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Design Dilemma: Simple, Sustainable Holiday Decor

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Pull out the silver garland and the mistletoe, because we’ve entered the holiday decorating season. Christmas trees, holiday wreaths, string lights and plastic reindeer rule the day. And yet, today’s more austere times seem to require simpler decorations — those that delight in the natural pleasures of the season without exploiting them.

What’s so great about decorating for the holidays these days is that we’ve all come to realize that we don’t need to go overboard to enjoy the season. Instead, it’s far more satisfying to decorate in a simple, sustainable way that does minimum damage to the earth. The emphasis is on the natural and the edible. Another plus: we need not worry about storing costly decorations in our homes throughout the year because our natural and edible decorations can return to the earth from which they come.

Check out these ideas:

1) Clementines

This time of year we’re all munching on this succulent fruit. So why not take it out of the fruit bowl and use it as a colorful and sweet-smelling adornment around the house? From RealSimple.com comes this idea: take several lengths of heavy-gauge wire, knot one end of each, and string through a clementine and a jingle bell. Twist all the wires into a cluster and secure with a large bow. Hang on a newel post or your front door. You might even take your clementine strand and adorn the mantle.

2) Fir sprigs and flute glasses as a holiday centerpiece.

How’s this for a simple holiday centerpiece? Take champagne flute glasses and stick in a sprig from a fir or pine tree. Add a votive candle at the base of the champagne glass. You’ve just concocted an inventive, elegant holiday table centerpiece that is simple to make and easy to enjoy.

3) Candles — votive and otherwise.

Here’s one to try if you have no kids, pets or clutsy adults at home.  Take white candles and place them in hurricane lamps or glass bowls. Distribute these babies in any corner of the house that could benefit from some holiday cheer. You can even distribute them along a staircase if you dare and you’ve got a fire extinguisher handy.

4) Seasonal branches.

There’s something about seeing little red berries or little white flowers on bare branches that warms the cockles. Seasonal branches of this sort can be used as a centerpiece on the table or an adornment on mantles.  Below, branches arranged in a hanging basket serve as a stand-in for the traditional holiday wreath. But a tree branch doesn’t necessarily have to have any berry or flower to be beautiful. Use a bare fallen tree branch, as seen in the first photo of this post to create a centerpiece for draping garlands, greens, holiday cards or Christmas ornaments.

5) Gourds are not just for Thanksgiving.

Choose pale gourds and put them under glass, as shown below. You might also experiment with painting gourds in typical holiday colors, perhaps a display of all white gourds, or silver and gold metallic gourds.

6) Kitchen Spices for holiday wreath.

Gather your spices to make a beautiful crafted wreath that can also be used to flavor your food! Basil, thyme, sage, oregano, rosemary, and bay leaves can all work perfectly.

7) Pine Cones, spray-painted and otherwise.

No post on sustainable decorating would be complete without a nod to the spray-painted pine cone. Yes, it’s an old favorite in terms of ideas, but it’s simple, festive, sustainable, and it looks great!

Images: RealSimple.com; digsdigs.com; homemakerschallenge.com; www.simpleeffects.com; sibubeauty.com