Decorating for the holidays is a time-consuming activity that can take hours, or even days, to complete. It doesn’t have to. This year, save yourself some time with holiday decorating shortcuts that still look great—but won’t take you hours to create.
Re-purpose
Don’t have time to bake? Well, who does? Instead of baking, pull out your cupcake and cake stands and turn them into quick Christmas decorations. Fill the tiers up with small red and green candles, gift bows, small ornaments, sprigs of greenery and anything else Christmas-y you’ve got sitting around the house. It only takes a few minutes to drop some stuff on the tiers, and you’ll end up with a festive centerpiece for any table or mantle.
Fill it Up
Placing ornaments and greenery on mantles and shelves and all over the house looks pretty, but it’s also pretty time-consuming. Save yourself some effort by grabbing a big vase or two. Fill these up with colorful round ornaments, and set them on the mantle or the shelf instead of carefully making a big holiday display. The ornament-filled vase creates a great holiday decoration in a minute or less.
Use Branches
Many homeowners end up with fallen branches all over the yard in late fall and early winter, right around the time you’re decorating for the holiday season. Grab some of these fallen branches from the yard and bring them inside to create quick, rustic decorations. A stack of branches on the mantle, a big vase filled with long, slender branches, branch bundles tied with ribbon and stacked near greenery—there are lots of ways to use them, and you won’t have to use a lot effort to make it happen.
Bigger is Better
Can’t spend hours hanging ornaments on the tree? Get over-sized ornaments. A few large, round balls can cover a lot of real estate on the tree and create big pops of color. With big ornaments, less is more—so you can spend less time decorating and more time enjoying your holiday! Finish off the design with a long piece of 3-inch ribbon. Wrap this around the tree as a garland, and you have an amazing holiday accent without all those ornament-hanging hours wasted.
Hang ‘Em High
Get some temporary sticky hooks that can be taken off later, and place them on the ceiling around door frames, in the middle of the hallway and anywhere you want to add an easy pop of holiday cheer. Grab some long ribbon strips and thread ball ornaments through, one ornament for one ribbon strip. Bundle a few together, knot the ends, and hang them from your hooks all over the house for a festive, simple display.
Save Time This Holiday Season
You’ve got enough to do during the holidays without spending days decorating the house and the tree. Save time with a few shortcuts that still give you the great look you want, but with a lot less work. After all, you need to save your energy for shopping, wrapping gifts, traveling and everything else you’re going to be doing all through the holidays.