Kat’s Money Corner: Save on holiday decorations

If you’re buying for the current season, holiday decorations can be extremely pricey. Sometimes you’re better off just making decorations yourself, or reusing the ones you already have. Check out my tips for buying decorations that can be repurposed for multiple holidays or made on the fly with just a bit of DIY tweaking.

Pretty Pumpkins

I’ve noticed that the shelf life of pumpkins seems to extend further and further each year (unless your neighborhood deer have a say in the matter). Wondering what to do with all those Halloween pumpkins lining the steps on your front porch? You can easily transition these gourds into Thanksgiving decorations, but what about after the turkey-filled feast? With some paint, tinsel and old beanies, you turn your pumpkins into some really cute snowmen or ornaments.

Give Thanks (for Reusable Décor)

It feels like every time I cruise the holiday decoration aisle or check out my favorite decorator’s blog posts, I see apothecary jars. These pretty glass containers make decorating for the holidays a snap. For Thanksgiving, send the kids out into the yard or down to the park to collect acorns and colorful leaves and fill your jars with these items.

For Christmas and New Year’s Eve, put your little ones to work making winter wonderful terrariums with the apothecary jars. Salt or white glitter (if you dare) makes for a great snowy landscape and you can even use old ornaments to create little scenes or villages.

Set the Table

A few years ago, we purchased gold and red charger plates at an after-Christmas clearance sale. They were normally $4.99 and we bought them for $.50 each. We have re-used these same chargers every year because the colors work for almost every major holiday including Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas and even the Fourth of July!

The moral of the story here is to stock up on all-year items such as chargers, napkins, disposable plates, serving dishes and flatware in cross-holiday colors to get the most bang for your buck, especially when you find them on sale.

Even if you’re one of those people who think “I’m just not creative,” give yourself holiday license to push the boundaries a bit and decorate. There’s really nothing you can’t make merry with a can of metallic spray paint and some holiday cheer. If all else fails, there’s always Pinterest! Happy decorating!

Kat's Money Corner is posted on Dollars & Sense every Tuesday. Kat Hnatyshyn, when not blogging or caring for her little ones, is a manager with CommunityAmerica Credit Union. For more financial chatter, click http://twitter.com/savinmavens or visit http://communityamerica.com.

This story was originally published October 27, 2015 at 8:52 AM with the headline "Kat’s Money Corner: Save on holiday decorations."