One of my favorite things to do this time of year is decorate for the Holidays. Similar to re-arranging the furniture in your home when you are in need of change, decorating also changes things up for a while bringing with it a fresh new feeling.

When December rolls around I look forward to taking down old pictures and removing odds and ends off the shelves to make room for new festive decor. The best decorations, in my opinion, are the natural ones. A beautifully scented pine tree. The color and look of a vibrant red poinsettia plant. Carefully placed pine cones. Cinnamon sticks, fresh green garland, a gorgeous wreath. Not only are these decorations simple and smell great, they are better for the environment because they break down naturally, not to mention they don’t take up any storage room!

There are many boxes of treasured Christmas items we keep throughout the years that hold a special place in our hearts, but as each year passes my love of decorating with more natural elements grows.

 If you’re looking for a hostess gift this holiday season, or a present for a special teacher or friend, try a poinsettia plant, holiday flowers accented with pine greenery, or a fresh wreath.  Besides hanging, wreaths also make great center pieces for a holiday tables as well! Plants brighten and liven the home as well as spread love and good cheer!  It is a gift you can’t go wrong with and friendly to our beautiful planet.

Cheers!

As CEO of www.TheGroceryGame.com, and busy mom of two, AND wife… I LOVE to celebrate holidays, and enjoy time with my family. Nothing is better than that! But the frosting on the cake is being able to have the best of the best without spending a fortune. But I also must be able to do it ALL with ease! So I’ve made it my life’s mission to discover wonderful ways to have it all!
Let’s start with the party food. You NEVER have to pay full price for food, especially on holidays. And the good news is that some of the best and most delicious foods are also easy. 
 
Step #1 – Instead of deciding what YOU want to serve for your Halloween party menu, let the sales dictate what goes on your menu. But don’t miss UN-advertised sales. Yes, there are often twice as many sales once you get to the store. So keep an eye out for those great opportunities!
 
Check drugstores for sales on all kinds of party food like chips, nuts, crackers, candy, and more at great savings. 
 
Stack the deals. Look for store coupons in drugstore and supermarket circulars, and match those with manufacturer coupons from the Sunday paper. 
 
Now that you have a plan for how to get your food for half off or better, here’s how you build your money saving fabulous menu! Ideally, you will gather the best of the best sales over the course of weeks for your Halloween bash. And don’t forget to think about what you already have in your fridge, pantry and freezer. 
 
Start by saving a ton on your main course, which is usually meat. Choose your meat dish from the front page of one week’s sales circular. The big picture will usually be the best deal. If you find a meat sale that you like weeks before the party, pop it in your freezer. A big pot of chili is a good and easy option as dry beans soaked overnight, then slow cooked, are cheap to add to chili. Any type of beef, whether ground or cubed, or even ground turkey is great in chili. Remember, you choose whatever meat is on a great sale. As the weeks go by, look for a great sale on cheese to grate, and canned tomatoes to add in.
 
Pasta is a super cheap side dish or even main dish. Check circulars for a great pasta sale and stock up for your party, which can be weeks before if the sale hits early. 
 
Be flexible. . Substitutions are one of the best ways to save big money! If you see ground beef on sale for half off, but your meatball recipe calls for Italian sausage, stick with the money saving ground beef, and spice it up. For chip and dip, if plain yogurt is on sale instead of sour cream, make a yogurt dip. Or if hummus is on sale, use that for your veggie dip. Since there are lots of varieties of cheese, let the sales determine which variety of cheese will go on your cheese platter. Get it??? You’re being flexible, and it just might get you out of your rut too!
 
Stick to traditional fare, much of which became traditional because of readily available ingredients of the season. Caramel apples are traditional Halloween fare, because apples are in season and super cheap. Popcorn balls are also traditional, and you can’t beat the economy of making those! Rice crispy treats are super easy. But only make them, if you find a great sale on the rice crispy cereal! 
 
On the last week, you’ll buy whatever veggies are on sale to go with all that you’ve gathered for super cheap! And how easy was that? You did all the biggest shopping ahead of time!
 
In the end, you’ll find you just cut your food cost by half or better!

Deal stacking is huge for candy at drugstores, and some supermarkets. Remember, that’s where you find a “store coupon” in the circular and combine it with a manufacturer coupon from the paper. 
 
Buy the limit! Whenever you see a “limit” on candy, food, or anything else, buy that limit. For instance, if circular reads “limit 2” on a bag of Halloween candy, it’s probably at one of the lowest possible prices. So, get it!!! In most cases, you can also use a coupon to make the deal even sweeter! Nice!
 
Consider healthier choices for trick or treaters, and save money too! Look for sales on all kinds of granola bars, fruit snacks and more. A good sale is 50% off or a BOGO (buy one get one free). Add a coupon to the sale to save about 67%. Visit www.TheGroceryGame.com to see these deals and lots of other food deal stacking every week. 
 
