The holiday season is nearly upon us. Whether you celebrate Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa, Omisoka, or a blend of holidays, we know that you want your home to look festive and welcoming.

Here are a few tips on how to decorate your home for the holidays, without breaking the bank:

Make Your Own Urn

Having a beautifully-decorated urn by your front door is a wonderful enhancement that you can enjoy during the holidays and throughout the winter. (If you don’t have an urn, an oversized pot will do just as well.)

Instead of heading to a flower shop or grocery store to buy a pre-made arrangement, create your own arrangement.

Try this:

• Head to a dollar store to purchase a variety of seasonal sprigs, wooden twigs, and colourful ornaments or decorative animals (e.g. a red cardinal).
• Head to your local grocery store to purchase evergreen bunches — or if you know someone that has cedars or spruces on their property, ask if you can take a few clippings.
• Reuse the soil from a finished summer plant in the urn as a base for your greenery and assorted decor items.
• Stick your evergreens and decorative items in your soil, and voila!

Create Your Own Garland

Whether you like to decorate the archways of your home, the banister of your stairwell, or your tree, you can make an attractive garland yourself!

Instead of buying a generic, store-bought garland, you can make your own unique garland for a fraction of the price.

Try this:

• Purchase some burlap or wide ribbons from a dollar store or fabric store.
• Cut even-sized lengths of the fabric.
• Curve the burlap or ribbons into circles and staple.
• Link your circles together to form a chain, and voila!

Sustainable Decor

Adding holiday decor to areas in your home (like mantles, tables, and countertops) will help to bring out the holiday spirit.

Instead of buying overpriced decorative items and gift wrap from a store, try this environmentally-friendly and on-trend trick.

Try this:

• Find a variety of differently sized and shaped objects, or containers from around your home. These could be empty shoe boxes, tissue boxes, books, balls, and more.
• Wrap these items using newspapers and colourful flyers — or if you have leftover wallpaper from a project, wrap your objects with that instead!
• To add a rustic/warm look to your decor, finish your wrapped objects by tying hemp string around them and adding pieces of evergreen.

At Royal City Realty, we understand the importance of making your home warm and inviting for the holidays, without overspending in the process — we’re homeowners too!