Make decorating your home for holiday parties a pleasure instead of a stressful nightmare. Organization and planning helps you keep on top of your holiday parties.

Create a gorgeous party planning notebook with an inexpensive plastic three-ring binder that has a space to insert an inspirational picture. Keep cutouts from magazines of ideas you love about decorating, themes, menus, and recipes. Keep notes about your party afterwards so you remember what worked well and what to do differently next year. Your personal party journal will be an invaluable assistant to help you avoid holiday stress.

Holiday Decorating

Enjoy your home decorating for the holidays. Don't try to do too much. Keep in mind that people love to come to homes decked out in festive array but that it doesn't take a lot of cluttering ornamentation to create a holiday statement. Just a few large decorations can add the desired impact without taking a lot of time to set out. Plus, too many little decorations get lost when you have many people standing around.

Where to decorate for impact:

1. Your front walkway: Greet guests at the entrance with lights surrounding your front door and two large poinsettias or evergreen trees.

2. Your front door: A large swag of evergreen decorated with nuts, apples, raffia, and ribbon spiced up with cinnamon sticks and cloves makes a different statement than the usual wreath.

3. Your dining table: If you plan a sit-down dinner, avoid tall centerpieces that interfere with guests seeing across the table. White table cloths reflect the light, add a feeling of elegance, and don't interfere with colored china. Bold colors add drama. Have fun with your table decorations.

4. Look up: Because table decorations get in the way, add garlands above archways and doors.

5. Your powder room: Because guests use this room privately, they take the time to look around and notice decorations.

If your TV looks like a black hole in your room when it's off, play an old black and white classic movie with the sound turned off.

Enjoy your holiday decorating this year. Try some new ideas and keep a party planner for next year. You'll be ready for new holiday decorating ideas!

Copyright © Jeanette J. Fisher

Jeanette Fisher teaches homemakers how to makeover their homes for joyful living. For holiday interior design tips see http://JoyHolidays.com For FREE Design Psychology ebooks, see http://designpsych.com/

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