Instead of candy, give out prizes! Visit dollar stores for great deals on fun trinkets. I just got a package of ten cute Halloween pencils, Halloween erasers, glow in the dark spider rings and more for super cheap. Kids love to find prizes among all that candy, and it can save you money!

You can’t go wrong with paper lunch bags, filled with sand and votive candles for an inviting seasonal glow for the front of your home. You can use a hole punch or scissors to cut designs in the sides of the bags. Jack-o-lanterns, fall leaves, and more will help the light to shine through. This is super fast, easy, cheap, and gives you lots of impact for your investment of time and money!
 
Several jack-o-lanterns in various sizes and different faces are great for your front porch. To make your lantern last longer, refrigerate them during the day, and only put them back out in the evenings. If you don’t have room in your refrigerator, store in a large ice chest with frozen blue ice blocks in the middle of each pumpkin, and a few around to keep it cool. A cut pumpkin can last nicely for over a week when kept cool.
 
To make a front yard spooky, all you need is a few sheets, lighting and a fan. Hang sheets like ghosts in trees, and use lighting from behind bushes to give an indirect glow. Even Christmas lights laid on the ground behind bushes or a low wall, can cast a glow of light that’s spooky. If wind is forecasted, your sheets will move just fine. But if no wind, a strategically placed fan with an extension cord will do the trick.
 

Decorate with food that’s in season and traditional. Apples are in season, and therefore, super cheap! Plus they’re bright and festive. Can’t go wrong with that! Make apple candle holders. Core out the top of an apple to make a well for a tealight. Do the same with mini pumpkins. Use apples and mini pumpkins for name tags on place settings. Coil a colored paper clip to hold a name tag, and stick into the apple or mini pumpkin. Print the name tags on your computer in spooky fun fonts, and decorate with glitter or Halloween stickers. 
 
Use what you have. If you have clear glass hurricane candle holders, fill them with candy corn or gummy worms, and place a candle in the center. You just created a Halloween candle holder for almost nothing! Gather fall leaves and use to sprinkle around mantles and tables, keeping them away from any candle flames.
 
Decorate food tables with real fall leaves. I live in California, so we don’t’ have those beautiful fall colors. I bought fake fall leaves from a dollar store years ago, and they serve me well every year! Black and orange curling ribbon is fast and effective to decorate a food table, if you just haphazardly string it all over the table around the food. 
 
Food elevated in various levels is easy to do and appealing for buffets. I use stacks of books in varying levels, highest in the back, then cover with a table cloth. This is super fast, easy, and looks like I had a caterer! Sprinkle around fall leaves and black and orange curling ribbon, and a few apple and mini pumpkin votives. A jack-o-lantern on a buffet table is also bright and fun. Just make sure all candles are not in a place where people will burn their hands or clothes when reaching for food.
 
Online shopping for decorations for big parties can be super easy for busy moms and can save money. Sites like Oriental Trading Company have good items for place settings, and small decorator items that can be used for sprinkling around on food tables, or for place settings. 
 
I also LOVE streamers! They’re cheap, and really make a party festive, if you do it right. Streamers are best used diagonally stretched across a room from one corner to the other, hanging down about seven feet from the floor. About three or four twisted and stretched across a room’s ceiling really brightens it up, and brings in the festivity.

To me, the best costumes are free! For years, we had a costume swap play day before Halloween when we would trade costumes from previous years. My kids loved looking through all the “new” costumes. And even enjoyed getting to wear one of their friend’s costumes they had envied the year before. 
 
The next best thing to free is thrift stores! I just got an adorable plush child’s lion costume for $1.25. Visit thrift stores often, as new items are donated daily. Get to know someone at each thrift store, and ask if they will call you when a costume comes in that you may like.
 
Buy used costumes on Ebay, Craigslist, or check your local paper for used costumes. This can be a great way to get a nice costume for much less.
 
Make your own costumes for super cheap. Google “DIY costumes” and you will find tons of ideas from complex to easy. Lots of costumes can be made from what you already have. Kids also like to make their own costumes. Maybe your daughter wants to be a “paper doll”. Help her cut a dress out of cardboard, and cardboard bow for her hair, and cardboard purse. She can add colors and design her paper doll with colored markers or crayons. Add cute round rosy cheeks with makeup, and she’s adorable. A boy could be a tin man using cardboard boxes covered with aluminum foil. Kids can come up with their own ideas, and love making their own costumes that they can be proud of. 

Have the kids decorate their own treat bags with glow paint. Glow sticks and glow necklaces are fun for kids, and also keep them safer on the streets. 
 
If your kids are at an age where they can go out by themselves, make them go in groups, and stay together. Also make sure they have cell phones. 
 
All trick or treaters should have flashlights!
 

What to do with all that leftover candy??? Freeze it, and then use it for your holiday baking! Snickers, Hershey’s, Butterfingers, and almost any other chocolate candy is awesome chopped up and baked into brownies or muffins. Multi colored candy can be used to top off cookies!


