How to Decorate Your House for a Christmas Party

Your guests will be filled with good cheer when they're surrounded by these festive Christmas decorations.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• 3 Yards Narrow Red Or Green Ribbons
• Party Favors
• 3 To 4 Strings Christmas Tree Lights
• Christmas Stockings
• Fire Logs
• Glitter
• Glues
• Scented Candles
• Candies
• Popcorn
• Several Boxes Small And Large Candy Canes
• Red And Green Mugs
• Parchment-style Printer Paper
• 3 to 4 small Christmas trees

1. Decorate several small trees with candy canes and popcorn strings, and scatter them around the house.

2. For a centerpiece, decorate a small tree with individually wrapped candy and party favors.

3. Use strings of lights, your fireplace and scented candles as your only lighting to create a more intimate and festive mood.

4. Print short Christmas carols, poems and stories on thick, good-quality parchment paper in a calligraphy font. Place four carols or poems on each page. Fold the pages and tear them apart to give them a rough look, and then decorate the edges with glitter.

5. Scatter these around on tabletops and hang them from doorknobs with ribbon. Guests can take them home as favors.

6. Hang stockings already filled with presents from the mantle to give the illusion that Santa just left.

7. Fill green and red coffee mugs with bunches of different colored candy canes, and scatter them around your home. Or fill the mugs with red and green M&Ms.

Tips & Warnings

• You can light small trees and centerpieces with small, battery-operated sets of lights to avoid unsightly cords. This also eliminates the danger of tripping over cords.
• Ask someone to keep an eye on the fire in the fireplace for you and tell you when a new log needs to be added.
• Make sure that all candles are out of harm's (and elbows') way. If there are going to be small children at the party, place candles out of their reach.

Resources

• Letters To Santa
• Christmas Recipes

on 8/12/2006 I have a bathroom on my first floor with a shower that is never used. So I decorate it like a Macy's window. Sometimes I have a Mr. and Mrs. Claus with presents or a partridge in a pear tree. I have had an angel whose wings moved up and down. I stencil on the mirror something appropriate to go with what is in the shower (angel- peace on earth Santa- have you been naughty or nice). Every year people can't wait to see the shower. I also decorate it for other parties (beach party- a mermaid, 60's party, Jimi Hendrix.) It is a cool way to use a shower that never gets used.

on 12/19/2005 Take down all your paintings and pictures and wrap them like presents with wide ribbon and giant bows. Hang them back on the wall. Very festive!

on 12/19/2005 Try hanging two or three different kinds of beautiful ornaments, like gold stars and gold bulbs, from your chandelier. It is very classy and brings some holiday decoration and interest to parts of your house that are already focal points.

on 12/20/2005 Where there's snow, place a boot on the floor and sprinkle baking soda over it. Remove the boot. This looks cute near the tree or near the stockings.

on 12/28/2005 Wrap pictures you have hanging on your walls with festive wrapping paper. Finish off with a pretty ribbon. You can even wrap the ugly, wall air conditioning unit. This trick will cut down on drafts also.