Decorating for the holidays can be both expensive and emotionally draining. But you can decorate your home beautifully--on a budget--by following just a few simple suggestions.

First, you can create a happy holiday impression on your guests by simply concentrating your decorating efforts on your front door. Surrounding the entrance to your home with colorful lights, interwoven with garlands of greenery, offers a cheery "Welcome Home" atmosphere, without the need for ladders and endless strings of lights.

If putting up all of your decorations has become more of a chore than a delight during the holiday season, consider dividing your collection in half and alternating them every other year. That will require only half the amount of work, and the decorations will have more meaning, since you'll be putting up different ones every year.

If you spend extra money on costly additives for keeping your Christmas tree from turning brown, you can take heart from the National Christmas Tree Association, which says that plain tap water is the best source of moisture for your tree. In fact, some commercial additives and home concoctions can actually be detrimental to a trees moisture retention and increase needle loss, according to the NCTA.

You can save a considerable amount of money, and make your holidays more meaningful, by creating your own decorations, using your familys heritage as a guideline. You can incorporate family pictures or treasured mementos to create totally unique decorations, and its a great way to honor your ancestors while helping your children feel more connected with their familys history.

And finally, you won't have to take down the old decorations and put up new ones for your New Years Eve celebration, if you recycle your holiday wreaths and garlands after Christmas simply by spray painting them silver or gold.

The holidays can be a stressful period, but you can avoid the financial stress and the emotional burden by using these simple suggestions. Happy holidays!

(c) Copyright 2004, Jeanette J. Fisher. All rights reserved.

Jeanette Joy Fisher

Jeanette Fisher, author of over ten books, including university textbooks and encyclopedia articles on color psychology, has researched the effects of the environment on emotions for over 15 years. Jeanette has appeared on internationally syndicated radio and television and teaches Design Psychology and real estate investing.

She offers free information on interior design, real estate investing, and mortgage credit help from her websites. Jeanette Fisher's books, available from her websites and from Amazon, help real estate investors, home sellers, and home makers. To find out the four steps for beginning real estate investors, five ways to use interior design for home staging, or how to makeover your home for joy, visit Jeanette Fisher.com. And while there, don't forget to subscribe to her free newsletters.

Jeanette has so many websites because her name can be spelled so many ways.