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Teri Gault, CEO and founder of The Grocery Gamewww.thegrocerygame.com

• Take the wreath off your door and put it in the center of the table. 
• Optional- add candles to the center (we like battery powered because they are kid friendly, won’t burn your house down, and create no smoke).

After the meal is over and you clear the table, hang the wreath back on the door.  It is simple, beautiful, smells nice, and easy to see over.  Whether you have guests, or not, you deserve a beautiful table that only takes minimal effort.

Try it for New Years! 


Will you be cozy at home or out on the town?

Thank you for sharing your opinions with me on which bow you liked on the coffee filter wreath.  That was fun!  In the end I used the maroon bow.

The biggest reason was because the color went better with the cranberries below, and the reindeer just didn’t look the same without his big red bow.  Can you see him in the background?

We may not be 100% ready for the big day yet, but one thing we are is well decorated.  Our place is busting with Christmas decorations.

Here are some (but not all :O) of the many wreaths:

The stocking are hung.

The mantel is sparkling with glitter :-)

In fact, I don’t think there is a single spot in our entire house left undecorated.

The lights need some decor too don’t ya think?

Not even the skinniest of walls left undone.

And why would you have one Christmas tree when you can have 3?

This one gets re-arranged and added to daily.  Hey you got to do something with those old artificial trees that are just sitting around!

Here are a few of my most treasured ornaments from The Picture Globe Company.

This one is from before Little Sister was born.

When she came a long we of course had to get one made with an adorable picture of her sitting in a basket.

OK so I might be a wee bit of a fanatic when it comes to decorating our home for the holidays, but I love it all the same!  One day my husband will build me a room full of shelves where I can neatly store all the decorations, and I can go in there and peak at them every once in a while.  Yeah right!  A girl can dream though ;-)

Before you get picture overload here is one last photo.  I love to display the holiday cards every year by pining them to a ribbon with reindeer cloth pins I made years ago.  Oops one of them is missing an eye!

In this photo you can see cards from Jessie Lynn, Traveling Pat, Julie-Maui Vacation Guide and Astrid, amongst other loved ones.  Thank you dearly!  We treasure them. 

Happy Holidays! ♥


How do you display Holiday Cards?

As much as I try not to have an overwhelming amount of things surrounding us in our home, there is a major, huge, gigantic exception and that would be Christmas decorations!  I love to decorate for Christmas, and embarrassingly enough have about 100,000 boxes of Christmas decorations that take up space and add to the clutter.  The difference is these boxes of stuff make me happy and I have no desire to get rid of ANY of them.  Just call me a Christmas decor hoarder.

One reason I have so many boxes is because I collect Christmas village pieces.

And not just one village set but many.  None of my village pieces go together.  They are from multiple collections.  Many of the pieces were given to me by my family when I was a kid.  My brothers and sister would pick out village pieces for me, and really you can’t go wrong they are all so cute!  I would get people and village decor in my stocking.  To one person it is awesome, to another it is complete clutter and junk.  I get that.  But this clutter makes me happy so I’m breaking my own rule and it stays no matter how many months of the year it collects dust in a box.  Could I live without it?  Of course!  But why would I if I love it?

The people, the houses, all the little tiny details, I just adore it all.  Really to me it is art.  All decorating is art so I think I am going to self proclaim myself a Christmas decorating artist the next time someone gives me a hard time about it. 

Every year my husband points out how all the people are on completely different scales and that some are 3 xs as large as others.  He is completely right!  Every year after that he lets me know how much space this all takes up, and every year when I remind him how much I love it he says he is going to start buying me a new set to start over.  Soon to be 8 years of marriage later I have yet to see one single village piece from him.  I think maybe he just can’t bring himself to buy it, and so my old pieces stay.

It is an easy way to bring my barn obsession indoors :-)

These kids carry in the fresh milk and eggs every day.

And who doesn’t want a little pile of fake wood in their house?  Come-on now!

I even have a lady who sells flowers directly from my living room.

Children making snow angels.  Horse drawn carriages.  And it is always a white Christmas for these guys!

This year I don’t have anywhere to plug my village pieces in without cords hanging all over the place.  Boo!  I’m going to have to figure something out in the future because I also adore their soft candle light glow.

In a nut shell my husband loves me, and so he puts up with Christmas village decor.  If you ask me I think he secretly likes it but would never admit to that.  It reminds me of my Grandfather saying he doesn’t like cats but every time he came to our house he let my cat sleep on him the whole time.  All I’m saying is actions speak louder than words, don’t you think?
My husband puts up with (secretly loves!) my Christmas decor and in exchange I make him Nanaimo bars.  Pretty fair deal don’t ya think? ;-)  Love is a powerful thing!

What about you?  Do you collect anything or is that a beast you’d rather stay away from?