Cheaper, Better, Faster (16 page)

Christmas—decorating, golden accents

Gold, one of the gifts the wise men carried to Bethlehem, is a symbol of generosity. For a truly glittering Christmas, recycle miniature pumpkins and squash from Halloween and Thanksgiving by spraying them with gold paint. Place them throughout the house or use them in centerpieces, garlands, and topiaries. Gild walnuts, pinecones, bay leaves, dried flowers, apples, pomegranates, pineapples, lemons, and grapes. Wear gloves, a dust mask, and glasses or goggles when spraying.

Christmas
—decorating, greenery kept fresh

Evergreen garlands and wreaths generally last about
3 weeks. To keep them fresh, mist with water regularly.

Christmas—decorating, guest bath

Decorate the guest bath by wrapping a tissue box like a gift.

Christmas—decorating, guests
welcome

Keep one room sparkling clean just for visitors, and don't let anyone in it before you have guests.

Christmas—decorating, luminaries in bags

Line your walkways, drive, or other areas on your property with luminaries made from small paper bags filled with 2 inches of sand and a votive candle in the center.

Christmas—decorating, luminaries in punched
tin

Make punched-tin luminaries that can be kept from year to year. Rinse out an opened tin can and pinch all rough edges flat and smooth. Fill the can with water and freeze. When the ice is solid, remove the can from the freezer. Using a permanent marker, draw designs around the sides of the can, making sure the design does not come within 1-inch of the bottom. Place the can on its side on a towel so it won't slip. With a nail and hammer, punch holes along the design lines you've drawn. Leave about
½
inch or so between each punch. Then allow the ice to melt and drain. Place a votive candle in each can and line your sidewalk. Light your luminaries every night during the holidays.

Christmas—decorating, mantel

To make a gorgeous, yet inexpensive, holiday display for your fireplace mantel, lay sprays of evergreens across the top, thread a string of white lights on green wire through them, and nestle some of your collectibles, ornaments, or pinecones amid the greens.

Christmas
—decorating, miniature live tree

Decorate a tiny live tree with fruit ornaments and ribbon, and set it on the kitchen table or countertop.

Christmas—decorating, mirrors for an extra glow

Hang extra mirrors around the house during the holidays to add to the glow and multiply the special effects of your decorations.

Christmas—decorating, mirrors with tinsel garland

Wrap a tinsel garland around the bedroom or bathroom mirror.

Christmas—decorating
, mistletoe

Hang mistletoe in every single door of your house.

Christmas—decorating, outdoor broom people

If you're fresh out of oversize Santas for the yard and have no snow for snowmen, make a family of “broom people” to warm the hearts of passersby. Stick the broom handles into the lawn. Cut white circles for eyes from felt or white cardboard, and draw black dots in the center for the pupils. Glue these “eyes” to the bristle part of the brooms. Top with real hats and earmuffs; tie scarves around the handles. Let your imagination go wild, not your pocketbook.

Christmas—decorating, outdoor light ties

Tie outdoor lights to trees and posts with strips cut from the legs of old pantyhose.

Christmas—decorating, photo display

Display some great family Christmas pictures from years past in a special photo album or in a location where your family and guests can enjoy them.

Christmas—decorating, pinecones

Fill a basket with large pinecones interspersed with
clusters of delicate baby's breath, then thread tiny white lights throughout, hiding the wires under the pinecones.

Christmas—decorating, place mats

Make special holiday place mats with your kids. All you need is a box of crayons and light-colored vinyl place mats. Help the kids draw holiday designs and write their names on the place mats. After the holidays, simply wipe the mats clean with a good all-purpose liquid cleaner. Some traces of color may remain, so make sure you don't use your very best place mats.

Christmas—decorating, plants with twinkle lights

Put white twinkle lights on your large houseplants.

Christmas—decorating, refurbish
what you have

Instead of buying new decorations, have your kids help refurbish old ones. Give life to a wreath by adding fresh ribbon. Glue glitter on faded ornaments. Or go back to old standards like popcorn-and-cranberry garlands and construction-paper chains.

Christmas—decorating, serving tray decoupage

Decoupage a serving tray with last year's Christmas cards (they're probably sitting somewhere in a drawer), and set it on your coffee table.

Christmas—decorating, snowflake made from a
berry basket

Cut the bottom out of a plastic berry basket, trim into the shape of a snowflake, coat with glue, and dip into glitter.

Christmas—decorating, soaps

Make holiday soaps with appropriately shaped candy molds. Melt a bar of soap in the top of a double boiler (20 to 30 minutes at medium heat) until it's soft enough to pack into the molds. Spoon soap into molds, freeze for 20 minutes, and pop out.

Christmas—decorating, Spanish moss

Cover the mantel or a wide windowsill with a bed of Spanish moss. Tuck in ivy, holly, pinecones, and a few gilded nuts and fruit.

Christmas—decorating, tablecloth

Sew small brass jingle bells along the hem of a tablecloth.

Christmas
—decorating, table napkins

Dress up your napkins by tying each with a ribbon and a small bell.

Christmas—decorating, window
art

Let your kids turn one of your windows into a holiday canvas. Mix powdered tempera paints (available at an art supply store or crafts store) with clear dish-washing liquid until they acquire the creamy consistency of house paint. If you have premixed tempera paints, stir in a bit of the dish soap. Use individual plastic containers (margarine tubs are perfect) to mix and separate the colors. Cover the window sash with masking tape and spread newspaper on the surrounding floor. Then let the window artists take it away. If you are using a large picture window, help the kids design a mural. Dad and Mom can get into the act by painting the hard-to-reach sky. Windows with individual panes offer a great opportunity for a Christmas montage of a snowflake, a bell, candy cane, Christmas tree—one design per pane. When it's dry, the paint will come off easily—just wipe with a dry paper towel.

