police tree which we keep up year round in our lower level family room. I make it a point to get him a police ornament each year to add to his tree. I’m sure pretty soon we may have a lighthouse tree, a train tree and a dog tree.

Do you have any Christmas decorating tips to share? We want to hear about them!

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