Pinch the pennies, deck the halls

Tableware found at the Goodwill store at Chamberlayne and Azalea Avenues include: a trio of gift box shaped candleholders ($4.25), a crystal bowl ($9.25), a Christmas tree ($3.25), a pair of crystal bud vases ($6.25), silver-plated pitcher ($20.25), and five quality crystal goblets ($10.25).

By: Julie Young | Times-Dispatch
Published: November 28, 2008

Trim the household budget or trim the tree?

Even in grinchy economic times, homeowners shouldn't have to make that choice.

There are endless ways to festively decorate a home without spending too many of those precious dollars. We aren't talking drugstore tinsel or those pre-tied, red plastic bows here. The look can be positively lavish.

How about Mikasa stemware and Noritake china for your dining table? Savvy treasure hunters know that famous-name housewares frequently end up on the shelves at thrift stores.

"It's beautiful to see how excited people get about what they find here," said Serena Quarles, manager of the Brookhill-Azalea Goodwill store. "A lot of people say, 'I couldn't go to Macy's and buy this, but I can get it here.'"

Following are some budget-décor ideas for first-time homeowners, apartment dwellers or anyone who's tired of dragging out the same stuff year after year.

Thrift stores are fertile hunting grounds. Pick up castoff pieces of silver that just need a bit of polish, crystal goblets or a collection of old ornaments that might look charming rather than cheesy when heaped in an heirloom depression-glass bowl or grouped on a mantel.

For paper goods, head to a dollar store. If you can pick up packages of red beverage napkins for $1 apiece, why go to a fancy paper boutique and pay three or four times that amount? A red napkin is a red napkin.

Make a gingerbread house. Use leftover Halloween candy to decorate it. If you don't want to make gingerbread from scratch, use graham crackers as your structure and give the roof a snowy top with Kellogg's Frosted Mini Wheats.

Every year, Colonial Williamsburg guests ooh and aah over holiday decorations. A wreath covered with plain sugar cookies is ridiculously simple to copy. Buy an inexpensive artificial wreath and cover it with cookies in various shapes. Simply poke a hole in the top of each cookie with a drinking straw before baking, then thread a red ribbon through for hanging.

Assemble a collection of candles, ones you already own or inexpensive ones you buy, on a mantel, table or sideboard. Use varying heights for interest. Surround them with outdoor material, such as berries, greenery or magnolia leaves.

Give the front door a fresh coat of paint and a shiny brass kick plate. For little money, you'll make an immediate impression on visitors and create a glossy backdrop for your holiday wreath.

Totally change the look of your kitchen or dining room with chandelier lampshades. They're not cheap, as in dollar-store cheap, but their impact is worth the splurge. Shades of Light on West Broad Street sells chandelier shades in holiday fabrics -- tartans, stripes, polka dots, solids and damasks -- for $24 each. Throw in a red tablecloth and white china from the new Better Homes & Gardens line at Wal-Mart and you will have created a moderately priced setting that will dazzle guests. If the lampshades are beyond your budget, Shades of Light and other stores sell realistic candle bulbs, some complete with dripping-wax tips, for $3 each.

Need a centerpiece for your dining-room table or a sideboard buffet? You don't need to invest in a fancy tiered dessert stand. Stack a couple of inexpensive glass cake stands, available at big-box discount stores, and top them with a wine goblet or small shapely glass. Place bite-size desserts on the two stands, fill the goblet with candy, and throw a few berries and greens around the base.

Use holiday cards to create festive adornments. Pick up an old wooden window shutter from an architectural scrap yard such as Caravati's (or maybe your own garage) and paint it a festive color. Hang it or prop it against a wall in your living room and use the slots to display your cards.

Martha Stewart, not known for low-budget ideas, actually has a pretty sensible idea for a card wreath. Using wood glue, affix miniature wooden clothespins to a large (about 14-inch-diameter) embroidery hoop (find these materials at a craft store). Alternate clothespins to point outward and inward, spaced 1½ inches apart. Suspend the hoop from a ribbon, and clip your cards in place as you receive them.

If you're short on ornaments, poke a hole in your holiday cards, thread a wire through to make a loop and hang them on your tree.

Make paper snowflakes and string popcorn strands.

Fill canning jars with candy or Christmas balls.

Make your own holiday towels. Sandy Sandler, creator of the Bowdabra (www.bowdabra.com) bow maker, suggests purchasing inexpensive white towels and embellishing them with festive holiday ribbon (attach by sewing, fabric glue or fusible iron-on hem tape).
Contact Julie Young at (804) 649-6732 or jyoung@timesdispatch.com.