Decorating Your House for Free

I love to make the house look special all though the year for the different seasons and holidays, but I am a complete Christmas romantic, so it's really important to me at Christmas.  However, home decorating items just don't find much of a place in our budget right now.

So last year I challenged myself to come up with some decorations using items I already had around the house.  (You can see the mantal display above and below.)  It was surprising how much I could find around the house - versatile glass vases and bowls, red silk napkins, candles, and even ribbon and bows that I had saved from packages.  I used free branches from a Christmas tree seller as the background. (We didn't even buy our tree from that nursery; we just drove up and asked for the extra branches.)

The display was certainly not Martha Stewart, but it looked festive.  And the only money I spent was a few dollars at the dollar store.  This year, I got a little more ambitious.  I don't consider myself to be that artistic in the decorating department, but I know what I like when I see it.  I was inspired by a spread in All You magazine and this and this to try a pink/Land of Sweets theme!

I figured that with two little girls I have plenty of pink items lying around, and that with all the deals right before Christmas it would be pretty frugal to use candy to decorate.  Sure enough, I got a great deal on a ton of candy at Rite Aid last week, and I actually paid for it with a Rite Aid gift card I had earned back in the summer for a diaper deal.  So that didn't cost me a dime.

Here's what I've put together:

Thanks to Crystal for this idea!

I did buy the styrofoam base and the marshmallows for the wreath, but it cost under $10 total.

We're attending a performance of the Nutcracker on Sunday, and now we're in the mood!

See more Frugal Fridays here.