Don’t wait until right before Christmas if you want to save on decorations and gifts. There are several times throughout the year where items go on deep discount. These things are perfect for the holidays and will actually much more expensive in December.
Here is your seasonal guide telling you what to gather for the holidays.
New Years
Grab all of those after Christmas specials when they reach 90 percent off and store them with your current items when you take down your Christmas tree and decorations. Don’t forget any shiny new year decorations that don’t have the year on them.
Valentines
Right after Valentine’s Day grab some sweet bargains. Hearts are a timeless symbol that can be used for Christmas ornaments and decorations, especially if you are going for a rustic or warm country theme. Shiny foil hearts work well on more modern decorating. Don’t forget about quilts, blankets, and discount cards that can be used to decoupage gifts.
Easter
Gather up all of those discounted baskets to use for gift baskets during the Christmas season. Baskets can also be used for centerpieces. If you are really creative, pick up gold plastic Easter eggs and decorate them with ribbon for ornaments and gift tags.
Independence Day
This is a great time to pick up all sorts of things for a patrotic-theme Christmas tree! You can also spruce up your regular santa and snowman ornaments by giving them paper flags used for hor d’oeuvres.
Halloween
On the day after Halloween, load up on candy that can be used to spill out of cornucopias, made into wreaths (wrapped candy) or tied on to the tree as ornaments.
Small gourds and pumpkins can be spray painted gold or silver and used for Christmas as well.
Thanksgiving
Gild real or fake fruit for luscious centerpieces, swags and wreaths. I always repurpose the pine cones that you will find as Thanksgiving decorations. Gilding materials can be expensive, but there are new paints out there that offer close to the results of gilding.
Often, you’ll find discounts on cloth tablecloths that can be repurposed for the Christmas table, as a background for Christmas village displays and more. Craft people can sew the tablecloths into Christmas stockings!
This post was inspired by the book, 365 Ways to Prepare for Christmas by David E Monn.