It’s time to get festive! Making your own festive decor is a fun and rewarding way to pass the time at home—it feels good to create beautiful ornaments and decorations for the season! A craft night can be relaxing, too, since you have only one thing to focus on: making your home merry and bright. These simple DIY holiday decorating ideas are fun for the whole family. You can even schedule a video chat with friends or family and have a crafting night together.
Incorporate Evergreen Cuttings Everywhere and Anywhere
A sprig of an evergreen here and there will bring the sights and smells of the season into your home. Put small cuttings around candles, tuck greenery into your chandelier, and dress up a bookshelf with boughs of holly.
Book Tree
If you’re tight on space and don’t have room for a Christmas tree, work with what you have to create a simple “book tree.”
Gather up all your books with green covers. On three shelves, one stacked above the other, place the books vertically. Put about 7 to 10 on the bottom shelf, 5 or 6 on the middle, and three or four on the top. Space the spines of the books apart a bit to create a tree shape—when you take a step back and look at the shelves, you should see a triangle of green books.
Centre an ornament, like a star, above the top shelf. You can also add small cuttings of evergreen, red berries, and pinecones to your shelves to add more of a holiday theme.
Citrus Garland
We love the pop of colour this garland of orange slices adds to your holiday décor. Plus, the scent is heavenly!
Preheat your oven to 250˚F, then cut some navel oranges into 1/4 inch slices (use as many oranges as you need for the length of garland you want!). Line a couple of cookie sheets with parchment paper. Pat the orange slices dry, then put them on the cookie sheets. Bake for about an hour and a half, flip the slices so the other side faces up, then bake for another hour and a half. You can check on your slices periodically starting around hour two. Remove any pieces that are beginning to brown, then bake the rest until they are dry.
Once the oranges are done and you have removed them from the oven, let the slices cool. Then, using a large needle and twine, sew through the flesh of the oranges to string them together. Space them apart however you like—some people like a few inches between each slice while others like the slices to overlap.
Hang your dried orange garland on your tree, along shelves, or on top of an evergreen garland.
Rustic Twig Ornaments
Twig ornaments look great on your tree, a garland, or hanging anywhere else in your home! To make your own, start by collecting some thin branches. Using a glue gun, glue the branches together into different shapes, like a star, snowflake, or Christmas tree. Tie twine around the branches for extra decoration and a bit of added support to the ornaments. Add things like buttons, sprigs of evergreen, or anything else festive to the ornament. To finish it off, add a loop of twine so you can hang your work of art.
Pinecone Ornaments
Nature produces so many built-in ornaments, like pinecones, that you can incorporate into your home décor!
Collect pinecones from your yard or purchase some at our garden centre. Spray paint them white—you can use any colour, but we love how the white stands out against a Christmas tree’s dark green needles. For added sparkle, sprinkle glitter on the pinecones while the paint is still wet. Once the paint has dried, make a loop with ribbon or twine to add to the top of the pinecone. Or, if you don’t want to hang them, you can instead place the painted pinecones in a decorative bowl to display as a centrepiece.
Vintage Ornament Shadow Box
Do you have vintage ornaments passed down from family members or a collection of your own favourite childhood ornaments? Consider displaying these special heirlooms in a shadow box!
Line the backing of the shadow box with fabric or even wrapping paper. Then, stick the bulbs onto the backing using double-sided adhesive pads. We get it—sometimes you run out of space on your tree and have to be selective with your ornaments, so this holiday decorating idea is one solution for displaying them!
Hanging Branch Centrepiece
Save table space by thinking vertically! To create a hanging branch centrepiece, find a long branch that has multiple twigs. Decorate the branch with fairy lights, then hang it using fishing line attached to ceiling hooks. Make sure there’s enough room between your table and the branch for you to add some hanging ornaments. Once the branch is secured, add a few ornaments to it.
Crafting your own ornaments is a great way to get in the holiday spirit! DIY holiday decorations make great gifts, too, so be sure to make a few extra to give away this season.