Christmas—decorating, window frames

Surround window frames with greens and strings of outdoor lights.

Christmas—decorating, wreath from backyard
greenery

Make a wreath from greenery you find in your own backyard and let the children decorate it.

Christmas—decorating
, wreath with gumdrops

Make a gumdrop wreath. Either buy a Styrofoam wreath or cut one out of a piece of Styrofoam. Use toothpicks or stiff wire to attach red, white, and green gumdrops to the wreath, or use multicolor ones to resemble Christmas tree lights. Top off the wreath with a big bow.

Christmas—decorating, wreath with popcorn and cranberries

Bend medium-gauge wire into the shape of a heart or wreath, then thread with popcorn or cranberries. Top with a bow.

Christmas—digital year in review

A digital record makes a very special holiday greeting or gift. Put together a movie with highlights of the past year. You might include birthday celebrations, summer vacation footage, sporting events, a school play, and other special moments from throughout the year. A festive way to end the video might be to gather the family and sing, “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.” A movie like this will bring joy to faraway family members long after Christmas has come and gone.

Christmas—dinner
by candlelight

Buy a big candle for the dinner table. Light it every night at dinner during the holidays.

Christmas
—dinner by tree light

One night a week during your family's holiday season, eat dinner by the light of the Christmas tree.

Christmas—do for others

Actions speak louder than words, so go caroling at a retirement home as a family; make sandwiches for the homeless; or take toys, clothes, and canned goods to a charity. Or take a nondriver to the grocery store, the mall, a holiday service, or local Christmas program. Involve
the kids in the entire process so they understand, and doing good deeds becomes second nature.

Christmas—emergency cleanup

Try this “5-Minute Emergency Cleanup for Unexpected Guests.” Put all the clutter from the floor and tabletops into a large box or basket. Hide the basket or box. As you circle the room collecting clutter, use a rag to wipe up any crumbs or obvious dust. Pick up newspapers and magazines and neatly stack them on the coffee table. Spray some pine- or cinnamon-scented room freshener. Pick up any towels on the bathroom floor. Hang some, throw the rest in the tub, and close the shower curtain. Wipe the sink. Pull out a special basket (prepared ahead of time and stashed under the sink) with a couple of pretty holiday towels and guest soaps tucked in it, and place the basket on the vanity. Turn off a few lights (to hide the dust) and sit in the glow of the Christmas tree.

Christmas—empty
nester blues

Feeling a little blue because your nest is empty this year? Invite a family with young children to a tree-trimming party.

Christmas—gather one day later

If you find it nearly impossible to gather together all of your married children and their families on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, consider a new tradition of spending the day after Christmas together. This will give you an additional day to prepare, and because this day is typically free of other intrusions, you'll be able to spend a more relaxed time together.

Christmas—gently used toys for children with
none

Every Christmas Eve, have your children leave some of their old toys near the fireplace for Santa to take to children who don't have any toys. Once the kids are asleep, hide the toys and then deliver them to a worthy charity later.

Christmas—goodies for local heroes

Take a basket of holiday goodies to your local fire or police station.

Christmas—jingling shoes

Tie jingle bells to everyone's sneakers.

Christmas—learn it in many languages

Teach the family to say “Merry Christmas” in another language each year.

Christmas—miniature trees

Make miniature Christmas trees for a great holiday family activity. Glue the wide ends of sugar ice cream cones to a large sheet of cardboard. Spread green icing over the cones, and then decorate them with assorted candies such as M&Ms, gumdrops, and Life Savers. Let the kids come up with new decorating ideas for the “family forest.”

Christmas—movie night with friends

Invite friends over to watch classic Christmas movies like
Frosty
the
Snowman
,
A
Charlie
Brown
Christmas
,
How
the
Grinch
Stole
Christmas
,
Rudolph
the
Red
-
Nosed
Reindeer
,
It
'
s
a
Wonderful
Life
,
Miracle
on
34th
Street
, and others. Refreshments can be as simple as eggnog and Christmas cookies.

Christmas—neighborhood story

Instead of sending holiday cards to your neighbors, start a new tradition: Organize the Bentley Street Christmas Book (use the name of your street or neighborhood). Begin a story (fictional) in a notebook, attach a routing slip with the name of each family on your street, and then send it around the neighborhood with directions for every family to add a sentence or paragraph. When the story comes back to your family, add an appropriate ending. Edit as necessary, print out the story on your computer, and assemble it into
a simple book, one for each family who contributed. Have a neighborhood get-together and read the crazy tale. This will bond your neighbors and promote goodwill all through the year.

Christmas
—photo testing

Taking family photos? Do some trial runs first with an instant or digital camera. Wear different clothes and makeup colors to see which you like best.

Christmas—photo
tradition

Every year, take a holiday photo of the family in the same pose in the same spot.

Christmas—reading
at bedtime

Instead of reading the usual bedtime stories, during the month of December read to your children about Christmas customs in other countries, and include other wonderful holiday stories available at your local library.

Christmas—reading Christmas cards

Reserve opening the day's Christmas cards until dinnertime. Read the messages aloud and remind the kids how the family knows these people.

Christmas—reading party