November 2024 - In The Indoor Garden
Christmas is fast approaching and most people are looking for budget–friendly decorating ideas that still pack a festive punch in the home decorating department. I love the traditional Christmas plants like Poinsettias, Christmas Cacti and Paperwhites but am always on the lookout out for new Christmas decorating ideas. And of course, quick and easy to set up! I don’t think I’m asking too much, do you?
When you are on a tight decorating budget, be creative with what you already have in your home. The obvious choice for plant people is, of course, your tropical plants! They can provide the backbone of a never ending list of Christmas decorating ideas! Remember that tropical plants can be repositioned just for the Christmas season and head back to their homes after the holidays are over.
Here are a few budget-friendly Christmas decorating ideas to get you in the mood!
If you are going to buy just two things for decorating your tropicals this Christmas season make it decorative, quality wired ribbon and strings of indoor mini LED clear lights. To me, lights at Christmas are a must and a beautiful bow will dress up just about anything! Color co-ordinate the ribbons - even if they have different patterns - to tie your displays together. Tiny lights can be used anywhere (even in water) to add that extra sparkle and immediately give your tropical plants that festive feeling.
Create a Christmas covered terrarium or two with some tiny terrarium plants such as baby tears, or any two inch plant that will fit, except cacti/succulents. Add some small shrub twigs, pinecones, decorative stones and moss to this forest scene and yes, a bow (inside or out!). Using miniature figures and Christmas items to decorate is all the rage. Spray a small mirror or pieces of glass with frost spray, let dry and you have a frozen pond to include in your tiny world.
Do you enjoy sewing? Create festive pot covers for your tropical pots with Christmas fabrics. A simple square of fabric, trim the edges with pinking shears or hem in place, set the drainage tray and plant pot on top and draw the fabric up and around the pot. Secure with shiny elastic cord or ribbon. If sewing isn’t your thing, wrap the pots in Christmas paper or drop the pots in Christmas gift bags. There are lots of origami sites on the net that you can access to learn to create different sizes of paper bags. Always include drainage trays in the bottom of your pot covers. Plant pot covers can also be vintage themed pots or inexpensive Christmas pots from Floral Acres!
A unique pot cover idea is to use thrifted children or adult Christmas sweaters cut down the back so they can go around the pots. This decorating idea can be used for just about any size of tropical plant pot. The arms can be tied in front, left loose or secured in back. Remove after Christmas, wash and store away for next year.
Tropical plants can be decorated with Christmas ornaments but do use lightweight ornaments with plastic hangers. Tropical plants are living, breathing beings. A lot are delicate and should be handled with care. When you do use them for Christmas decorating, remember not to use heavy ornaments, do not pierce the leaves or stems to hang ornaments, do not tightly twist wire around plant stems, and never use spray snow, flocking or sparkle spray on your plant leaves. And remember to keep them away from cold drafts and vents.
Believe it or not, tinsel is once again popular as a Christmas decoration. It is lightweight and adds some Christmas twinkle to your displays. As a Baby Boomer, I grew up when tinsel was THE backbone of Christmas decorating and used by the truckload on your Christmas tree. If used judiciously, tinsel can be beautiful. Remember there is a fine line between too little and too much tinsel when hanging it from your Norfolk Pine!
Also, remember that tinsel should not be used in a home that has dogs, cats or birds.
Centrepieces for the dinner or buffet table can be expensive. Group a few indoor tropical plants together, wrapped individually or in an oblong wicker or tin Christmas container and top with moss. Depending on your theme, you can now add decorations, candles, mini lights and weave ribbon and artificial berry sprays throughout.
Group three moss balls on three ornate candlesticks. Again items from around the house can be used to decorate each ball. Add cloves, ribbon, rose hip branches, vanilla seed pods, tiny pinecones, red cardinals and miniature gold, silver or red ornament balls from your previous Christmas stash. Once decorated, place the candlesticks in a line at the centre of the table.
Small Norfolk pines in decorative containers can also be used as table centres or place markers. Wrap the pots with burlap and tie with ribbon or jute string. Cover the soil with tiny pinecones or nuts still in the shell. The natural look – simple but effective.
You can also weave mini lights and ribbon through a supportive trellis amongst the leaves of such plants as Hoya, Pothos and Grape or English ivy and use as anchor decorations for your mantle. Mantle garland does not always have to be evergreen. Tropical hanging plants placed along the mantle provide a lovely backdrop for standing Christmas decorations, lights and sparkling ribbon.
If you have dogwoods in your garden with red branches, trim off a few branches in November for Christmas decorating. If they are mature dogwoods, they will not mind a few missing branches. This can be done with other shrub and tree varieties as well. Don’t take too many, so you can avoid removing flower buds if they are from spring blooming shrubs. Keep all outside in the cold until you are ready to use them for decorating.
For a simple, but effective Christmas look on your fireplace mantle combine red dogwood branches, rose hip branches and cedar boughs in a decorative crystal vase or tall waterproof ceramic pot. Cedar lasts a very long time in a vase of water. Insert a classy red, patterned bow at the lip of the vase with the ribbon ends trailing down. Include waterproof lights in the vase or lights in the greenery and you have a beautiful mantle decoration for very little money.
Change the water often, making fresh end cuts on the branches. It is also important to make sure you trim the needles off any part of the branches that will be in water. This decoration can be done with any size of vase – even tiny ones – glass, antique, ceramic, or plastic. In fact make a few different sizes and add to every room in the house! Do not be afraid to cut up the boughs to fit the containers. Using this method, you can buy just one cedar bough bunch and make it go a long way.
If you have hanging tropical plants in macramé hangers, again add a bow on the edge of the pot, tiny ornamental red cardinals in amongst the leaves, mini lights throughout the plant, up onto the hanger and viola!
Create a decorative floor ‘scene” in a corner by the fireplace with varying heights and odd numbers of tropical plants, co-ordinating pot covers and some Christmas decorations of varying sizes. Do not get too carried away with a lot of decorations as this can border on messy. Again include lights through-out. Grouping decorative shiny and matte balls of different sizes amongst your display is a simple touch, but very impressive. Placing the tropical plants together will create more humidity in the group, benefiting the plants.
No matter how you use your tropical plants to decorate this Christmas, just remember to leave room somewhere in each display to add water!