True, I should have written this a few mother ago, I know that. However, I was sitting around with my family last night and we got to talking about last year’s Christmas decorations. Although we all love the holiday season, and my family is a bit over the top about it, no one can say that it is not a stressful time of year. I’m not just talking about the shopping for gifts, making sure I don’t forget anyone and that I get something that is appropriate for who I’m getting it for. The amount of hours that it entails is crazy! But that is just the gift aspect of the holiday or in this case Christmas season.

The part that really takes a lot of time and energy is the Christmas decorations. This is a project that cannot be dumped on mom like all other house chores and decorations. True, I choose the decorations, from the lights to the lawn decorations, but it’s my boys and my husband that has to lug the stuff up from the basement and climb around the house and put the stuff into position.

The stress is worth the reward as im sure you would agree, and the work and all the frustration that always goes into holiday preparation is promptly forgotten when everyone is sitting around the table or relaxing on the couch.

But what we got to talking about is a very interesting twist that we experimented with last holiday season and I felt it would be nice to share it with anyone who is interested in making their holiday decorations stand out.

Years ago we went out and got that classic reindeer and sleigh with the glowing lights that you plug into the side of your house. We got wreaths and rope light and all the other standard holiday decorations. But after many years of use the stuff started to break and fall apart or simply rust and not be presentable anymore.

Finally this last year we were all out of our old stuff and were not in a financial position to go out and buy more.

So I took some old mannequins that I had in the basement and decorated them like snowman. Then I took the old rope lights and wrapped them around the snowman mannequins. It sounds messy I know, but it looked great. This was a Christmas were we made due with very little but it actually came out pretty good in the end. So I guess the point of this all is that if you are low on cash, try to use your old things to make that magical Christmas spirit come alive for your family.