101 Easy Decorating Tips

Do you need some ideas on how to decorate your apartment for the Holidays? Here are 101 tips for easy, simple, and creative ways to put holiday themes around your home this season.

1. Create a charming display of teddy bears dressed for the season. Gather together three or more teddy bears and arrange them on a table or on the floor in a corner. Dress the bears with touques, scarves and mittens. Place candy canes in their hands or tie bows around their necks. You can even wrap up some small, empty boxes with Christmas wrapping paper to place in the bears’ hands.

2. Display a collection of nativity scenes from different cultures.

3. Make simple bows from Christmas print ribbon and pin them to your curtains.

4. Hang a collection of Christmas stockings on your mantle, a shelf or the wall (even if you don’t stuff them). The more the merrier when it comes to nice christmas decorations.

5. Revisit your childhood. Cut snowflakes from white paper and hang them in all of your windows.

6. Buy a clear plastic shower curtain. Use a hot glue gun to attach Christmas decorations to the outside of the curtain. Don’t use breakable ornaments – instead, try small wooden or plastic ornaments (remove any hooks), bows, garland, etc.

7. Use red and green 3-dimensional fabric paints to trace simple Christmas patterns (like stars, bells, Santas, stockings, etc.) on a white tablecloth.

8. Dress up your house plants – hang small Christmas ornaments on them.

9. Tie a red ribbon around a tall, slim drinking glass. Fill the glass with candy canes and display on a shelf or side table.

10. Purchase plain green or red place mats and attach Christmas ribbons, bows or small wooden ornaments with a hot glue gun.

11. Fill a small glass bowl or decorative Christmas bowl with small cones and display on end tables, shelves, buffet tables, etc.

12. For quick ornaments, hang Christmas cookie cutters with ribbon. Hang them on your tree or in a window so other people can enjoy your christmas decorations.

13. Create a cookie wreath centerpiece for your table. Just arrange Christmas cookies in a wreath shape right on the table cloth. No need to attach them to anything ’cause everyone will want to nibble at them. If you like, place a pillar candle on a small plate in the center of the wreath.

14. Decorate plain red, white, green or gold candles with 3-dimensional fabric paint. Draw stars, bells, angels, snowmen, etc. If you make a mistake, let the paint dry and peal it off, then start again.

15. Pile a collection of Christmas books on a side table.

For the rest of the 101 tips see All Things Christmas.

The Best Gifts for Little Kids

Your little brothers, sisters, nieces, and nephews may travel a lot to see relatives during the holidays.  The long hours in a car or plane can be boring.  However, this holiday season there are many gifts you can get them to help pass the time or to learn about travel.  Keep reading to find out details on what are some great gifts!

Globe

Maps are useful and portable, but globes fascinate children of all ages. Using a globe, children can learn about countries, continents and oceans. Globes teach children about the true sizes of landforms and help them see the distances between points. Look for a raised relief globe, which shows elevations of mountains and valleys.

Rolling Luggage

Even young children enjoy packing and pulling their own rolling suitcases. Taking care of clothing and belongings gives children a sense of responsibility and turns the tedious task of packing into an enjoyable activity. Look for a rolling suitcase sized for your child or grandchild; a youth-sized rolling bag will be easy for a younger, shorter child to pull. Middle schoolers and teens will probably prefer a larger bag with a longer pull handle. You can find rolling suitcases and duffel bags in all shapes, colors, sizes and price ranges.

Auto Bingo

This classic, low-tech toy can help those hours in the car pass more quickly. Each child takes an auto bingo card, which includes pictures of common roadside items, such as sheep, stop signs and railroad crossings. Players slide a colored window closed when they spot an object on their particular card. The first child to close five windows in a horizontal, vertical or diagonal row shouts, "Bingo!" and wins the game. Auto bingo games come in sets of four cards.

Mealtime Masterpiece Paper Placemats

The only thing more tedious than a long drive is a seemingly longer wait for restaurant food to arrive. Keep your child or grandchild happy and busy with these fun Mealtime Masterpiece paper placemats by Fred & Friends. This stack of 40 11 by 14 inch placemats comes with six marking pens, but you could also bring crayons or colored pencils, which are easier to carry and less messy, for your junior artists to use at the table. Each placemat has a painting-canvas-and-frame design, perfect for "framing" a creative kid's art.

Playing Cards / Boxed Card Games

Card games provide hours of entertainment for children of all ages. A deck of regular playing cards can be used to play Concentration by spreading the shuffled cardes face down on a table and having each player take turns turning two cards over, looking for pairs. The same deck can be used to play Solitaire, Crazy Eights, Old Maid and many more card games. Boxed card games, such as Professor Noggin's educational trivia games and UNO, are both colorful and easy to carry. Tip: Airplanes, trains and hotel rooms are the best places to play card games. It's very easy to lose cards in the car.

Travel Journal / Sketchbook

Children of almost any age can draw or write about their travel adventures in a blank journal or sketchbook. Preschoolers enjoy drawing pictures of buildings, animals and even food; parents and grandparents can write the date and a short description on each sketchbook page. Older children can draw pictures, create cartoons or write about each day's adventures in their journal. Travel journals and sketchbooks come in all sizes and price ranges; younger children will probably prefer to draw their pictures on larger pages. Remember to provide crayons, pencils or pens; marking pens may soak through pages.

For more information see About.com.