A Country Christmas at The Dow's

Christmas is by FAR my favourite holiday! Family, Food & Fairy Lights- what could be better than that?! This is Gary & I's first Christmas as a married couple and so it's the first time I have had my OWN house to decorate! The problem was...I had such big ideas for my first Christmas but...no budget! As they say, "A Boer Maak N' Plan". So this post is not just about Christmas Decor- it's about Christmas Decor on a budget. Take a peek at my mood board below and I'll share some of my simple, yet effective decor ideas...

JUST DARLING'S CHRISTMAS DECOR TIPS:

STICK TO ONE THEME

• Whatever look you are going for, whether it be a modern, traditional or country Christmas- do it confidently and BOLDLY. There's nothing worse than a "neither-here-nor-there" Christmas theme.
• Transform your home. Luckily the colours of my home are mostly neutrals which made it VERY easy to transform my home for Christmas time. All I had to do was remove all my blue decor (i.e. scatter cushions, frames, and vases) to get a blank canvas. Then I replaced all the missing decor items with Christmas decor. I put my bedroom's red scatter cushions in my lounge and I used lots of hessian to create a country feel.

USE SIMPLE, CHEAP WAYS TO DECORATE

• Replace the pictures/photos currently in your home with vintage Christmas cards or printed Christmas quotes. I created my own Christmas images/quotes using Microsoft Word and placed them in wooden picture frames in my home.
• Place red and green apples in your fruit bowl or put cherries and mini crackers on pewter trays on your coffee table. 
• Tie together some red vintage books with hessian and Christmas ribbon.
• Fill up glass jars with red and white Christmas candies.
• Convert your current decor. My mom and I (mostly my mom) made hessian covers for 2 signs that currently hang on my wall. We appliqued Christmas words onto hessian, sewed it all together and in less than an hour we had made 2 beautiful wall hangings that I can slip off and re-use again next year!
• Put fairy lights, pine cones and poinsettia flowers under a bell jar. So simple, yet so so SO effective! 
• If you don't have a tree- use something else that could work. Gary and I were SHOCKED at the price of Christmas Trees so we decided to use the vintage ladder as our tree this year. To be honest I'm questioning if I'll ever go back to using a  normal tree because I love the look so much. Try something different- paint a Christmas tree onto a piece of wood, nail planks of wood together to form the shape of a tree or simply hang Christmas lights in the shape of a tree on your wall.
• If you don't have a mantelpiece- then peg your stockings onto a string line. 

FOR THE COUNTRY CHRISTMAS FEEL...

• Hessian, Hessian, Hessian! It's the most important ingredient in the Country Christmas Cocktail! My mom made me gorgeous hessian stockings as well as the cute hessian Star that hangs at the top of my tree. 
• Simple decorations are the best way to achieve the country look- sew your own material stars or hearts for the tree. Alternatively use hard cardboard to cut out and paint simple decorations like hearts, stars & crosses. 

GIFT WRAPPING

• There's no need for expensive wrapping. Use brown paper or newspaper and simply jazz it up with washi-tape, hessian, ribbon and Christmas decorations.
• Instead of one simple gift tag- personalize each gift by creating an interesting gift "charm". Tie together different layers of paper, ribbon, photos, decorations and anything else that may be meaningful to the person.

So guys that's that! There is no excuse to having Christmas Cheer, no matter what your budget. Having said that, above all the lights, decorations and food- Christmas is a time to be thankful for our blessings and more importantly thankful to the One who has been the Ultimate Gift-Giver!

This is my last post for the year so to all of you...I wish you a blessed, warm & fuzzy feeling Christmas and a safe and wonderful New Year. Looking forward to seeing what 2013 holds!

Love Abz

xxx