If you’re lucky enough to live where Mother Nature paints the world with incredible warm, rich colors, then you’ve got a bounty of decorative material right outside your door. The trick is learning how to put them together in creative ways that warm up your home and speak to the holiday season.
Holiday Centerpieces by Nature
Centerpieces are a creative and versatile way to celebrate the holidays and all that nature has to offer while also expressing yourself creatively. Don’t limit yourself by trying to come up with one centerpiece for the entire holiday season; instead think of it as a living and changing part of your home décor.
Use fresh fruits, vegetables, leaves, Indian corn, pumpkins and other seasonal goodies to continually change your centerpiece. A large vase filled with green granny smith apples interspersed with acorns or walnuts in the shell with just the right leaves or other garnish at the base makes an attractive centerpiece but in a week or two you can take those apples and create an apple pie or other treat and repurpose your centerpiece. Keep things fresh and new.
Garlands and Wreaths for the Holidays
Wreaths are pretty easy to make and are a great activity for children. Garlands are similar, but a little more difficult to put together and require a little more dexterity, so they may require more adult supervision.
Take a walk and gather leaves and nuts and other little goodies for your wreath. If you’ve got children along, turn it into a learning game and have them figure out which tree each leaf comes from. Use these goodies or combine them with some great holiday finds from a local farm or farmer’s market to create your holiday wreath or garland. A few florist’s pins, some floral tape, a hot glue gun, some ribbon and a wreath frame and you’ve got a one day activity that can last years.
Decorating with Pumpkins
Pumpkins, squash, and gourds are usually quite plentiful this time of year and they deserve a place beyond Halloween. Carved pumpkins are great for ghoulish decorations, but for holiday decorations that last until Thanksgiving, consider purchasing whole pumpkins closer to Halloween and leaving them uncarved. There are many different ways you can put them together and create decorative touches that will last for many weeks. Add these vegetable delights together with some mums, pinecones, leaves and ears of corn and you’ve got holiday decorations that say much more than Halloween.
Creative holiday decorating at home is easy if you begin to look at the world around you through creative eyes. See ordinary things in unusual ways and come up with your own ways of putting them together to create fun and easy holiday decorations.
