Deck the Halls and Walls and Doors and More!

This is the first Christmas for The Good Woman (now you know she's not me - I've seen 59 Christmases). Anyway, after decorating the blog, I'm getting into the mood to decorate my house. In the past few years I opted not to do that because the decorations were in a tiny crawl space in the attic.

With that having been the situation, as Robert and I get older, we find it more and more difficult to get motivated to climb ladders, squeeze into small spaces, lift heavy boxes and carry them down the ladder, unload paraphernalia, untangle Christmas lights, move furniture, put decorative pieces into boxes, take out other decorative pieces and put them in the place of the ones we just packed away, etc. and then turn around four or five weeks later and do all the same again, only in reverse. Whew!!!

Well, if that's how you feel too, here are some quick and easy ways to decorate without all the fuss. And, by the way, we did get all the decorations out of the attic last year and move them to a storage space under the house. We just pulled it all out and I have a festive decorating fervor that I've not had in three or four years!

Here are the quick tips for decorating your house:

1. Tie narrow red or green ribbon to Christmas cookie cutters and use as ornaments which can be attached to garlands, or placed on house plants, or door knobs.

2. Top wall hangings or mirrors with a swag of greenery, sprig of holly and a big red bow.

3. Fill mason jars with wrapped Christmas chocolates (dark chocolate of course). Wrap lids in calico to match and tie with ribbon. Use as decorations or give away to guests.

4. Make a table cover with five or more red and green bandannas stitched together.

5. Hang small ornaments on house plants to create a festive look.

6. Make pretty bows from red or green ribbon and use for tie backs on your curtains.

7. Stack a collection of Christmas books on a side table, with the top book wrapped with a ribbon and pretty bow.

8. For a lighted greeting, cover a lamp shade with several layers of white tissue paper, taping down edges to inside of shade (keep paper away from light bulb). Cut fat, freehand letters out of red or green tissue paper to spell a holiday greeting - "Joyous Noel" or "Merry Christmas", etc. Attach the letters with pieces of double-stick tape.

9. Replace an aquarium background with a piece of holiday gift wrap or Christmas art by your child.

10.Wrap an assortment of empty boxes, small, medium and large, with gift wrap from last year. Add bows and ribbons. Stack these in a corner, starting with the largest on the bottom to the smallest on top, from floor to ceiling.

11. Gift wrap interior doors in holiday paper and attach a ribbon and large fabric bow.

12. Tie throw pillows with ribbons and bows to resemble Christmas packages.

Get the kids or grandkids involved and may your days be merry and bright!