By: Karen

The holidays are right around the corner, so in other words, there’s going to be a lot of company stopping by – whether you want to see them or not.  During this holiday rush there’s not a lot of time to get anything complicated done, especially when decorating the house is probably at the bottom of your priority list.

I bet decorating your windows isn’t the first thing that pops into your mind – but from my experience it’s fast, easy, and not too expensive! So as a busy working mom, I figured I’d share some things that my friends and I have done (so you don’t have to waste the precious minutes you could be  shopping coming up with decorating ideas.)

• Use the large windowsills in your front windows as a focal point in a living or dining room. Pace bowls full of ornaments, mini trees, or decorative ivy along the sill. You can also layout a few pieces of evergreen garland that you have left over from decorating outside – I love the way it makes my house smell!! And, as you eat, your guests can still admire the decorations that would usually have to move to make space for dinner.

• Change up your curtains – just for a little while. You might have curtains that you leave hanging year round, but replacing them with some inexpensive panels, in warm colors – burgundy, forest green, or deep cocoa color, you can transform the entire look of the room. (I got mine  for less than $10 a panel!)

• As temporary decorations, tape leftover strands of lights – I buy too many for my tree every year – around the inside of your windows that not only warm up the room from the inside, but add decoration to the outside as well. Different color candles also can be arranged to add warmth to the room. (Tip – the new electronic candles look as good as the real thing, and you never have to worry about your kids/pets getting too close!)

• As the holiday approaches and you’re not sure what to do with all of the cards you received, reuse them as decoration! Hang them around the trim of your window with different colored ribbon, so that everyone can enjoy them! (I always throw mine away after the holiday’s over – so why not let my guest enjoy them too!?)

• During the whole winter , use store-bought snow spray along the bottom of your windows to bring the snow inside. To get my kids involved I had them cut out snowflakes from white paper and hung them along the top of my windows! It’s cute, and can last for a few months.

Just remember, it’s just these are just temporary fixes to spruce things up for a few months – and make it look like you took the time to decorate – so once the holidays are over, you can take them all down, and restore calm to your house… or as get things back to normal, whatever that means….