How to Decorate Your Holiday Dinner Table on a Budget

Dressing up your holiday table can be easy, fun and very inexpensive if you follow some of these simple decorating ideas.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• yarn
• ribbon
• construction paper
• twigs and tree cuttings

1. Start out with the basics. Many people can't afford to go out and buy chargers that go under your dinner plates. Did you know that you can create your own faux chargers by using construction paper? The best part about it is you can use any color of paper to go along with the holiday theme you are decorating for. Yellow, orange and brown for Thanksgiving, orange and black for Halloween, red and green for Christmas, pink, yellow and light blue for Easter and so on. You can cut them into circles to place under your dinner plate or you can leave them square or rectangle and use them almost like place mats. The best part is that you don't have to wash them like you do chargers if someone gets food on it. You can just toss them in the recycling bin after the meal is finished. In addition, they can double as place cards by writing your guest's name on the paper just above or below the plate.

2. You can also dress up your fabric napkins by using color coordinated yarn to use as napkin rings. Just cut two or three coordinating colors and tie them around your napkins either alone or with the flatware inside. Yarn can be picked up almost anywhere and is very inexpensive. One skein of yarn can last you years considering how much of it you actually need for tying.

3. Another easy way to decorate is to get rolls of curling ribbon, like the kind you use to wrap gifts, and tie it around the middle of coffee cups, or at the bottoms of wine glasses and then curling the ends. These too can be purchased in many colors to match the holiday and is very inexpensive. You may already have what you need in your gift wrapping box.

4. The final suggestion is taking simple tea light candles in coordinating colors and spreading them out all over your holiday table. Not just in the middle. Just be sure to keep them away from small children who may be seated at the table. The dollar store always carries tea light candles in various colors and the best part is that they are not usually scented which means no "strange" scents to take away the aroma of your holiday meal items.

Tips & Warnings

• You can also use items like colored Easter eggs, small gourds or pumpkins, and even small cuttings from your real X-mas tree to also decorate your table depending on the holiday.