Inexpensive, Fun Ways to Decorate Your Home and Yard for Christmas

Good morning, Live Better than a Billionaire-a-Holics!

Are you feeling motivated this morning? I certainly hope so. I know that I am!

Have you ever tried Christmas decorations that are based on your own creativity? If not, you have a lot of fun ahead of you. By substituting creativity for money, you'll also have more money left over after Christmas . . . plus a lot of happy memories.

One of the problems I see every year is that Christmas decorations in many homes and yards are virtually indistinguishable. Even when something new comes along, like the lit reindeer whose heads go up and down, soon become a standard rather than a novelty.

I'm sure you'll have better ideas than I do, but here are a few that I would like to see more often:

Let's start with the yard.

1. Do you have a mail box on a post or a light mounted on a post? In either case, you could use some ribbon, colored foil and Styrofoam to transform that utility into a candy cane!

2. Do you live where it's cold and there's loose snow on the ground? Consider making snowmen and dressing them up.

3. Do you live where it's cold and there's no snow on the ground? Make some ice molds with various shapes (like more candy canes), fill the molds with water, and take out new ice sculptures you can put around your yard. If it gets warm during the day, you can make more at night.

4. Do you live where it's warm and sunny? Go to a forest where there are fir trees and cut off some low-hanging boughs to put in a corner of your yard. You can spray paint the boughs white to make it look like you've got a little corner of a white Christmas.

5. No matter where you live, put in a Nativity scene in your yard. But don't buy the finished materials. Make them yourself. If it's your first year, you might simply make Jesus, Mary and Joseph . . . plus a stable. You can make the figures out of clay, paper mache or as cutouts of aluminum sheets. This will make a great family project! The stable can be made out of pieces of broken wooden pallets or scrap lumber that your lumber yard has a hard time selling. If you use materials than can be harmed by rain, sleet or snow, be sure to waterproof them before you put them outside.

6. Pipe some Christmas music out into the yard. Check with your local police and neighbors first to be sure you don't overdo it. You should probably keep it from being too loud and turn the music off reasonably early at night. You can probably do this by simply having a speaker set in a partially opened window. For those of you who worry about burglars, set this on a second floor or use a window that has a lock that keeps it from being opened all the way.

Let's go inside.

Remember that any decorations you use that can be seen from outdoors serve dual audiences.

1. A great opportunity is to make wreaths. If you are not sure how, go to a local florist or garden store where they make and sell wreaths to see how it's done. You'll need more fir branches, some wire, some ribbon and ideally some highlight leaves and accents like hollies and pyracantha berries. You can hang the wreaths on the exterior of your doors and on your interior walls where they can be seen through picture windows.

2. Naturally, you'll have a Christmas tree. Consider buying a potted tree so you can either reuse the tree . . . or plant it after Christmas is over (in cold climates, you need to pre-dig a whole before the ground is frozen). If you do plant these trees, you can decorate them in your yard in future years.

3. Make and use hand-made decorations on your tree. My favorites are crocheted angels, colored paper cutouts done by children, strings of popcorn and cranberries, and figures constructed from Styrofoam cores and covered with material.

4. Have large glass jars filled with Christmas cookies you've made. These should be humorously iced and sprinkled.

5. Make a gingerbread house. You can find great recipes for this from many sources. Be sure to eat the house after Christmas.

6. Place spray painted boughs on open areas on coffee and end tables. This will give you an outdoorsy white Christmas look inside.

I hope you will add your own comments to inspire others.

Could a billionaire do better? I sincerely doubt it.

Can you imagine a billionaire taking the time to enjoy so much Christmas fun and creativity? I suspect that the billionaire would do as The Donald always does . . . and hire a professional to create just the right effect. In the process, the billionaire would lose sight that most of the joy is in the creating of the decorations and fellowship with your family that comes from making your own Christmas festivities and establishing wonderful traditions and memories.

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N.B. As you can tell, I'm experimenting with color. Let me know what you like and what I should change about my use of color.

Please let me know what else you would like to learn, and I'll do my best to help in future blog entries.

Here are some upcoming subjects:

Tomorrow, let's experience the peace of meditation.

Monday, we'll look at free teleseminars as a way to gain valuable knowledge.

On Tuesday, you and I will look at how asking the right questions can open up the path to living your dreams.

Wednesday, we will explore ways to make wonderful, last minute holiday gifts inexpensively that will arrive before December 25. This is the procrastinator's special.

On Thursday, let's look at mansions you can visit for Christmas activities in France.

Friday, we'll look at the joys of Christmas caroling.

If you are new to this blog, be sure to check out the updated table of contents entry that I posted on December 14. The table of contents will help you find earlier entries that may be of interest. I'll update this table of contents every week or so for your convenience.

August 31 was the most frequently read blog entry to date. Be sure to check it out!

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I offer individual on-line tutorials and in-person seminars on living better than a billionaire on five dollars extra a day, creating 2,000 percent solutions (20 times the results with the same effort), developing more profitable business models and designing strategies that work regardless of the business environment. For information, contact me at ultimatecompetitiveadvantage@yahoo.com.

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May God bless you. Merry Christmas!

Donald W. Mitchell, Your Dream Concierge

Copyright 2005 Donald W. Mitchell