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Home › Articles › Holiday: Winter › Homes for the Holidays

Homes for the Holidays

Economical Decorating with Your Family

By Jenn Director Knudsen

Pages:  1  2  3  4  

Brighten up Your Holidays
Looking for an easy way to create a holiday atmosphere? "You'd be surprised at how your home can be transformed, quickly and cheaply, with festive lighting," says Joshua Shabtai, a representative for Somerset, N.J.-based Philips Lighting.

For example, one 25-watt bulb shaped like most standard light bulbs comes in red, green and other holiday colors and costs just more than $2 a piece. And a 100-watt flood light for indoor and outdoor use sells for just under $7 a piece and comes in amber, blue, green, pink and red.

The lights can shine through a tree or other plant or can replace, for instance, a bulb already in an entry hall fixture to light up that area of your home in festive colors.

Edible Adornments
Food items can also make great decorations. Guylian Belgian Chocolates, an Englewood Cliffs, N.J.-based leading manufacturer of premium boxed Belgian chocolates, recommends crafting its Belgian Chocolate Topiary Centerpiece, but be forewarned: It's so yummy, it's not likely to last long on the table.

Materials:

  • 4 to 6 boxes (7.06 ounces each) of Guylian La Perlina Belgian chocolates
  • 1 Styrofoam cone, 15 inches high
  • 2 to 3 large bunches of small, fresh rosebuds
  • Toothpicks, broken in half
  • Aluminum foil
  • Glue gun
  • Low-temperature glue
  • Cake plate or stand

Directions:

  1. Cover the Styrofoam cone with aluminum foil. Secure the foil with a few dabs of glue.
  2. Break several toothpicks in half. Begin at the top of the cone. Insert one toothpick half into the Styrofoam cone, leaving a 1/2 inch of the toothpick exposed.
  3. Stick one piece of Guylian Chocolate onto the rosebuds. Alternate the size of the spaces, anywhere from 1/2 inch to 1 inch. Follow this procedure, covering one section at a time. Be sure to alternate the shapes and colors of the chocolates.

    4. Pages:  1  2  3  4  

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