Christmas decor

The front hall:

I took a vase (that I already owned) and added a package of sleigh bells (Home Goods, 25% off) and some blue spruce twigs (free from my backyard).

In the foreground are 3 pinecone candles (found them in the china hutch) on my antique silver butter pat plates. I bought the coasters at Target and the "ice" on the plates is ice cream salt ($1.12 for a box).



Along the stairwell is a grouping of Norway Pine boughs (backyard again) with bows and a candy cane ornament (handmade). For the bows, I bought a spool of wired ribbon (3.99) and made a couple of bows out of it. The candy cane ornament is 5 candy canes taped together with a bow to cover the tape (3 boxes of candy canes, $2.98). I also bought a decorative thingy (probably for holiday arrangements, $2.99) that I cut up and stuffed in the middle of each. I also hung two of these on suction cups on the sidelight window next to the front door.



And the last piece were these candles on the top of the stair rail. I bought a pack of dinner candles (small candles in glass containers, $5.99) and placed them in regular kitchen glasses. I added more ice cream salt mixed with 6 crushed-up candy canes (see previous project) to keep them steady and add to the effect.

The best part is that I have extras left over for next year. All the candy canes will be saved and either reused or crushed up. I barely put a dent in the box of ice cream salt, so there's plenty of that, and I only used half of the dinner candles.