The holiday season is a great time to strengthen family bonds, to refl...
The tree goes up, the lights go on the eaves — and then what? If you're looking to push past the standard-issue holiday setup this year, here are five decorating ideas we love, all of them budget-friendly and most of them doable in an afternoon.
1. Make It Personal
The holidays are about family, so let your decorations say so. Print photos from Christmases past and find creative ways to display them — one of our favourites is clipping them with clothespins to a slim branch suspended between two vases on the mantel. Kids' ornaments from every year, grandma's hand-me-down decorations, the lopsided salt-dough star: these are what make a house feel warm in December.
One caveat from our day job: if your home is currently on the market, dial the personal touches back. Buyers need to imagine their family in the space, so keep holiday decor for a listed home simple, neutral, and light on the family photos.
2. Have Fun With Pinecones
Calgary's parks and river pathways will happily supply all the pinecones you can carry. Left natural in a decorative bowl, they bring a bit of the outdoors in. Painted or dusted with spray glitter, they turn into something closer to ornaments. Feeling ambitious? Nestle tea lights into the tops of larger cones for rustic pinecone candles — just keep real flames well away from anything dry and needled.
3. Create a Wreath
A wreath on the front door is the simplest way to spread cheer to the whole street. Store-bought options now run from traditional evergreen to sleek modern designs, but making your own is half the fun — and wreaths can be built from almost anything: pine boughs, silver bells, cranberries, dried flowers, even a ring of small family photos. An evening, a glue gun, and a hot drink is all it takes.
4. Let It Snow (Indoors)
Watching snow fall softly past the window is one of the quiet joys of a Calgary winter — so bring a little of it inside, minus the shovelling. A dusting of faux snow along the mantel or window ledges creates that fresh-snowfall look all season long, and it pairs beautifully with candles and greenery. It's an easy way to make a room feel like a snow globe.
5. Don't Stop at One Tree
Your main tree is the centrepiece, but tabletop trees let you spread the spirit into every room. A small traditional tree in the kids' room, a silver one on the sideboard, a wooden one on the office shelf — mix styles and have fun with it. Little trees are also a great way to use the overflow ornaments that never quite fit on the big one.
The Real Secret
None of this needs to be Pinterest-perfect. The homes that feel most festive aren't the most elaborately decorated — they're the ones where the decorating itself became the family activity. Put on the music, hand the kids the glitter, and accept the consequences. And if you're driving around admiring how other households do it, that's one of our favourite free holiday activities too — Calgary's communities put on quite a show every December.
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