Our Xmas decorating ideas will help you make your holiday home decorating go extra creative this year-- without spending a fortune at your local craft store. These unique Christmas decorating tips will help you approximate Martha Stewart Christmas decorating (the non-jail-cell kind) without... well, without Martha Stewart. She's an amazing cook and decorator, but I'm not sure I'd want her hanging around in my home, pointing out all the dust. Even if I could afford her.

Special Touches: 10 Great Holiday Decorating Ideas

Giftwrap your memories. Sounds cheesy, right? Nah. But it is one of the most festive, cheap, and easy Xmas decorating ideas you can do. Just take down all the pictures on the wall --both big and small-- and wrap them in Christmas wrapping paper, then hang them back up. Make sure to wrap in a big bow.

Have a cookie theme. Baking cookies is such a traditional party of celebrating Christmas. Just the sight of a cookie cutter makes me think of decorating Christmas cookies-- it simply evokes Christmas. Use baking as a Christmas decorating theme throughout your home, decorating with cookie cutters (tie a pretty ribbon around them and hang them from mantles, windows, etc.), decorative cookies, gingerbread (gingerbread men, gingerbread houses, even gingerbread trees), and cinnamon ornaments. Get creative with mixing bowls, decorate wooden spoons, even display old-fashioned bags of flour.

Start a collection. I promise, if you follow this Christmas decorating tip, it will be your favorite part of holiday home decorating-- especially if you make it an activity for the whole family. Start a collection of Christmas figurines or ornaments, and make a point of buying a new one every year. Every year will be a new story, a new memory shared with the family. Twenty years from now, when you say to your kids "remember when we bought this?" and they laugh and say "yeah, I remember! I'm still glad I talked you out of that ugly green one," you'll thank yourself. (Okay, I'm done being sappy.)

And, hey, don't limit yourself to the traditional nutcrackers or angels. Try vintage perfume bottles or picture frames. Or even make your own Christmas figurines together each year.

Holly and mistletoe. Everywhere. Hundreds of years ago, when the Christmas tree was called the Yule log (and was just a log) and Christmas meant hours at mass instead of hours of opening presents, holly was one of the only real decorations.

The servants and children of the house would go into the woods to collect holly for mantelpieces and stairways. Village priests would go out to collect it to decorate the church for mass, tucking tallow candles in among the leaves and bright berries. Evokes quite a picture, doesn’t it? Natural greenery is the most beautiful, traditional, evocative decoration you can use.

Buy tons of cinnamon sticks. Ribbons are boring. Everyone ties them to doorknobs and light fixtures. But one of the best Xmas decorating ideas is to use a bundle of cinnamon instead! Just tie a bundle of cinnamon sticks together with a pretty ribbon, and hang them from anything. They look especially nice --classic and festive-- hanging from a doorknob or even along a banister.

Buy extra aluminum foil. No, seriously. Christmas is all about shine and sparkle. And even if you don't think of it as decorative, aluminum foil is pretty darned shiny. Wrap anything in foil that you can get your hands on-- especially things that you wouldn't wrap in gift wrapping. Wrap your plant pots in foil to make living, growing xmas decorations. Wrap cookie plates or even gifts in foil to get an extra special shine on the cheap.

Ornament pillars. One of the most popular Xmas decorating ideas is to use glass baubles to decorate everywhere. A more creative way to do this is putting glass baubles (upside-down) in tall candleholders. This creates a pillar with a glowing glass ball on the end. So pretty! This looks nicest with a thick silver or brass candle holder-- find them cheap at your local thrift store.

Get tacky. I'm talking glitter, baby. Normally, I try to decorate my home with a certain level of elegance. I don't want my house to seem garish or tacky. Except at Christmas, when I want everything to sparkle. After all, what other time of year can you make your home into a holiday Las Vegas? Buy glittery candles, put tinsel everywhere, scatter glitter over every available surface. Don't want to track tiny pieces of glitter outside every time you leave the house (though Tinkerbell doesn't seem to mind)? Buy confetti stars, trees, etc., in large sizes.

Pick a color scheme. Pick two to three colors as your Christmas color scheme, and use them all over the house. This is one of the simplest Xmas decorating ideas, but most people confine a color scheme only to the tree or Christmas dinner table. If everything in the house fits a decorating color scheme, it'll make even sparse decorations look much more festive.

Lights and candles. Everywhere. Another of those simple Xmas decorating ideas that most people don't take far enough. Sure, candles look nice on the table and mantelpiece. Of course you'll hang lights on the tree and the banister. But which places are you neglecting? Christmas candles look great just about anywhere that they wont set a fire. Go out and buy tons more than you would normally have in the house-- and turn off the lights every chance you get. Buy battery-operated Christmas lights and place them inside things-- bowls, vases, under glass coffee tables, you name it.

Want some more great ideas for Christmas? Go from Xmas Decorating Ideas to our main Chrismtas page.