Christmas Wrapped

In a few days we’re throwing the 2008 version of the party I shared here last month. This year is a lot like last year only with the added thrill of the Big Three Bailout looming heavily over our area, Metro Detroit. Festive!

I’ve been collecting some great, inexpensive and easy centerpiece ideas and thought I’d share them with you. They’re inexpensive because everyone around here is trying to keep as much money as they can in a coffee can under their beds and easy because I have many skills but elaborate centerpieces are not among them.

At Craftershock, Wendy Chung has a great Paper Flower Tutorial. She attaches the flowers to twigs and puts them in vases on the table. I’m especially drawn to the square bowls of pears on the table. With a red runner on your table, classic Christmas colors. Instead of paper flowers, you could attach very small glass bulbs to the branches and make it even easier on yourself.

I love these wooden quilting hoops and simple wooden balls on the table from the Real Simple Holiday Decorating Ideas From The Craft Store feature.

Ribbon, just like I used last year to add a little color to my table. But I love how Better Homes and Garden uses a wider layer of red fabric and then ribbon. The glass bowls with ribbon flowers are also a cheap way to avoid fresh flowers. You can find the directions for those right here.

Party Perfect shares the work of stylist Molly Fitzsimmons in this post. A pile of oranges on a lovely tray, it doesn’t get much cheap or easy than that. Unless you’re talking about…oh, never mind.

The easiest part of creating holiday centerpieces is the fact that if you throw some red, white or green out there, you’re pretty much good to go. This candy cane covered vase is perfect. The best part for me is I can you my small round vases from last year to complete this project for next to nothing.

With all these great ideas, maybe no one will know how I threw this party together in about one day.