The arrival of autumn also
brings with it the beginning of the fall and winter holidays. What with
Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's all falling within three
months of each other, decorating for each of these holidays can quickly become
expensive.
According to the National Retail Federation, consumers
spent over $602 billion on decorations for the winter holidays in 2013. That
equated to an average of $730 per person spent on gifts, food, decorations and
miscellaneous holiday items.
But saving money on your
holiday décor and entertaining supplies is not as difficult as you might think.
For one thing, there are certainly ways to get double-duty out of your holiday
decorations. And you can save a bundle simply by knowing when to buy the things
you're most likely to spend the most on. For more on these and other ways to
cut costs this holiday season, consider the following.
Maximize Your Materials
Halloween items like
pumpkins are easily reused as-is on a Thanksgiving harvest table and then
adjusted again with simple craft materials for Christmas and New Year's. For my
part, I'm planning on getting a bunch of little pumpkins and using them for all
four upcoming holidays like so:- Halloween:
They'll be great displayed in a large glass hurricane vase on my coffee
table;
- In
between Halloween and Thanksgiving: I'll create an arrangement of them on
a silver platter placed atop my sideboard in the dining room;
- Thanksgiving:
I can merge them with a larger cornucopia centerpiece arrangement on the
dining room table for Thanksgiving dinner;
- Christmas:
Following Thanksgiving, I'll decorate the pumpkins with shimmery metallic
paint or glitter and glue and incorporate them with fir branches and LED
strings on my mantle;
- New
Year's: Finally, I'll transfer them over to my living room windowsills
along with some bright candlesticks to celebrate the coming of the new
year with my guests on New Year's Eve.
You can also repeat the
above process with other harvest décor items like berries, leaves and gourds to
complement the pumpkins perfectly and round out the multi-use aspect of your
decorations.
Additionally, there's no
reason why you can't fully incorporate the items from one holiday into another.
For example, you can create a completely customized DIY Halloween costume out
of Christmas tree ornaments!
You can also purchase one
wreath form and change it up for each holiday. Use floral pins and floral wire
that are perfect for temporary adhesion instead of attaching things permanently
with hot glue. You can easily remove items and replace them with others to suit
the next seasonal celebration.
Finally, go flameless with
your candles and place LED candlesticks and votives inside your Halloween
Jack-o-Lantern and then transfer them to your mantle or windowsill for the
winter holidays. Not only is this flameless option safer for kids and pets but
it also cuts down the costs with purchasing candles and replacements once they
burn down.
Scout the Sales
In addition to getting
multiple uses out of items, you can also save on your decorations by knowing
the best times to buy certain holiday items. Naturally, you're going to want to
stay away from perishables like candy, cookies and flavored popcorn, but there
are plenty of suitable items that you can stock up on through over-stock
blowouts and after-holiday sales:
- Wrapping
paper
- Gift
bags and boxes
- Tissue
paper
- Ribbons
and bows
- Tape
- Gift
tags and Greeting Cards
- Ornaments
and tinsel
- Wreaths
- String
LED lights
Of course, after all of
these holidays in a row, you may be feeling the wallet crunch and simply don't
have the funds to purchase excess items in after-holiday sales. One way to
combat that is to wait for later holidays that utilize the same colors as
traditional Christmas decorations like red and green.
For example, you might find
great deals on red and white (or pink if you're like me and prefer
unconventional Christmas décor) decorations after Valentine's Day and green and
white or yellow products after St. Patrick's Day.
Finally, another major
component of holiday spending is gifts. For the home improvement aficionado or
DIYer in your household, November and December have traditionally been great
months to find deals and discounts on tools and hardware. And let's face it:
Men tend to get more excited about power tools than trimming trees with tinsel!
In general, the key to the
savings game is planning ahead, so consider starting a "gift fund"
that you can contribute to throughout the year and thus have the money readily
available for taking advantage of those sales when they arise.
What are some of your
cost-cutting tips for decking out your home for the holidays?
As a frugal DIYer, Rheney Williams likes to write for The Home Depot about creating great décor
on a dime. She shares great tips on budget holiday decorating for inside and outside
of the home. To see some of the decorations that Rheney talks about in this
article, please go to the homedepot.com holiday pages.
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