From Extraordinary Holidays
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Essential Trimmings
Want to make your holiday decorating both easy and creative? Have these essential trimmings ready to use. Look for them throughout the year at tag or garage sales, flea markets, dollar stores, thrift stores, craft stores, and even big-box stores. Most can be found on markdown after the holidays. This stock will form the foundation of your decorating structure for the holidays and throughout the year.Baskets: They're rustic and charming, easy to dress up, perfect plain, and amazingly useful. Fill them with fruit, nuts, leaves, flowers, glass-ball ornaments, candy, cookies, small presents, party favors, and more. Line them with fabric or paper, tie satin or velvet bows or raffia to the handle. Use them to serve rolls or bread, or even to set serving dishes in or to hold individual bowls of soup. Place in the bathrooms to hold guest towels or soap.
Candles: The most versatile are white candles in all shapes and sizes, from tea lights to tapers to columns. There is an elegance to white candles that is hard to beat, though you should also stock up on red and green candles when you see them on sale.
Flowers: Fresh, dried, and artificial flowers are an easy way to bring the beauty of the season to every corner of your house. Gather them in baskets or pots, tuck into grapevine wreaths, tie small bouquets with ribbons to add to your tree, or twine with ribbons and frame a doorway.
Glass-ball ornaments: These can be picked up for practically nothing at end-of-season sales, so stock up on all sizes and colors. Tuck them wherever you need reflected light or a spot of color. Mass all sizes and colors in a basket, pot, or crystal bowl for a dramatic effect. Use them in unexpected places, like hung from ceiling beams or from kitchen curtain rods.
Grapevine wreaths: These staples of the craft store can take you through an entire year of holidays, not just the November through January lineup. Just adding ribbons in seasonal colors can immediately create a winsome wreath, but go a step further and add tiny lights, dried or silk flowers, and leaves, fruits, nuts, and ornaments -- essentially whatever pleases you and your family.
Holiday lights: Strings of lights, both white and colored, can add a festive glow to any decor. And don't just think of trees or the eaves of houses. Live in the Southwest? Adorn your cacti. Live in a high-rise apartment? Frame windows or a balcony, or run a line of lights along the tops of cupboards and cabinets.
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