Simple Centerpieces for the Holidays

I thought I would share with you some of the simple things I do for the holidays that doesn’t take much, but makes my table look like I put some thought in preparing but didn’t go over the top. At Thanksgiving I always have extra cranberries, since they are used to floating in water I grab my bubble glass bowls and toss them in with a floating candle. This year I had a bag of “bad apples”,you know the type they looked great but had zero taste. I didn’t have the heart to just throw them out so I made them the star in these candle holders for my bowls. All I did was cut them the same size as my tea candles and slice the bottom flat so they don’t topple over and that’s it. I thought these apple had a much better life as candle holders then for slicing :).
I have a ton of cheap glass balls that I don’t put on my Christmas tree because well, I have a ton of other ornaments now. Some of these are old.. like 18 years and some are newer but they always get displayed in some sort of way at Christmas. I found this basket somewhere and bought it because I have a love for baskets. I like that the balls are shinny while the basket is old looking and they usually wouldn’t be paired together.
Last but not least, I love things from nature so we collect pine cones from places we visit, (yep cheap collection, but beautiful) and I always have some on display in the fall and winter. Some of these pine cones are from Florida, some from the West, and one or two are from a tree that the astronauts took some pine cones up into space. But most of my pine cones are from right here in my area. Many times I toss in some apples and or oranges that I stud with cloves, add few drops of peppermint oil on the cones and this centerpiece not only looks festive it smells wonderful. I love that these ideas didn’t cost a thing other than what I was already going to use or that I already have. So get creative and pull things from your home or area that mean something to you. I have found that a big display of one type of thing looks better than lots of little displays, the simpler the better.