By Roberta Pescow

You don't need to spend lots of valuable holiday money buying decorative centerpieces. Beautiful Christmas centerpieces are easy and fun to create at home.

Working with Ornaments

Colorful, shiny, sparkly Christmas ball ornaments bring a magical feeling to Christmas decorating and aren't limited to hanging on your tree. You can even make your own tabletop tree using ornaments.

Christmas Ball Tree

1) Start with a nine to 15-inch foam cone you can find in any craft store and turn it point-side-up.

2) With a hot glue gun, attach small ball ornaments with smallest ornaments near the top and larger balls closer to the bottom to cover cone.

3) Since the ornaments are round, you'll have gaps between them even when you've covered every inch of the cone you can. Use tiny berries or beads on wires, floral picks, or stamen bunches to fill in the gaps.

4) To top your tree, glue on a decorative gold star.

5) For a dramatic tree trunk, glue the cone to the top of a glass or Lucite tall candleholder.

Here are some other great centerpieces you can make with ball ornaments:

Cake dish ornament centerpiece: Fill a large, decorative cake dish with attractive Christmas ball ornaments. Accent with a few sprigs of pine, or bright red berries if you'd like.

Champagne glass with ornaments: Fill three stemmed champagne glasses with tiny ball ornaments and stand them together. A tall candle in the center enhances this design.

Glass encased ornaments and berries: Fill a large apothecary jar or goldfish bowl with cranberries and ornaments.

Candlestick display: Get out all your favorite tall candlestick holders of various heights, arrange them on your table and top each with a colorful Christmas ball ornament.

Winter Harvest Centerpieces

Celebrate the unspoiled beauty of winter by creating these easy Christmas centerpieces with natural materials:

Luscious holiday layers: Start with a large, wide mouthed glass vase and layer with cranberries, apples, pears, oranges, pinecones and pine branches.

Floating fantasy: Fill an attractive, wide mouthed glass vase with water. Add cranberries, holly leaves and a floating candle if desired.

Harvest basket: Arrange winter fruits and foliage in a wood or wicker basket.

Evergreen mini forest: Arrange three to five mini evergreens in decorative pots on your tabletop. Decorate with tiny ornaments, garlands and spray faux snow.

Blossoms and berries: Arrange poinsettia flowers in a tall glass vase and fill with berries and water.

Sweet Decorations

Christmas candy is often as pretty as it is delicious. These sweet and simple centerpieces bring out the child in everyone:

Candy arrangements in glass: Any attractive glass jar, vase or bottle is transformed into a Christmas centerpiece when you fill it with colorful Christmas mints and ribbon candy.

Candy cane centerpieces: Fill a decorative glass with mini marshmallows or sugar cubes and stick a few candy canes in the center. Or find a large glass vase, just slightly taller than your candy canes and cover the vase by hanging the candy canes (long side out) around the rim of the vase. Fill vase with flowers or a floating candle.

Gumdrop tree: This centerpiece works well alone, or as part of a gingerbread village. With toothpicks, attach gumdrops to a foam cone, point side up. Glue on red and green tic-tacs for ornaments, and Christmas ribbon bows. A little shredded coconut makes freshly fallen snow.

Lighted Decorations

Gentle use of light enhances the effect of many decorative centerpieces. Here are a few ways to incorporate light in your holiday arrangements:

Gift-wrap a few small boxes of unequal sizes and shapes. (Boxes you'd use for jewelry or a paperweight work well for this.) Top each box with a beautiful ribbon bow. Hot glue a pretty tea light candleholder to the top of each bow and fill with battery-operated tea light "candles."

Surround a glass-encased tall candle with pine branches and pinecones on a festive plate.

Add three long tapir candles to the center of a holiday floral arrangement.

Arrange an odd number of white or silver pillar candles over artificial snow, pinecones, pine branches and berries on a silver tray.

Fill a glass jar with battery operated Christmas lights.

Arrange tea light candles in an attractive pattern on a metal tray, and fill in the space in between with cranberries, Christmas candy, pinecones and branches or holly leaves.

Working with Collectables

If you have favorite Christmas collectibles, try something different this year by using them as the base for a unique holiday centerpiece. Choose a collectible figure or figures that look equally attractive when viewed from all sides, and place on a decorative plate or tray. Arrange Christmas foliage, flowers and accents around your collectible to create your centerpiece.

Christmas centerpieces enhance the festive atmosphere in your home, are a great project to share with family and won't cost you lots of time and money to make.

This article was originally posted on IdealHomeGarden.com

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