When you design your home’s exterior with winter curb appeal in mind, it's amazing how welcoming and warm it can look with just a few simple touches. When the neighbourhood is blanketed with snow and the sky is grey, having an eye-catching, beautiful home can really lift your spirits! There are many fun and low-effort ways to transform your home's aesthetic for the winter. Take a look at some of these curb appeal landscaping and decorating ideas to spruce things up this winter season!
8 Inspiring Ideas For Winter Curb Appeal Design
For some serious Simcoe curb appeal, try adding in some of these stylistic touches to keep things merry and bright:
First, Pick A Theme. Are you into the rustic vintage look, or are you more of a glitter-and-glam type? Having a consistent theme throughout your home's outdoor aesthetic will make everything look streamlined and beautiful. Browse through social media hashtags and Pinterest to get some inspiration for themes and colour schemes, or create a mood board to get those creative juices flowing.
Light Things Up. Twinkle lights are a quintessential holiday decoration, but you can do so much more than just hanging them around your roof. Jazz up the bare trees in your yard by wrapping lights around the trunk and branches, add some into your container arrangements, and grab some solar-powered lanterns to decorate your garden and porch.
Get Creative With Holiday Urns. Fresh evergreen boughs, pinecones, ribbons, and natural wood elements or glitzy picks look so fabulous all arranged together in an ornamental urn. Start by picking out an urn that matches your chosen theme—a birchbark motif would look amazing if you're going for the rustic look. Next, gather all the accoutrements for filling your urn, and arrange them with the tallest pieces in the middle, and shorter pieces all around the border.
Adding in some pieces that trail down the side can also have a great impact on the composition of your arrangement. You could even try wrapping some twinkle lights around the base of your urn for some extra sparkle. If you're less-than-confident in your design skills, join us at one of our holiday urn workshops on November 21st at 6:30 pm, or November 23rd at 10:00 am!
Embrace Metallic Accents. Silver and gold are the go-to metallics for winter decor, but you could even experiment with metallic colours like amethyst, rose gold, or emerald. The shimmery finish complements the glittering white snow beautifully, and they catch the light so well. Paint a few branches with metallic paint and pop them into your holiday urn, or grab some metallic outdoor accessories like lanterns, plant pots, or wind spinners.
Make A Statement Wreath. There are endless ways to customize your wreaths, whether you make them with fresh evergreen sprigs, twisted twigs, or whatever material suits your fancy. Think outside the box and try something different—maybe even integrate some cute novelty ornaments and funky fabric ribbons! Some folks have even taken to hanging their wreaths like a chandelier, with wispy evergreen plumes that hang down ever-so-elegantly.
Give A Warm Welcome. A cute, festive welcome sign is a straightforward way of creating an inviting and warm atmosphere! We're really looking forward to our Christmas Welcome Planter workshop at 1:00 pm on November 30th. Come join us, and we'll show you how to make one yourself!
Put Up A Bird Feeder. Not only are ornamental bird feeders a lovely sight to behold, but the birds they attract are welcome visitors that are so enjoyable to watch. It's a win-win: you get to enjoy their pretty songs and colourful feathers, and they get to enjoy a hearty snack to help get them through the winter. We recommend buying a simple wooden one and giving it a cool custom paint job to fit with your chosen colour palette.
Get Some Potted Dwarf Conifers For The Porch. Little miniature Christmas trees are downright adorable! A variety like the Blue Star Juniper is nice and compact, and it would add tons of holiday festivity without taking up too much real estate. Pick out some pretty decorative containers and string some lights around them for maximum impact! And the bonus is you can plant it into your landscape in the spring.
Beautiful decorations and glittering lights make holidays at home all the more memorable. If you're in need of some fresh evergreen boughs or other winter decorating supplies, or if you'd like to register for one of our upcoming workshops, visit us in-store at Eising's, and we'll help you get your home winter-ready.