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Christmas Decorating Hacks

By December 13, 2019February 17th, 2020Decor, Outdoors
Christmas decorating hacks

Want some dynamite Christmas decorating hacks to make your holiday life a little less hectic? Look no further!

Welcome back everyone! Another week is over, and you know what that means – we’re one week closer to Christmas! It’s hard to believe that it’s less than two weeks away now, but here we are! Now, the more enthusiastic among you may already be fully decorated for the holiday, but we all know that isn’t the case with the average Joe – maybe you’ve got some stuff done, but balancing decorating with gift buying, your regular chores, and the rest of your life isn’t easy. If you’re like most of us, you’re probably in need of some serious Christmas decorating hacks!

Well, after I was able to find so many awesome Thanksgiving hacks a couple weeks ago, I thought I would look around and see what the wide, helpful world of the internet could do for me in terms of making it easier to decorate my home for Christmas. It turns out, there are quite a few helpful tips and tricks to save you time, money, energy, or all of the above! So I put all the best ones together and created this post for you, so you don’t have to do the sleuthing yourself – more timesaving!

Now, most of these Christmas decorating hacks are pretty simple and straightforward, because my biggest goal here was to save you time and effort – that said, if you want to try some craftier things, especially little projects you can do with your kids, you should check out this blog post I found in my searching – there are a ton of great ideas for DIY Christmas decor here.

If you still need the biggest, best part of your Christmas decor – the tree – check out last week’s post on all the coolest places on the Main Line to go get yours! And if you’re looking for other holiday activities in the area this season, don’t worry – we’ve got you covered there, too.

Anyway, without any further ado, here are the best Christmas decorating hacks to help you out this season.

Christmas decorating hacks

Tree Tips

  • To add some easy color and variety to your Christmas tree, bring back those dollar store florals and stick some in there before you add the ornaments – it’s easier than stringing garland or little individual ball ornaments, and it looks lovely!
  • For big wow factor, use two different kinds of Christmas tree lights – maybe different sizes, different colors, or some twinkling and some not – you’ll be surprised what a big difference it makes!
  • Want a bunch of little trees to deck your halls, but don’t want to shell out the cash for them? Just get a tomato cage and wrap it in evergreen garland, then string it up with lights and add whatever other elements you desire – nobody will know the difference.
  • When decorating the tree – put larger, heavier ornaments farther down on the tree, and deeper inside, to hide any bare spots and balance out the look of the tree. They’ll still be seen, and if they fall they’ll be less likely to break.
  • Similarly, put the smaller, more delicate ones near the top, where they’re less likely to be overpowered by all the other ornaments surrounding them.
  • Have small children or pets who like to mess with the tree? Hang jingle bells on the lower branches so that you’ll always be alerted when someone’s being naughty!

Gift-Wrapping Guidance

  • Use specific gift wrap for each member of your family – you can personalize it, and that way there’s no way to mix them up, even if you forget a gift tag.
  • Make yourself a gift wrapping station – get a hanging shoe organizer and store all your tape, scissors, ribbons, and bows in the pockets. You can even store your wrapping paper in them – just cut the bottoms out of a couple of stacked pockets to be able to slide the whole paper roll in.
  • To prevent wrapping paper rolls from unrolling, take a couple of empty toilet paper tubes and cut them down the middle, then wrap them around the outside of the roll. Voila!
  • Want to make ribbon rolls easier to unspool? Put them through a paper towel holder, PVC pipe, or other long, round object, and pull with ease.
  • Feeling like giving a gift to the environment this year and saving some trees? You can make your own wrapping paper out of recycled paper bags and a few Christmas-y stamps.
Christmas decorating hacks

Centerpiece Solutions

  • Have more Christmas mugs than you know what to do with? Make sure you can enjoy them all season by getting some dollar store flowers and sticking them inside. Poof! Now it’s a planter! Christmas magic.
  • For a cheaper, easier centerpiece for your table, fill a few mason jars with plastic greenery and berries, add water, and float a candle on top. They do this with flowers at weddings all the time – it’s easy, but it looks gorgeous!
  • Sometimes colorful candies make the best decoration! Filling a glass bowl with those red and green m&ms or Hershey’s kisses makes a pretty table piece, and people will love to pick at them. (Just make sure you buy enough of the candy to last you – I’ve somehow gone through a huge bag of m&ms already!)
  • Those vases full of ball ornaments look pretty, but that is a lot of ornaments to just be sitting in a vase. But wait! Bring back those toilet paper tubes from earlier for this hack – put one in the middle, then fill in the ornaments around it. You’ll use significantly fewer. (This will work with any short, cylindrical item that can hold its shape, like a glass or plastic cup.)

Other Outstanding Holiday Hacks

  • Spruce up a dining room chandelier by wrapping it in some garland and hanging a few ornaments from it!
  • Protect plugs outdoors by putting them in a Tupperware container and cutting holes out for the wires.
  • If you want to really wow the kiddos on Christmas morning (and don’t mind having to vacuum your rugs after), try this neat little trick: Take the bottom of a pair of men’s boots and dust them with a mixture of baking soda and glitter. Then put them on and walk a path from your fireplace (or wherever Santa comes in) to the tree. The kids will be amazed!
  • When you’re finished with your Christmas lights at the end of the season, do yourself a favor – store each strand in individual, large-sized Ziploc bags. You’ll thank yourself next year when you don’t have to spend the first half hour of your decorating time untangling lights.
  • In addition, to keep them from tangling around themselves, wrap them around something, like a hanger, or the outside of the box they came in.
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